NBA to host pre-season video games in Macau from 2025


Deal marks NBA's go back to China after 2019 debate


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Macau gambling establishments intending to enhance non-gaming profits


(Rewrites to add context that deal marks NBA's return to China)


By Farah Master


HONG KONG, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The National Basketball Association (NBA) has signed a multiyear deal to play pre-season video games in Macau from 2025, marking the league's go back to the Chinese market after a years-long absence that followed controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong protests.


Local media estimated NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum as stating the NBA would host 2 pre-season video games every year for the next 5 years at gambling establishment operator Sands China's Venetian arena in Macau, a special administrative area of China. The first games, scheduled for October of next year, will pit the Brooklyn Nets against the Phoenix Suns.


A source knowledgeable about the matter verified the local media reports of the offer. The NBA did not immediately react to a demand for comment.


Although China has actually recently hosted NBA legends celeb games, including one set up for Saturday at the Venetian home, the pre-season offer will mark a return of routinely set up NBA play to China.


The NBA's absence followed a firestorm of controversy around comments five years back by the Houston Rockets' then-General Manager Daryl Morey, who posted a message on social networks in assistance of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.


Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA video games following that event, prompting business sponsors to leave and the league to suffer what it explained at the time as significant monetary repercussions. Pre-season NBA video games in China were also scrapped.


In February, Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and chairman of Chinese tech business Alibaba, stated the event was water under the bridge and that the NBA would like to bring games back to China and Macau.


Macau is the only location in China where residents are able to lawfully bet in gambling establishments.


Its federal government and Beijing have been advising the 6 certified gambling establishments - Wynn Macau, Sands China, SJM Holdings, Galaxy Entertainment, Melco and MGM China - to increase their percentage of revenue from non-gaming.


Macau's economy is greatly dependent on the casino market, which contributes around 80% of regional tax earnings.


In 2015, Macau's government presented its first plan centred on a technique where tourism and leisure are the main pillars, supported by emerging industries such as conventional Chinese medicine, health, monetary services and technology, in addition to conventions, exhibits, trade, culture and sports.


It goes for non-gaming industries to represent around 60% of Macau's GDP by 2028 versus 50% pre-pandemic in 2019.


(Reporting by Farah Master; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Nicholas Yong and Edmund Klamann)