Pepperstone Enters the Fighting Ring: Becomes UFC Asia Sponsor

Pepperstone, the Australia-headquartered forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) broker, today (Monday) announced the expansion of its brand presence in sports with its latest partnership with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in Asia. With this deal, the broker became UFC’s Official Partner in Asia.

Similar Demographics

“We choose to partner with like-minded organisations focused on a shared passion, drive, and commitment to raising the game, and we look forward to building a winning partnership together,” said Tamas Szabo, Group CEO of Pepperstone.

Like-minded indeed. The viewership demographics of UFC, which are mostly males in the age bracket of 18-34, overlap significantly with the demographics of day traders, also dominated by males aged 18 to 34, though the number of women participating is increasing, according to Quantified Strategies.

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The sponsorship deal appears to be strategic in boosting the Pepperstone brand in Asian countries. While the broker is expanding its services in Asia, the popularity of UFC is also increasing in the region, with its fan base exceeding 400 million.

Scope of the Sponsorship Remains Unknown

Further, UFC has a massive presence on social media. Its X (formerly Twitter) handle is followed by 12.8 million people, while its Instagram page has a reach of 44.7 million followers. It has another 36 million followers on Facebook and 19.2 million subscribers on YouTube. Meanwhile, UFC is also slowly building its Asia brand, as the separate UFC Asia X account has 46.6K followers.

However, it remains unclear whether, with the Asia-specific partnership, Pepperstone will be able to tap into UFC's global social media outreach or be limited to the regional accounts. Additionally, the scope of the sponsorship remains unclear, as the announcement did not reveal how the broker would position its brand with UFC or the available media rights.

“We're looking forward to working with the great team from Pepperstone to leverage our platforms to drive awareness for their brand among our massive fan base, one of the most loyal and passionate in all of sports,” said Nicholas Smith, Vice President of Global Partnerships for TKO.

Interestingly, sports have been one of the top marketing channels for brokers. Recently, NAGA Group onboarded boxing legend Mike Tyson as a brand ambassador. Previously, MMA fighter Conor McGregor also became the face of XTB, which footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović is now promoting. Meanwhile, there are dozens of active football and other sports deals through which brokers are promoting their brands.