NBA and Ant Group launch strategic partnership
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, programme broadcasting and membership. Fans in the country 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 mainland 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 authorised 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 US dollars a year from its presence in the mainland market. (Reuters)