Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to the United Arab Emirates capital this week under a new multi-year deal with the Abu Dhabi government that it hopes will draw new fans from the Middle East to the sport.

Saturday’s UFC 242, headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier in a lightweight title unification match, will be just the third time UFC has come to the emirate — and the region.

Reuters reports:

UFC will now stage one event a year in Abu Dhabi, which holds most of the UAE’s oil wealth, over the next five years. It has granted a state media channel exclusive broadcasting rights for the Middle East and North Africa over the period.

“They (Abu Dhabi) are making a huge commitment to grow the sport,” UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein told Reuters on Thursday.

He declined to disclose financial details of the deal signed earlier this year.

Epstein said the UFC would stage all its Middle East events in the emirate, the only place it has so far held events in the region, but that they could jointly hold events in other cities.

Many Gulf Arab states are investing heavily to expand their sports and entertainment industries. Saudi Arabia has a multi-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment to stage events in the country under Riyadh’s push to open up the conservative kingdom, improve quality of life and lure foreign visitors.

UFC hopes that its partnership with Abu Dhabi will help grow its brand in the Middle East, where mixed martial arts and other combat sports are already popular.

“It’s a big population. It’s a young population. It’s a population with discretionary income and what’s key to us is it’s a population that’s got an affinity for the sport,” Epstein said.

Saturday’s event show will be the first time female fighters compete on a UFC card in the Middle East.

The car features fights between Joanne Calderwood (photo above) and Andrea Lee, and Liana Jojua and Sarah Moras.

Asked how UFC would deal with potentially sensitive issues such as an openly gay fighter competing in the region, Epstein said while UFC does not take “political positions,” it respects the rights of its athletes.

Current bantamweight and featherweight champion Amanda Nunes is an openly gay fighter and the UFC has come out in support of the LGBTQ community.

The Pokémon Company International has entered a three-year partnership with The Football Association (The FA) to support The FA’s National Futsal Strategy.

The partnership begins immediately with Pokémon and The FA aiming to make Futsal a natural part of children’s football development. The focus in year one of the partnership will be on increasing participation of school and club teams from across England in The FA’s National Youth Futsal programme.

Throughout the partnership, The FA and Pokémon will use their shared values of evolution and progression through training to help appeal to children—raising Futsal’s profile, creating a clear identity for the game and developing a twin tracking pathway that will mean boys and girls can play Futsal as a part of their overall experience of the game.

Dan Kiddle, The FA’s Head of Commercial Partnerships, commented: “We are delighted to welcome the Pokémon Company International as a partner of The FA to support our National Futsal strategy and help grow participation in England. Pokémon is an instantly recognisable brand across the world and we are excited to work together to encourage young players, of all abilities, to play the game of Futsal.”

The FA views Futsal as integral to the progression of football standards across the country, with the current England men’s national team featuring a number of players who were brought up playing Futsal.

Because Futsal places emphasis on the technical ability, decision making and reaction time of players, it can result in more technically confident players, who can make good decisions under pressure.

The Pokémon Company International and The FA will work closely together to create and deliver an exciting range of initiatives at participating schools and clubs, culminating in The FA’s National Youth Futsal Festival in May 2020, as well as supporting the England men’s national Futsal team.

Michael Skubala, Head Coach of the England Futsal team, added: “It’s great to have such an iconic brand as Pokémon to sit alongside Futsal development in England. We will work hard together to engage with young players so that they can experience Futsal as part of their football development. It’s an exciting, fast-paced, technical game and I know they will love it.”

Oracle has announced the creation of the Oracle Pro Series, a schedule of more than 25 new ATP, WTA and ITF World Tennis Tour professional tournaments to be held across the United States over the course of 2019 and 2020. The Oracle Pro Series will create more than 40 percent new playing opportunities in the United States for tennis professionals.

Nearly all the tournaments will be combined men’s and women’s events with equal prize money ranging from $25,000 to $108,000 per tournament. The six combined tournaments scheduled for the fall of 2019 offer equal prize money of $25,000 and will be played in California, Texas and Florida (see dates below).

The final schedule for 2020 will include more than 20 tournaments, most of which will be combined events. Locations will be announced later this year.

“At Oracle, we’re looking at this holistically,” said Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. “We want more exposure for tennis at all levels in the United States. All of our efforts, from awards to tournament series to collegiate sponsorships and strategic partnerships, are pieces of an overall plan to raise the quality of American tennis.”

In addition to more playing opportunities in the U.S., the Oracle Pro Series will expand the pathway for the next generation of aspiring champions from college tennis up to the ATP Tour and the WTA Tour. The Oracle Pro Series will reward success with immediate access to higher level tournaments by connecting all Oracle events into one merit-based path to the highest levels of international professional tennis.

Oracle is partnering with InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, led by former World No. 1 and Hall of Famer Jim Courier and his business partner Jon Venison, to manage the Oracle Pro Series. InsideOut brings more than 15 years of experience producing live and televised events.

“The Oracle Pro Series is an unprecedented expansion in the number of U.S. professional tournaments and reinforces Oracle’s commitment to advancing the sport,” said Courier. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Oracle to give up-and-coming players more opportunities to compete for prize money, improve their rankings and launch their careers. Together, we will play a big part influencing the future of tennis in the U.S.”

Oracle also supports collegiate tennis through sponsorship of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). This includes hosting several marquee ITA championship events throughout the year such as the Oracle ITA Masters and the Oracle ITA Fall Championships. At the grassroots level, Oracle supports tennis through its strategic partnership with Universal Tennis Rating (UTR). UTR leverages Oracle’s industry leading cloud technology to power its algorithm-based, big-data rating system and digital platform.

Leading tennis bodies have welcomed Oracle’s initiative.

Steve Simon, WTA Chairman and CEO, said: “This series of events has been created to provide an unprecedented level of opportunities for aspiring young players to compete and earn the valuable WTA ranking points needed to earn a ranking that will provide them the ability to realize their dreams of playing at the highest levels of the sport.”

Stacey Allaster, USTA Chief Executive, Professional Tennis, said: “We are incredibly excited that Oracle is providing even more opportunities for American players to compete throughout the year, as well as more opportunities for fans to attend professional tennis events throughout the country. These events help develop American talent and serve as a stepping stone for players to reach the highest levels of the game, while at the same time inspire kids across the nation to pick up a racket and play this sport.”

Ross Hutchins, ATP Chief Player Officer, said: “The ATP continues to focus on enhancing and strengthening the ATP Challenger Tour, and we welcome Oracle’s growing involvement at this level of the sport. The Oracle Pro Series will provide increased opportunities for players competing on the pathway to the ATP Tour, and we look forward to seeing the series come to life.”

The 2019 Oracle Pro Series schedule is as follows:

October 6-13 – The Claremont Club – Los Angeles, Calif.
October 13-20 – Baylor University – Waco, Texas
October 20-27 – Texas Christian University – Fort Worth, Texas (ATP)
October 20 – 27 – Southern Methodist University – Dallas, Texas (WTA)
November 4-10 – Pepperdine University – Malibu, Calif.
November 11-17 – USTA National Campus – Orlando, Fla.
November 17-24 – Sanchez-Casal Academy – Naples, Fla.

Russian technology company Yandex has entered into an agreement with the National Hockey League to broadcast all NHL games in Russia via its streaming platform. The multiyear deal begins with the 2019-20 season, which opens on October 2.

“By partnering with the NHL, one of the world’s leading sports leagues, we can better connect some of hockey’s biggest fans with their favourite teams and players,” said Leonid Savkov, Chief Commercial Officer of Yandex.

“We are delighted to work with the NHL to offer viewers in Russia a more accessible and innovative way to watch games for free. We are also excited to provide new opportunities for advertisers to reach millions of hockey fans viewing the games.”

Yandex operates one of Russia’s leading online streaming platforms, offering millions of viewers live streaming of Russia’s top television channels, sports programming, and cultural events. Viewers can also use Yandex to stream on-demand TV series, movies, and blogger content.

Beginning with the 2019-20 NHL season, Yandex will broadcast regular season games, as well as the Stanley Cup Playoffs, for free. Viewers can watch NHL games with Russian commentary through the Yandex homepage and via Yandex apps for mobile devices and Smart TVs.

Russian hockey fans will soon have convenient options to watch games featuring 2019 Stanley Cup champions Vladimir Tarasenko and Ivan Barbashev (in photo above) of the St. Louis Blues, as well as other Russian NHL stars such as Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“Yandex is an industry leader in Russia and a uniquely compelling platform to deliver NHL games and our star players to hockey fans across the country,” said David Proper, NHL Executive Vice President of International and Media Strategy. “This partnership is the result of Yandex and the NHL’s shared commitment to provide content that will engage passionate fans and offer the potential to reach an even broader audience.”

Yandex provides fans with an interactive streaming experience while watching the games. Viewers will be able to react to everything that happens on the ice by live chatting and using the reaction emojis. NHL games and highlights will also be available to watch on-demand after the live broadcast, plus viewers can subscribe to receive notifications about the games.

Advertisers can sponsor broadcasts of the games to promote their products and services to a large Russian audience. As Russia’s largest search company and digital advertiser, Yandex is well-positioned to connect brands with the country’s millions of hockey fans online.

Last year Yandex users performed over 93 million hockey-related queries on Yandex’s search engine, and Russian NHL players rank among the most searched athletes on Yandex.