Mixed Martial Arts and Poker

UBOC Ends, MMA Steps In

DOUBLEDAVE22 wins big

One of the biggest online tournament series wrapped up on Sunday, January 31st with ‘DOUBLEDAVE22,’ taking down first place and almost $280,000 for his efforts. The final Main Event capped off the 18 Tournament UBOC schedule, making it UB Poker’s richest tournament series in the online poker site’s 10-year history. The 12-day UBOC schedule’s grand finale attracted 1,307 players to the $1,000+50 buy-in UBOC Championship event, which was hosted by UB’s star poker pro Phil Hellmuth.

With a $1,307,000 prize pool, the battle lasted 12 hours and 43 minutes and after it was over host Helmuth said, "This years UBOC brought me out in full force. I played in almost every event, cashed four times, and had two top nine finishes.” He then added, “What a way to end the best online championship poker series ever. UBOC 4’s final $1 million Guaranteed paid out over $1.3 million and the tournament was unbelievably gripping, just like every single second of the 18-event series. It’s going to be tough to top this.”

Then right after the smoke cleared on the UBOC series, UB announced a new partnership deal with Bellator Fighting Championships. In case you are not a fan, Bellator is the promo company for the nationally televised sport of mixed martial arts. The partnership will not only introduce Bellator to millions of online poker players but will also get the UB.net brand name in front of the millions of MMA (mixed martial arts) fans worldwide. What this means is that the UB brand will be prominent at all Bellator live events in 2010, their broadcasts and at Bellator.com.

What Bellator gets out of the deal is having a major presence on the UB.net Web site when UB.net sponsors online tournaments which will award players with prize packages to sit cage-side at major Bellator MMA events.

“We’re super excited to tie the new UB logo to Bellator—the hottest MMA success story of 2009—and are proud to partner with them in their sophomore year,” said Paul Leggett, chief operations officer of Tokwiro, the owner/operator of UB.net.

Leggett then added, “Last year, we watched from the sidelines as the new kid on the MMA block delivered some of the most explosive moments in televised fighting sports history; this year, we’re elated to jump in the cage as an active player in the Bellator phenomenon, while exposing the UB brand to more than 250 million homes across the U.S.”

Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney commented on the deal by saying, “Bellator’s fans have great synergy with UB’s multi-million player group: they’re young, successful and drawn to exciting, fast-paced competition. This alliance will be great for both companies and we are thrilled to be partnered with UB.net.”

The partnership was announced to coincide with new television programming deals with NBC, FOX Sports Net, and for Latin fans on Telemundo starting on April 8th.

Are you a MMA fan or want to become one? Then keep an eye on UB and Absolute Poker, because very soon you will have the chance to win all expense paid trips to MMA events!

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