For the first time, 3 UFC fighters got Bitcoin bonuses worth about Rs 45 lakh from Crypto.com
India Today
After a year of collaboration to seek new revenue sources, UFC and Crypto.com have started offering bonuses to UFC fighters after each pay-per-view event. Here is how it will work.
Crypto.com has handed out its first set of bonuses to UFC fighters at the UFC 273 held this Saturday. Announced last week, the "Fan Bonus of the Night" was brought into effect for the first time at the event and saw Khamzat Chimaev, Alexander Volkanovski, and Petr Yan become the first three fighters to get a Crypto.com payout.
For context, Crypto.com, formed an association with the Ultimate Fighting Champion or UFC in July last year, making the platform the first-ever official cryptocurrency platform partner for UFC in an attempt to establish new ways of revenue for UFC fighters. Building on that, Crypto.com announced new bitcoin bonuses for UFC fighters last week.
The new category is called "Fan Bonus of the Night" and, as the name suggests, will be decided by the fans after each UFC Pay-Per-View event. As per a statement by the firm, Pay-Per-View events will be followed by fan voting from all over the world. Based on these votes, three bitcoin bonuses will be awarded to the top three fighters in the event.
Crypto.com says that the bitcoin payouts will be $30,000 (or about Rs 22.75 lakh) for first place, $20,000 (about Rs 15 lakh) for second place, and US$10,000 (or about Rs 7.5 lakh) for third place. The bonuses will be paid in bitcoin (BTC) based on the exchange rate in U.S. dollars.
The voting for the Fan Bonus of the Night will be carried out on Crypto.com/FanBonus and will be open to all users globally. Each fan will get three votes per Pay-Per-View and will be able to vote for two fighters within each bout. The voting period will start at each Pay-Per-View prelim and will end one hour after the event is concluded.
Note that the Fan Bonus of the Night will not be the only bonus for UFC fighters. The new initiative by UFC and Crypto.com will be in addition to the traditional Fight of the Night and Performance bonuses awarded to UFC athletes by UFC President Dana White following each event.
The initiative is, however, understandably a monumental boost to UFC fighters that will help them increase their income in an unprecedented way. Since all the funds for the Fan Bonus of the Night will be borne by Crypto.com, it is evident that the partnership between the cryptocurrency platform and UFC, meant to increase the cash flow for the fighters, is becoming fruitful after all.
