NBA to host pre-season video games in Macau from 2025
Deal marks NBA's return to China after 2019 controversy
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Macau gambling establishments aiming to increase non-gaming income
(Rewrites to include 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 lack that followed debate over the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Local media estimated NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum as stating the NBA would host 2 pre-season games annually for the next 5 years at gambling establishment operator Sands China's Venetian arena in Macau, a special administrative region of China. The first games, scheduled for October of next year, will pit the Brooklyn Nets against the Phoenix Suns.
A source acquainted with the matter confirmed the local media reports of the offer. The NBA did not instantly respond to an ask for comment.
Although China has just recently hosted NBA legends celebrity games, including one scheduled for Saturday at the Venetian residential or commercial property, the pre-season offer will mark a return of frequently set up NBA play to China.
The NBA's lack followed a firestorm of debate around remarks 5 years ago by the Houston Rockets' then-General Manager Daryl Morey, who published a message on social media in assistance of anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong.
Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA games following that event, prompting business sponsors to get away and the league to suffer what it explained at the time as significant financial repercussions. Pre-season NBA games in China were also scrapped.
In February, Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and chairman of Chinese tech company Alibaba, said the event was water under the bridge which the NBA would love to bring video games back to China and Macau.
Macau is the only place in China where residents have the ability to lawfully gamble in gambling establishments.
Its federal government and Beijing have been urging the 6 certified casinos - Wynn Macau, Sands China, SJM Holdings, Galaxy Entertainment, Melco and MGM China - to increase their proportion of revenue from non-gaming.
Macau's economy is heavily based on the gambling establishment industry, which contributes around 80% of regional tax profits.
Last year, Macau's federal government presented its very first plan centred on a technique where tourism and leisure are the primary pillars, supported by emerging markets such as standard Chinese medicine, health, monetary services and technology, in addition to conventions, exhibitions, trade, culture and sports.
It aims for non-gaming industries to for 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)
