Ex-NBA Stars and Hong Kong firm combine to launch major new basketball league in Asia
- Metta Sandiford-Artest, Baron Davis and Shane Battier among those ploughing money into East Asia Super League
- Competition has backing of Fiba and will pit eight teams from around the region against each other
Raine Group and several former NBA stars are backing a Hong Kong start-up that is piecing together Asia’s first major basketball club competition with Fiba’s blessing.
Asia League Holdings Ltd has raised US$13 million to date from investors including retired players Metta Sandiford-Artest, Baron Davis and Shane Battier, boosting its valuation to US$100 million, the firm said on Wednesday.
The funds will be used to launch the East Asia Super League – featuring eight teams from countries including Japan, South Korea and the Philippines – beginning in October 2022, it said.
Founded in 2016, Asia League has previously organised invitational tournaments in Macau, winning broadcast deals with companies such as Tencent Holdings Ltd, and South Korea’s Naver Corp. Last year, the start-up signed a 10-year agreement with the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) to run an annual cross-region league for the top basketball clubs in East Asia and the Philippines, not unlike the Uefa Champions League for football.
Such a basketball tournament will fill a void in Asia, where the NBA rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars every year through sponsorships, merchandise and broadcast fees. The 2022 EASL games will last five months in a home-and-away format, with the final-four face-offs taking place over a weekend accompanied by a music festival.
Top teams from the China Basketball Association are expected to join EASL in an upcoming season, the organisers said. The CBA is now chaired by Yao Ming, a long-time Houston Rockets player whose former agent, Bill Duffy, is an investor in and adviser to EASL.