The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced a multi-year partnership Thursday as the league returns to the Chinese market for the first time since 2019.
The NBA is set to play two preseason games in Macau on Friday and Sunday, part of a five-year deal with Las Vegas Sands’ Macau unit, Sands China.
These matchups mark the league’s debut in Macau, the world’s largest gambling hub, and follow a multi-year hiatus triggered by controversy surrounding the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
The Macau games aim to bolster the NBA’s profile in China, where around 300 million people play basketball, amid rising political tensions between the United States and China.
Alibaba Group said it would provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the NBA and enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China.
Alibaba Cloud will serve as the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China.
The NBA’s absence followed a firestorm of controversy over comments made six years ago by the Houston Rockets’ then-general manager, Daryl Morey, who posted a message on social media supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests.
In the aftermath, Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA games, prompting corporate sponsors to flee and causing what the league described at the time as dramatic financial consequences.
Preseason NBA games in China were also scrapped.
The NBA games are being held at the Sands Venetian property, along with a five-day, free-to-enter music, fashion and technology exhibition showcasing the NBA brand.
Shaquille O’Neal is among the NBA celebrities attending the event, the league said.
The Brooklyn Nets, owned by Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai, will face the Phoenix Suns in sold-out games at the arena.
Sands’ owners, the U.S. billionaire Adelson family, also own the Texas-based NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks.
The casino operator announced its collaboration with the NBA in December 2024 and said it wanted to bring elite basketball directly to Chinese fans.
Macau’s casinos, which include Sands, Wynn Macau, SJM Holdings, MGM China, Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Resorts, have been mandated to increase their non-gaming businesses as a proportion of overall operations.
They have pledged to collectively invest more than $13.5 billion in non-gambling infrastructure and projects over the next decade.
Macau is the only place in China where Chinese citizens are legally allowed to gamble in casinos.
A Portuguese colony until 1999, its economy remains heavily reliant on the casino industry, which contributes about 80% of government tax revenue.
