Tag Archive for: ETFMG

ETFMG: Meet Our Heavyweight Champ Aleksei Oleinik

As Aleksei “The Boa Constrictor” Oleinik prepares for his fight tomorrow, the UFC’s first event of 2020, his official training & exclusive global financial partner ETFMG created the below video for their heavyweight champ. ETFMG also made this statement:

“Everyone at ETFMG is thrilled that our ETF heavyweight champ, Aleksei Oleinik, will be a Main Card event at UFC 246 tomorrow night in Las Vegas. From one industry heavyweight to another, Aleksei is a force to be reckoned with and we are proud to be his sponsor.”

Alexey Oleynik + ETFMG Sponsorship Highlighted in Bloomberg

In Zero-Fee Era, Wrestlers and Astronauts Help Funds Fight Back

By Claire Ballentine

  • ETF issuers need to stand out in market ruled by three firms
  • Tactics include advertising gimmicks, and taking to Twitter

Smaller asset managers are getting creative as they look to take the fight to the likes of BlackRock. Meet the Boa Constrictor.

The UFC heavyweight best known for winning bouts with a rare judo chokehold burst onto the exchange-traded-fund scene earlier this year as an unlikely advocate for a cannabis fund run by ETF Managers Group. At a dinner arranged by the issuer in midtown Manhattan last month, Boa — real name Alexey Oleynik — taught impromptu lessons on how to throw a punch, and flexed for tough-guy photos in a shirt branded with the company’s logo.

It may seem like a gimmick, but the intent is serious: Oleynik is bringing ETFMG to the masses, bearing the firm’s name during fights and spreading its brand on social media.

Read the full story on Bloomberg.

Alexey Oleynik + ETFMG Partnership Featured in Bloomberg

Cage-Fighter Sponsored by Pot ETF Issuer in Rare Marketing Move

By Kristine Owram

The issuer of the world’s largest pot ETF is embracing celebrities’ growing interest in cannabis, sponsoring a UFC fighter nicknamed the Boa Constrictor.

In a highly unusual move for a provider of exchange-traded funds, ETF Managers Group LLC has signed on as the official training sponsor of Alexey Oleynik, the ninth-ranked heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a mixed-martial arts organization. The issuer is best known for the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF, which has about $1.1 billion invested in cannabis-related companies.

Several recent tweets from Oleynik’s Twitter account show him training — and even mowing the lawn — in T-shirts emblazoned with MJ, the pot ETF’s ticker, and the logo of ETF Managers Group. While most tweets don’t reference ETFs beyond tagging that fund and including ETFMG’s Twitter handle, one post in March described the company as an “ETF heavyweight.”

“It’s definitely not something you see as a common practice,” Tricia Vanderslice, ETFMG’s chief marketing officer, said in a phone interview. “We like to look at unique marketing that does justice to both the sector our product represents and the audience that we’re trying to hit and speak to and educate.”

MJ is one of the best-performing unleveraged U.S. ETFs of the year. Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that less than 12% of its shares are owned by institutional investors such as mutual funds. The UFC sponsorship is targeted at individual shareholders who don’t necessarily follow the financial media but may be big UFC fans, Vanderslice said.

“You hit that group of Average Joe investors that might be using E*Trade, they might be using Robinhood, and a big piece of that is brand awareness,” she said.

Read the full story on Bloomberg.

 

MMA + MJ etf

N.J.-based marijuana ETF finds unusual spokesman in MMA heavyweight

By Tom Bergeron

Apr 4, 2019

 

At first glance, a mixed martial arts star promoting an exchange-traded fund for cannabis may not seem like the most logical fit.

Especially one based in New Jersey, where proponents of legalizing recreational use of marijuana suffered another setback last week.

Sam Masucci doesn’t see it that way.

Masucci is the CEO of the Summit-based ETF Managers Group, which created MJ, the country’s first ETF dedicated to stocks in cannabis-related companies, in December 2017. He said the hiring last week of MMA heavyweight Alexey Oleynik to promote it is a perfect fit, for a number of reasons.

Starting with the fact that Masucci, a former Penn State wrestler who competed scholastically at the now-closed Bayley Ellard High School in Madison, loves the sport.

“I have been a big MMA fan for 20 years,” he said. “I’ve actually been a martial artist for 20 years. I like to watch these fighters really show the value of mixed martial arts — meaning it’s everything from punching and kicking and submissions.

“I love it, and I always hoped that there’d be an opportunity for me to somehow be involved. This is a great way to do it.”

Read the rest here: http://www.roi-nj.com/2019/04/04/finance/mma-mj-n-j-based-marijuana-etf-finds-unusual-spokesman-in-mma-heavyweight/

ETFMG teams up with UFC heavyweight

ETFMG teams up with UFC heavyweight

Summit-based ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ – issued by ETF Managers Group, a group family of exchange traded funds – announced it will sponsor Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight Alexey Oleynik.

“The Boa Constrictor” Oleynik is one of the top heavyweights in the world and is a career mixed martial artist. He takes on Walt Harris in UFC Fight Night 150 on May 4, in Ottawa, Canada.

MJ is the largest cannabis exchange-traded fund in the world and the first and only U.S. listed ETF to target the global cannabis industry directly. MJ joined the “billion-dollar club” on Feb. 4, surpassing $1 billion in assets under management.

“MJ is a heavyweight in the ETF industry,” said Oleynik. “It has had a great deal of success and I look forward to watching it continue to knock out its competition. My wife and I are excited to be able to represent a world-class financial group like ETFMG and a product like MJ.”