Full Tilt Poker Sponsorship

Did UFC Ban The Full Tilt Poker Sponsor?

NEWS UPDATE!

10/28/09 – The reason for the ban on the Full Tilt Sponsorship has been revealed by our sources. Those of you who thought that Full Tilt lost its sponsorship of the UFC due to money reasons or Absolute Poker taking over as the sponsor are all misinformed. The reason that the UFC dropped the Fult Tilt sponsor is because the UFC launched its own poker room to compete with Full Tilt and Absolute Poker. The poker room is called UFC Poker and is in the early stages of development. As of right now the UFC poker room is only played for prizes, UFC gear, tickets, and many other prizes. The UFC poker is not yet a play for money poker room but could be in the near future. Zuffa and UFC President Dana White are making an attempt to enter the poker playing market with this new poker room and feel they can eventually compete with Full Tilt poker, Absolute Poker and the other online poker rooms available today. Try UFC Poker Now!

Full Tilt poker became a sponsor of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, more commonly known as the UFC, at the UFC 93 fight event, and sponsored not only the Octogon but also the fighters with all of the logos that were added to all of the MMA fighter’s shorts. I just came across some articles online that explained that Zuffa and UFC President Dana White had banned Full Tilt Poker from sponsoring UFC events. I was very intrigued by this because every time I watch a UFC event, I distinctly remember seeing the Full Tilt logo on both the fighter’s gear and at the center of the Octogon. It has been revealed in March of 2009 that the UFC sent out an email to manager’s that told them that Full Tilt poker would not be sponsoring UFC events any longer.  It is unknown whether this ban is permanent or temporary.

So what is the reason for the UFC and Dana white to completely nix Full Tilt from being a sponsor? There may be more than one explanation.

Rumors have it that Full Tilt Poker might have been dropped for Ultimate Bet, the number one competitor for Full Tilt Poker. Absolute Poker, which is owned by Ultimate Bet, is said to be in negotiations with the UFC to become the new 2009 sponsor for the UFC fighting events. Why Dana White would want Absolute Poker to be a main sponsor for the UFC after Absolute Poker was caught in a huge cheating scandal is still unknown.

It has also been rumored that the UFC was under a lot of pressure from Spike TV, the channel that airs all of the UFC hosted events, to cut the ties with Full Tilt Poker. Spike TV didn’t allow for the Full Tilt sponsor of the UFC 95 event that aired on Spike TV and most likely has pushed for UFC to rid themselves of the Full Tilt Sponsor. This is too bad because it brought in a lot of sponsorship money to the fighters, who really get screwed by the UFC as well.

• What does this mean for fans and fighters?

This sucks for fighters in the UFC, as they get paid good money from the Full Tilt Sponsorships. Full Tilt is said to be one of the highest paying fighter sponsors available in the UFC so taking their sponsorship away would be devastating to the UFC fighters.

• Is this Rumor For Real?

What makes me unsure about the UFC banning Full Tilt Sponsorship is that the UFC’s website, ufc.com, had not taken banners and advertisements for Full Tilt for some time. They would have taken down all banners and ads for the Full Tilt sponsor right away if they entirely banned them. Full Tilt banners and ads are now down off the website, does this mean that Full Tilt is no longer a sponsor? Is this Rumor for real?