NBA and Ant Group launch a strategic partnership in China – CNBC

A logo of Ant Group is seen at the company’s headquarters on October 9, 2020 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China.Ding Junhao | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesChinese fintech giant Ant Group said on Tuesday it had entered a strategic partnership with the NBA league in China that would see the two cooperate in areas such as video content, program broadcasting and membership.Fans in China would have access to NBA video content on Alipay, the hugely popular payments app owned by Ant Group, the company said in a statement.The collaboration with the professional basketball league’s Chinese business arm will also cover areas such as joint marketing campaigns and digital collectables, Ant Group said.NBA China last week launched a channel in Alipay that shows user-generated content from NBA China’s network of influencers and Alipay’s authorized content creators, Ant Group added.The NBA is one of the United States’ most popular cultural exports to China and makes hundreds of millions of dollars a year from its presence in the Chinese market.However, a decades-long partnership with state broadcaster CCTV was upset in October 2019 when then-Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of widespread protests in Hong Kong, a Chinese-ruled city
Read More