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 games in Macau from 2025, marking the league's return to the Chinese market after a years-long absence that followed controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong protests.

Local media quoted NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum as saying the NBA would host two pre-season games annually for the next five years at casino 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 familiar with the matter confirmed the local media reports of the deal. The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Although China has recently hosted NBA legends celebrity games, including one scheduled for Saturday at the Venetian property, the pre-season deal will mark a return of regularly scheduled NBA play to China.

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

Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA games following that incident, prompting corporate sponsors to flee and the league to suffer what it described at the time as dramatic financial consequences. 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 incident was water under the bridge and that the NBA would love to bring games back to China and Macau.

Macau is the only place in China where citizens are able to legally gamble in casinos.

Its government and Beijing have been urging the six licensed casinos - Wynn Macau 1128.HK, Sands China 1928.HK, SJM Holdings 0880.HK, Galaxy Entertainment 0027.HK, Melco 0200.HK and MGM China 2282.HK - to increase their proportion of revenue from non-gaming.

Macau's economy is heavily dependent on the casino industry, which contributes around 80% of local tax revenue.

Last year, Macau's government rolled out its first blueprint centred on a strategy where tourism and leisure are the main pillars, supported by emerging industries such as traditional Chinese medicine, health, financial services and technology, as well as conventions, exhibitions, trade, culture and sports.

It aims for non-gaming industries to account 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)

((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))