NBA to host pre-season games in Macau from 2025


Deal marks NBA's return to China after 2019 debate


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Macau gambling establishments intending to improve non-gaming earnings


(Rewrites to include context that deal marks NBA's go back 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 return to the Chinese market after a years-long lack that followed controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong demonstrations.


Local media priced estimate NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum as stating the NBA would host two pre-season video games yearly for the next five years at gambling establishment operator Sands China's Venetian arena in Macau, a special administrative area of China. The very first video games, arranged for October of next year, will pit the Brooklyn Nets versus the Phoenix Suns.


A source familiar with the matter verified the regional media reports of the deal. The NBA did not right away react to an ask for comment.


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


The NBA's lack followed a firestorm of controversy around remarks 5 years earlier by the Houston Rockets' then-General Manager Daryl Morey, who posted a message on social networks in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.


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


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


Macau is the only place in China where residents are able to lawfully gamble in casinos.


Its government and Beijing have actually been prompting 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 heavily based on the gambling establishment industry, which contributes around 80% of local tax income.


In 2015, Macau's federal government rolled out its first plan centred on a technique where tourism and leisure are the primary pillars, supported by emerging markets such as standard Chinese medicine, health, financial services and technology, as well as conventions, exhibits, trade, culture and sports.


It goes for non-gaming markets 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)