LaLiga North America and UFC agree cross-promotion partnership

LaLiga North America and the UFC have announced a cross-promotional partnership to engage with fans across both the sports through social media collaborations, on-site coverage at events, digital content, athlete activations, and more. 

The creation of this partnership stems from a successful initial collaboration between LaLiga North America and the UFC at the start of LaLiga’s 2022/23 season with UFC fighters Brandon Moreno and Ilia Topuria. The two superstars travelled to Spain, where they experienced a LaLiga match, met with players from Valencia CF and Atlético Madrid and created content that was distributed across the platforms of the league, the clubs, and the players. 

The new partnership will continue collaborations that will feature athletes from both sports. Each year, the UFC and LaLiga will organise at least three activations in Spain involving athletes and participation of LaLiga clubs to promote the league, its teams, and players among UFC fans. In return, the UFC will integrate LaLiga into existing digital shows featuring LaLiga players and ambassadors such as UFC Unfiltered and Entre Asaltos podcasts, the Fuera del Octagono Facebook show, and Area de Combate on Twitter Spaces. 

Both parties will also collaborate throughout the calendar year on campaigns, such as the Hispanic Heritage Month, the International Fight Week, El Clásico, and the UFC’s upcoming 30th anniversary, by cross-promoting these moments on their respective social channels. The UFC will also host LaLiga players and legends at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas for training and knowledge-sharing opportunities. 

Commenting on the deal, Adrian Segovia, Head of Content and Distribution of LaLiga North America, said:

“Hispanics make up a significant percentage of the population in the United States and are at the heart of both LaLiga North America and the UFC’s fanbases.

“Our focus will be finding commonalities within the LaLiga and UFC communities and providing value-add opportunities to enhance fan access and create relatable, engaging content.“

David Shaw, Senior Vice President, International and Content, UFC, commented:

“LaLiga is one of the greatest and most popular football leagues in the world, and we’re excited to explore the opportunities to cross promote our sport to their incredible fan base.

“UFC has a significant Hispanic fan base in the United States, not to mention millions more in Spain, and this relationship is way for us to engage more with those fans while creating additional value for our broadcast partners, like ESPN+ in the U.S., by helping to drive viewership of our live events.“