PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE UFC ONLINE CASINO SLOT?

If you’re into fighting sports, you must admit that it’s somewhat akin to gambling. Feeling that rush of adrenalin when your favorite fighter takes a hit in the chin and staggers only to spring back up with a jab is what many people come to casinos for as well. The tension is even greater if you’re the type to bet on your favorite fighter.

If you are the risky type, you may be interested to learn that UFC now makes money not only on the fights themselves but also on a new casino slot utilizing the brand and some of the fighters’ images. That’s a good bet on UFC’s part as slot machines are the most popular form of gambling in the world. In Australia, where this slot can be played as well, poker machines are installed in record numbers and far outnumber other forms of gambling.

What does this online slot has in store for the gamblers and what’s the UFC’s story with gambling? Hop on this read to find out just that!

What the slot is about

It seems like the developer didn’t want to reinvent the wheel and decided to stay on the safe side. The slot is your standard 5-reeler with 20 paylines. This combination has worked for decades now and has been around since video slots have been brought to the land-based casinos, even before the internet era.

The way you play such a slot is by choosing how many paylines you want to bet too. You’ll have to bet the same sum on every pay line that you bet on.  This increases the minimum bet surely but grants you far better chances of winning. The minimum bet per line in this slot is at one cent, which makes the minimum bet 20 cents if you want to max out the paylines.

That’s as standard as it comes. But this slot doesn’t have to impress the audience with innovative gameplay, the mere fact that it’s about UFC is enough for the intended audience. To make the experience more exciting, players are given a choice at the beginning of the game: they can choose the fighter they’ll be playing as. There are 12 fighters to choose from, and the list includes such living legends as Anderson Silva and Brock Lesnar.

The addition doesn’t influence gameplay at all, though, you’re only going to get to see a pic of your champion and hear their catchphrase. Your fighter will also be featured as the Wild symbol. Other symbols include UFC belts and gloves as well as some prominent presenters and referees.

The bonuses bring some interesting action to the otherwise pretty standard pokie game. In one of them, you’ll have to pitch the fighter you’ve chosen against another one in a training routine to get a bonus. The other bonus will have you play a minigame where you spin certain boxing and BJJ moves instead of regular symbols — if you manage to get enough points doing them, you win a huge payout.

Overall, this simple formula combined with some clever bonus ideas makes for a pretty good game. But it’s not all the developer of this slot has to offer.

Endemol Shine

You may be surprised by this, but Endemol Shine is not your typical online gambling developer. Some of the biggest players on the market like Microgaming and NetEnt have developed hundreds upon hundreds of slots, many of them extremely popular. Endemol only created a dozen.

How could such a small developer get the money needed to pay Dana White and UFC to make this slot? The answer may shock you. Endemol Shine Games is a subsidiary of a much larger company, one you probably never heard of but an extremely successful one. Endemol’s parent company is actually a Dutch broadcasting company!

That’s right, their main business is creating TV shows, and they’re not on those lame night show programs either. We’re talking Fear Factor, Big Brother, and Deal or no Deal. With a headquarters in the Netherlands, they’re running broadcasting companies in the UK, Australia, and North America, streaming some of the best shows on TV.

And since quite recently, these guys decided to double down on the profits with a gambling department. Some of their first games featured their own intellectual property, namely Deal or no Deal. UFC slot was one of their first slots about IP owned by someone else, and judging from the fact all their online casino games are based on a brand name, that’s what we’re safe to expect from them in the future.

Dana’s bet

That fact is a dumbfounding one to say the least, you don’t normally expect the creators of Fear Factor to get into the world of online gambling. When it comes to the UFC and its long-time president, Dana White, it would be hard to say fans weren’t expecting something like that. Knowing Dana’s desire to make himself a wealthier man and having the knack and the morals to do anything it takes to grow another zero on his bank account, producing an online slot wasn’t something that could have surprised fans.

But to add to that, Dana appears to be quite an avid gambler himself. Not to mention the fact that when he bought the UFC brand back in 2001, it was failing miserably and the purchase was considered a pure gamble for many, Dana is often seen in regular casinos as well. Just recently, the man was banned from a Vegas casino for winning a million dollars in a span of one night.

You could say that his casino gambling as well as his business gambles pay off. But some UFC fans are in doubt on whether these gambles pay the players just as well. Dana is notorious for allegedly underpaying his fighters and actually has a class-action lawsuit filed against him for just that. That Vegas casino is sure not the only one to have the man. 

With that in mind, some fans are worried Dana either underpaid or withdrew fees from the fighters and UFC personnel actively mentioned in the game. It seems no player has commented on the existence of the game yet, so that speculation remains to be seen in the future.

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet