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Supply chain thwacking: VeChain’s $100M sponsorship deal with UFC

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<div>Supply chain thwacking: VeChain's 0M sponsorship deal with UFC</div>

The multi-year deal will see VeChain’s brand incorporated across multiple UFC marketing assets and reach an estimated 900 million households who watch the events worldwide.

Blockchain logistics firm the VeChain Foundation has signed a multi-year marketing partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) worth nearly $100 million, becoming the UFC’s first-ever Layer 1 blockchain partner.

The UFC is the largest promoter and event organizer for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and VeChain’s marketing assets and brand will be integrated across the UFC in live events, in-arena promotion, social media and other areas.

The deal is reportedly worth almost $100 million over a minimum five-year partnership according to an anonymous source quoted by Sports Business Journal. The UFC’s Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships Paul Asencio said the UFC’s sponsorship revenues are up 30% from an already record-breaking 2021 as a result of the deal.

The partnership kicks off immediately and VeChain’s assets will start appearing this Saturday June 11 during a UFC event held in Singapore.

VeChain is a business focused layer 1 ecosystem with an emphasis on supply chain tracking. The partnership sees a big shift from Vechain’s frugal first quarter. A financial report released in May shows the VeChain Foundation only spent around $4 million in Q1 with less than $660,000 spent on marketing but it did amass a huge $1.2 billion “war chest.”

VeChain said the partnership is “one of the deepest integrations within premier UFC assets of any sponsor in UFC history,” with the UFC estimating VeChain’s brand will reach 900 million television households in 175 countries.

As part of the deal, VeChain will own UFC's official fighter rankings titleship now called the “UFC Rankings Powered by VeChain” along with a branded presence inside the fighting ring at all events.

VeChain will further be promoted in-venue on prominent digital displays and both companies will create content for the UFC’s social media and other digital platforms which the UFC estimates will reach 200 million people.

An annual “Brand Ambassador fund” will also offer paid opportunities to UFC athletes participating in marketing activities for VeChain.

The UFC has long partnered blockchain and crypto companies, one of the UFC’s largest partnerships is its $175 million deal with Crypto.com which saw the crypto exchange become the UFC’s “Cryptocurrency Platform Partner” with fighters receiving fan bonuses in Bitcoin (BTC) through the partnership.

Crypto.com also released the first authorized UFC non-fungible token (NFT) collection in November 2021 and the UFC has continued to release more licensed NFTs with NFT developer Dapper Labs.

In March 2021 the crypto-only casino and sports betting platform Stake become UFC’s “First Official Betting Partner” for its Asia and Latin America markets.

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Nifty News: UFC Strike marketplace, Horrific Crypt TV, and new travel NFTs

February 18, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Dapper Labs has been busy with several new launches this week, while Crypt TV and Metaversal are launching a scary new NFT collection.

NFT developer Dapper Labs launched the UFC Strike nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace on Feb. 18, contributing to a 50% increase in NFT sales on the Flow blockchain over the last 24 hours.

Dapper Labs is the company behind NBA Top Shot, CryptoKitties, and the Flow blockchain.

UFC Strike, another product from the firm, is a collection of NFTs based on fighters and moments from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Now, fans can trade their NFTs in the UFC Strike Marketplace dedicated to the collection.

The UFC Strike Marketplace is Now Open

Buy and sell iconic Moments from the Octagon, with fight fans across the globe. Start your journey today.https://t.co/R2SyiRsoag pic.twitter.com/yxCLjcrFwM
— UFC Strike (@UFCStrikeNFT) February 18, 2022

The new launch has helped Flow climb to third place among blockchains by NFT sales volume according to CryptoSlam. At the time of writing, Flow trails behind Ethereum and Ronin with $2.1 million in sales volume over the last 24 hours. This is a 50% increase since the same time yesterday.

Also contributing to the sudden rise in sales volume on Flow is the new NBA All-Star VIP Pass NFT collection which launched on Feb. 17 through NBA Top Shot. Each of the 30 NFTs in this collection grants holders access to the next five all-star games.

Spooky NFTs from Crypt TV

Metaverse content curator Metaversal has partnered with monster story producers Crypt TV to issue nonfungible tokens (NFT) based on characters from the Monster Universe intellectual property (IP).

Monster Fight Club is the name of the new NFT collection containing 10,000 NFTs. The jump into the NFT space will help Crypt TV transform into a Web3 company “fully embracing NFTs as the future of IP creation and ownership,” according to the Feb. 17 announcement.

Collectors can mint up to 10 unique Monster Fight Club NFTs from a single wallet. Titles included in the collection are The Birch, Brute, Cakeman, Fluffy, Harclaw, Look-See, Miss Annity, Mordeo, The Thing, and Walter. The sale days will be March 9, 16, and 23.

Holders will be able to assign their NFT as a profile picture or as a monster avatar to use in the Metaverse.

An NFT that guarantees free travel for life

A new initiative from travel startup Travel Tribe issues 50 proof of attendance protocol (POAP) NFTs to people who book trips to Southeast Asia through their service.

The POAP grants holders annual free trips to Thailand, Bali, and Cambodia. Through this effort, Travel Tribe hopes to drive sales as the world begins to open back up from Covid restrictions.

Travelers can also rest assured that revenue from customers goes to support the growth of the local industry. Travel Tribe founder told Cointelegraph today “Our tours support the local community by ensuring that local guides are employed, and local businesses in the supply chain are supported with regular audits and quality controls.”

The artistic process as an NFT collection

Famed Hollywood photographer Frederic Auerbach has begun auctioning his Master Series of NFTs that captures images of Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mike Tyson, Sharon Stone, and Natalie Portman.

Each star’s items in the collection will be sold as a set of NFTs. The sets contain a high-res digital photo NFT of a star, a dynamic NFT displaying various edits of the image, a high-res and autographed print of the master photo and a 1/1 video NFT of the behind-the-scenes interview detailing Auerbach’s creative approach to each shoot.

They are currently being auctioned on the NFT gallery and minting platform Accursed Share.

Other Nifty News

Vivid Labs CEO Halsey Minor told Cointelegraph that NFTs “can be more valuable if connected to real-world products.” There is a big difference between static art like songs or artwork and dynamic assets that can be updated as NFTs.

Youtuber Coffeezilla published a video showing how an NFT scam worth $20 million was thwarted before it went to market. The Squiggles NFT project had 230,000 followers on Twitter before being exposed as a scheme perpetrated by serial scam artists.

UFC