NBA China has announced a “comprehensive strategic collaboration” with Chinese fintech Ant Group.
The two parties will create original online content and a customised consumer experience on Ant’s mobile payments platform Alipay through technologies such as blockchain.
Under the deal, NBA fans in China will have access to the NBA’s video content on Alipay for the first time and services such as joint memberships, an NBA mini-program, joint marketing campaigns and digital collectibles.
Following Daryl Morey’s Tweet in support of Hong Kong in 2019, the partnership between the NBA and China has been strained. CCTV only resumed broadcasts of NBA games in March 2022, apart from the one-off showing of the NBA Finals in October 2020.
The NBA’s deal with Ant Group signals a normalizing of their relations again.
