Gamdom, an online and crypto casino platform, published an open letter on Wednesday offering $10,000 a month to every single fighter on the UFC roster. That is $120,000 a year, available to debutants and champions alike, and fighters started saying yes within hours.
Founder Felix Romer signed the letter on video, and Gamdom posted a scan of it on X. “Our offer is straightforward: $10,000 each month to each fighter who joins Gamdom through this initiative,” the letter reads.
As a sponsorship strategy, that barely scans. As a comment on how UFC fighters get paid, it lands on the first read.
The math is the story
Roster Watch estimates there are roughly 700 active UFC fighters. If all of them signed up, Gamdom would be writing checks worth about $7 million a month, somewhere near $84 million a year. A gambling site has decided that a number in that range is worth spending to be associated with fighters who, by implication, are reachable at that price.
Which is the uncomfortable part. For a champion, $120,000 a year is a rounding error. For a fighter at the other end of the roster, competing twice a year, it can be the difference between a full-time camp and a part-time job on the side. An outside company offering a flat retainer that meaningful to that many athletes tells you something about the floor it is being measured against.
The response from fighters was immediate and unembarrassed. Tim Welch, Sean O’Malley’s coach, wrote: “Let’s go, I got a few guys on [the] UFC roster ready to sign!” Dan Ige replied, “I do UFC.” Matt Frevola said, “I’m in.”
Nobody has answered the question that decides this
Whether UFC sponsorship rules permit fighters to accept this money at all is unresolved, and the entire thing hangs on it. That question has not been settled publicly, and there is no public response yet from the UFC, TKO or Venum. The letter’s contract length and conditions have not been disclosed either.
So a number of fighters have publicly accepted an offer whose terms are not public and whose permissibility under their existing obligations is unconfirmed. Enthusiasm is not the same as eligibility.
Romer was careful about motive. “I want to be absolutely clear: this initiative is in no way an attack on the UFC,” he said, adding that “we believe in these athletes, and we want to back that belief with meaningful financial support.” Take him at his word on intent. The effect is still a casino publicly setting a monthly figure that reads as generous next to what the bottom of the roster earns, and doing it in a signed letter it wanted people to read.
The integrity question is worth asking
Nobody involved has done anything improper, and no allegation of that kind belongs anywhere near this story. But a gambling company paying monthly retainers to active competitors in a sport people bet heavily on is a structure that commissions and regulators tend to examine closely, and for good reason.
Who looks at that relationship? What disclosure applies? Those are reasonable questions to put to Gamdom, to the UFC and to the athletic commissions, and right now nobody has asked them in public.
The fastest way to end this story would be for the UFC to confirm the offer is allowed and let fighters take the money. The second fastest would be for the UFC to say it is not allowed, and then explain why $10,000 a month from outside the building is a problem when the subject of fighter pay keeps coming up inside it. For the moment there is a signed letter, a queue of fighters and silence.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.