PokerWorks

Popular poker site UB wrapped up its 12-day UBOC schedule by welcoming 1,307 players to the UBOC Championship $1,000+50 buy-in event hosted by poker legend Phil Hellmuth. With a whopping $1,307,000 prize pool waiting to be won, the heated battle for the Championship title was a fierce finale to this year’s UBOC online series. The UBOC covered 18 events, making it UB’s richest tournament series in the online poker site’s 10-year history.

After a grueling 12 hours and 43 minutes, the smoke cleared at the UBOC Championship No Limit Hold ‘em event on Sunday, January 31st and the last man standing was ‘DOUBLEDAVE22,’ who took home almost $280,000 for his amazing first place finish.

Commenting on the series, UB Team Pro and host of the event Phil Hellmuth 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,” stated Phil Hellmuth. “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.”

On the heels of the UBOC finale, UB announced their partnership deal with Bellator Fighting Championships, the nationally televised mixed martial arts promotion company. This exclusive agreement will introduce Bellator to millions of online poker players around the world, while bringing awareness of the UB.net brand name to the millions of MMA (mixed martial arts) fans.

Under the terms of the agreement, UB will be a major presence at all Bellator broadcasts, at Bellator.com and live at each of the promotion’s events in 2010. In return, Bellator will have a major presence on the UB.net Web site when UB.net sponsors online tournaments that give players the chance to win prize packages to sit cage-side at Bellator events. This all coincides with a new television alliance with NBC, FOX Sports Net, and beginning on April 8th, Telemundo.  

When announcing the new partnership deal, Paul Leggett, chief operations officer of Tokwiro, the owner/operator of UB.net said, “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.”  He 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’s fans have great synergy with UB’s multi-million player group: they’re young, successful and drawn to exciting, fast-paced competition,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “This alliance will be great for both companies and we are thrilled to be partnered with UB.net.”

The schedule calls for Bellator’s 24 events during Seasons 2 and 3 to be aired in primetime on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net. Then every Saturday night on NBC, the most exciting moments from each week’s live events will be condensed into an action-packed 30-minute highlight show. Also airing a highlight show every Saturday night from midnight to 1am will be Spanish television station Telemundo.

If you are a MMA fan, stay tuned to UB and Absolute Poker for your chance to win exclusive all expense paid trips to MMA events – coming soon!