NBA Returns to Macau as Gambling-Owned Mavericks and Rockets Play Preseason Games

The Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets will play two preseason games in Macau this weekend, hosted by Las Vegas Sands at its Venetian Macau property.

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.

This week’s festivities are being hosted primarily by Patrick Dumont, who serves as Sands CEO and governor of the Mavericks.

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”.

This year’s event features two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant of the Rockets and 2025 Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg of the Mavericks.

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.

There have been 26 NBA China games since 2004 but only three have been held in Macau.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic played the first NBA game there in 2007, it took 18 years until the NBA returned to the market, when the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets played two games there last preseason.

The 14,000-seat Venetian Arena was just two months old when it hosted the Cavaliers-Magic game in 2007.

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, will provide a tourism spark.

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.

“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 authorise betting on professional sports, subject to strict regulatory requirements and technological safeguards.”

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.

Silver said in July he was in favour of more collaboration between leagues and a potential federal betting “tsar”.

“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.

Houston was once considered to be the most popular NBA team in China thanks to the Rockets’ star center and Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming.

China’s relationship with the NBA was rocked in 2019, when former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey shared a tweet in support of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong.

The tweet sparked a diplomatic crisis and many Chinese businesses and partners, including the Chinese Basketball Association led by Ming, immediately cut ties with the league.

It took six years for the NBA to return to China, when the Suns and Nets played in Macau last year.

Fertitta purchased the Rockets in 2017 for $2.2 billion, a league record at the time.