One FC content put on Facebook in tie-up

Singapore

SOCIAL networking platform Facebook has formed a partnership with Singapore-based mixed martial arts (MMA) giant One Fighting Championship (One FC). Under the deal, they will offer real-time social media integration with One FC's global TV broadcasts for its fight shows in Singapore and other countries.

The first team-up took place at the recent Battle of Lions event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium earlier this month, and the plan is to continue for the remaining two shows for this year - in Manila and Beijing in December - and carry on into 2015.

For the recent Singapore show, the 10,000 spectators who turned up were kept updated about what other MMA fans around the world were saying about the fights through a "live" Facebook segment hosted in the arena itself.

The comments poured in via One FC's official Facebook page, with 1.4 million followers, and fans got to take part in a discussion with MMA fighter Rich Franklin, who is a vice-president at One FC.

The partnership with Facebook is a significant one, given that more than 99 per cent of One FC's fans are already following and interacting with the company via Facebook, said One FC's founder and chief executive Victor Cui.

In addition to the official One FC page, the fighters on its roster have their own Facebook page with thousands of active fans who get updated daily with fresh content and behind-the-scenes footage.

Mr Cui added: "The decision to integrate social media data on our 'live' global broadcast is a natural step forward as we forge ahead as the largest sports media property in Asia."

Ken Cheung, head of public content partnerships for the Asia-Pacific at Facebook, noted that people generally enjoy talking about sport on Facebook, be it motorsport, football's World Cup or MMA.

"Our goal is to drive rich content to the Facebook platform so that people who follow public key events like One FC championships, or public celebrities and personalities can get as much information as they want, engage in online conversations in the communities and share that with their friends and family.

"With more than 650 million people on Facebook who are sports fans, the opportunity to reach and engage with this group and beyond is tremendous."