VeChain Becomes First Official Layer-1 Blockchain Partner of UFC

[SAN MARINO & LAS VEGAS—June 9, 2022]— UFC, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization, and VeChain, the leading global sustainability-focused blockchain Foundation, today announced a first-of-its-kind long-term partnership that breaks marketing grounds for both brands.

VeChain will become UFC’s first-ever Official Layer 1 Blockchain Partner, providing the blockchain Foundation with an unprecedented level of integration into key UFC assets, ranging from live events, including broadcast features and in-arena promotion, to original content distributed through UFC’spopular digital and social channels.

Through UFC’s far-reaching global footprint, VeChain will have meaningful brand visibility within an estimated 900 million TV households in 175 countries that receive UFC’s broadcasts.

“It is a historical moment when VeChain, the Layer 1 public Blockchain with the most enterprise adoption, joins forces with the fastest growing sport to raise awareness that blockchain technology is critical in helping deliver major global objectives, such as sustainability,” said Sunny Lu, co-Founder and CEO of VeChain. 

“This is just the beginning of a multi-year relationship with UFC, and we really look forward to changing the world together.”

“VeChain is a globally recognized leader in blockchain technology, and we couldn’t be happier to welcome them as an Official Marketing Partner of UFC,” said Paul Asencio, UFC Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships.

“VeChain’s expertise in using real-world blockchain applications to help the public and private sector achieve their carbon-neutral goals is an effort we are proud to support.  We’re looking forward to working with VeChain to leverage UFC’s worldwide popularity to promote a positive message that blockchain technology can be used to protect our environment for future generations.”

VeChain is a pioneer of real-world blockchain applications, with international offices in Luxembourg, Japan, China, Singapore, France, Italy, Ireland, SanMarino, and the United States.

Strong independent developmental capabilities combined with the professional compliance guidance of strategic partners PwC and DNV have seen VeChain establish partnerships with many leading enterprises, including Walmart, Bayer, BMW Group, BYD Auto, LVMH, and more.

The VeChainThor public blockchain is unique in that its technologies have been adopted commercially at enterprise and government levels across various industries. Their technology has the power to radically transform the global economy by greatly enhancing data transparency and security while facilitating unprecedented collaboration using ‘trustless’ data enabled by blockchain.

In addition, VeChainThor is mainstreaming applications across industries ranging from sustainability, carbon management, supply chain & logistics, medicine, energy and others.

Branded Integrations and Entitlements

As UFC’s first-ever official Layer 1 Blockchain Partner, VeChainwill receive one of the deepest integrations within premier UFC assets of any sponsor in UFC history.  First, VeChain will own UFC’s official fighter rankings titles, UFC Rankings Powered by VeChain.

This unique and new integration offers VeChain incredible visibility across live broadcasts of UFC’s biggest events– its Pay-Per-Views– as well as UFC digital and social channels. The integration also provides VeChain with a strong association with one of the most important components of UFC matchmaking—the fighter rankings.

VeChain’s prominence at UFC’s live events will be reinforced with two additional high-visibility activations.  VeChain will have a branded presence inside UFC’s world-famous Octagon® at all 42 UFC events annually and the 10-event Dana White’s Contender Series. 

VeChain will also be promoted in-venue at all UFC events, highlighted by frequent, dynamic branding on UFC Fight Deck, the new pioneeringLED decking displays that are positioned around the Octagon, and enhance the spectacle of UFC events by incorporating thrilling lighting effects, graphics, animation, video, and more.

In addition, UFC and VeChain will collaborate on a variety of custom and original content featuring UFC talent and athletes that will be distributed across UFC’s popular social media channels and digital platforms, reaching nearly 200 million followers worldwide.

Among other branded activations, UFC will also provide VeChain with unique access to UFC’s state-of-the-art facilities, such as the Performance Institute and APEX, to develop once-in-a-lifetime corporate activities and events, and UFC and VeChain will partner to create VIP sweepstakes promotions for fans to attend UFC’s biggest events.

UFC athletes will also benefit, as the agreement provides for an annual Brand Ambassador fund that will offer significant paid marketing opportunities to participating UFC athletes.

VeChain-branded assets will debut this Saturday, June 11, during UFC 275: TEIXEIRA vs PROCHAZKA at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.  The event marks the first numbered UFC Pay-Per-View to be held in  Southeast Asia and also features the region’s first UFC championship bouts, as UFC world light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira takes on No. 2 Jiri Prochazka, and UFC world women’s flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko faces No. 5 Taila Santos.

About UFC

UFC is the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization (MMA), with more than 688 million fans and 198 million social media followers. The organization produces more than 40 live events annually in some of the most prestigious arenas around the world while broadcasting to nearly 900 million TV households across more than 170 countries.

UFC’s athlete roster features the world’s best MMA athletes representing more than 75 countries. The organization’s digital offerings include UFC FIGHT PASS®, one of the world’s leading streaming services for combat sports. UFC is owned by global entertainment, sports, and content company Endeavor, and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok: @UFC.

About VeChain

Launched in 2015 as a private consortium network, the VeChain Foundation went on to develop the VeChainThor public blockchain, an EVM-compatible layer one smart contract platform adaptable to wide-ranging real-world needs. It has currently been deployed across the supply chain, sustainability initiatives, carbon emission management, SDGs, the automotive sector, medicine, energy, and more.

VeChainThor’s unique two-token model ensures low and stable transaction costs while an advanced Proof-of-Authority consensus mechanism guarantees high throughput, scalability, and security with minimal energy consumption. Network performance to date has resulted in zero downtime after 3+ years of continuous operation. Other unique features include fee delegation, with users unburdened by gas fees, providing a seamless user experience.

VeChainThor’s technologies are mature and proven in commercial environments. With global blockchain mass adoption fast approaching, VeChainThor is building the foundations of the digital economy.