NBA brings Texas foes to Macau as league nears decision on Las Vegas expansion

On 20 October 2007, Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers duked it out with Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic at a preseason game in Macau, the NBA’s first-ever contest in the global gaming enclave. This weekend, two gambling heavyweights will bring their teams across the world for a series of exhibitions and league events.

Macau basketball fans will see two Texas rivals square off for games on Friday and Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets. The Mavericks are owned by Las Vegas Sands’ controlling shareholder Miriam Adelson and the Rockets are owned by gambling and entertainment mogul Tilman Fertitta, who acquired Caesars Entertainment in a deal valued at $17.6 billion earlier this year.

There have been 26 NBA China games since 2004 but only three have been held in Macau. After the Cavaliers-Magic game, it took 18 years until the NBA returned to the market, when the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets played two games there last preseason. Most of the other NBA China games have been held in Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen.

This year’s event packs plenty of star power. Headliners include two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant of the Rockets and phenom Cooper Flagg, who was drafted No. 1 overall by the Mavericks in 2025 before being named the league’s Rookie of the Year this past season. Nine-time All-Star Kyrie Irving, who has a signature shoe and apparel line with Chinese outfitter ANTA, will also make his NBA return about 19 months after tearing his ACL in March 2025.

Dumont, Sands welcome NBA

NBA expansion to Las Vegas is expected to be finalised by the end of the year. When the Mavericks’ front office drew the ire of fans by unexpectedly trading All-NBA guard Luka Doncic in February 2025, there were rumours that the Adelsons could try to relocate the team to Las Vegas. Sands is headquartered there but no longer operates any casinos in the region.

Those rumours were quickly dispelled by the team, which now looks to be leveraging its other gambling connections. This week’s festivities are being hosted primarily by Patrick Dumont, who serves as Sands CEO and governor of the Mavericks, at the company’s Venetian Macau property.

According to NBA.com, the trip represents “a chance to showcase the Venetian resort, casino and arena that it includes”, and for the Mavericks to “spread their brand and broaden the scope of their fan appeal”. The Macau connection is a “major marketing tool for the NBA”, the league said, and for Sands it represents “a chance for them to broaden their casino brand, as well as the Mavericks’ brand, worldwide”.

The 14,000-seat Venetian Arena was just two months old when it hosted the Cavaliers-Magic game in 2007, and it now approaches its 20-year anniversary for this year’s games. Described by the league as an “NBA-ready” venue, it would rank last among current facilities in terms of capacity.

Sands holds the title of world’s largest casino operator but its stock has plummeted nearly 45% in 2026. Macau gaming revenue has declined year-over-year for four consecutive months, but stakeholders hope that the NBA events and the National Day Golden Week holiday, which ran from 1-7 October and commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, will provide a tourism spark.

Basketball and betting

The NBA’s embrace of Macau and Las Vegas is perhaps not surprising given its relationship with gambling. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver became the first pro sports leader to embrace sports betting in 2014, when he penned a now-famous op-ed in the New York Times calling for the legalisation of wagering in the US. His comments came a full four years before the US Supreme Court’s momentous PASPA decision in 2018.

“In light of these domestic and global trends, the laws on sports betting should be changed,” Silver wrote twelve years ago. “Congress should adopt a federal framework that allows states to authorize betting on professional sports, subject to strict regulatory requirements and technological safeguards.”

Betting is now a huge consideration for the NBA, with multiple scandals unearthed in recent years. The league issued its first-ever lifetime ban to former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter in 2024 for his involvement in a betting scheme, and a major illegal betting case involving several former players is working its way through New York federal court just weeks before the start of the 2026-27 regular season.

The NBA has not joined other US sports leagues in partnering with prediction markets. However, multiple high-profile players have endorsed the controversial platforms, including Lebron James with Polymarket and Giannis Antetokounmpo with Kalshi. Earlier this year, the league submitted comments reiterating the need for integrity to the CFTC regarding proposed prediction market rules, and Silver said in July he was in favour of more collaboration between leagues and a potential federal betting “czar”.

“We recognise this is a form of entertainment, but at the same time, people can get over their head fairly quickly, and those kinds of controls also need to be in place,” he told iGB.

Rockets’ history in China

In addition to the Mavericks, the Rockets also have connections to China. Houston was once considered to be the most popular NBA team in the market thanks to the Rockets’ star center and Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming.

The 7’6″ Ming was an eight-time All-Star for the Rockets and was inducted into the Hall alongside NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson in 2016. He served as president of the Chinese Basketball Association from 2017-2024.

China’s love for the NBA was rocked in 2019, when former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey shared a tweet that read “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong” in support of anti-government protesters. The tweet sparked a diplomatic crisis, and many Chinese businesses and partners, including the CBA led by Ming, immediately cut ties with the league.

In response, Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent and state-run broadcaster CCTV halted broadcasts of the Rockets. That move and the backlash from sponsors resulted in hundreds of millions in lost revenues for the NBA. It took six years for the NBA to return to China, when the Suns and Nets played in Macau last year.

Fertitta, whose gambling empire now includes both the Caesars and Golden Nugget brands, purchased the Rockets in 2017 for $2.2 billion, which was a league record at the time. CNBC pegs the current valuation at around $6.3 billion. According to ESPN, there are three finalist groups vying for the Las Vegas expansion franchise, with the bidding range for the team and a new arena reaching $12-$13 billion.