The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced a multi-year partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba as it returns to China for the first time since 2019. The league is staging two pre-season games in Macau this weekend, marking its debut in the world’s largest gambling hub. The Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns will face off on Friday and Sunday at Sands China’s Venetian property as part of a five-year agreement with the Las Vegas Sands unit.
This partnership underscores the NBA’s effort to rebuild its presence in China following the fallout from 2019, when a tweet by former Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests triggered a backlash from Beijing. The incident led to the suspension of NBA broadcasts and significant financial losses.
Under the new deal, Alibaba Cloud becomes the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China. The collaboration aims to enhance fan engagement by leveraging artificial intelligence and cloud technology to improve user experiences on the NBA app in China.
The Macau event also highlights the league’s broader entertainment strategy, featuring a five-day festival blending music, fashion, and technology. NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is among the stars attending. The Nets, owned by Alibaba chairman Joseph Tsai, will play to sold-out crowds, while Sands owner, the Adelson family, also owns the Dallas Mavericks.
Macau, the only region in China where casino gambling is legal, has been encouraged to expand its non-gaming sectors. Local casino operators, including Sands, Wynn Macau, MGM China, and Melco Resorts, have pledged over $13.5 billion toward non-gambling projects in the next decade to diversify the economy.
This high-profile NBA return, backed by Alibaba and Macau’s hospitality giants, aims to rekindle Chinese enthusiasm for basketball and strengthen U.S.-China sports and business ties amid ongoing political tensions.