Recently, the NBA has been expanding its market in China. With the emergence of Yao Ming in the 2000s, the NBA grew extraordinarily in China, and the NBA now plays preseason games in China. Now that the NBA has a solid foothold in China, it is looking elsewhere: Africa.
“The NBA announced Thursday that it has a new multiyear deal with Econet Media to show live games and other NBA programs on Econet’s pay TV, Internet and mobile platforms in sub-Saharan Africa from the 2016-17 season. The deal makes Econet the NBA’s official broadcaster in sub-Saharan Africa and will offer viewers over 500 games a year, the NBA said, including the playoffs and finals. It also includes WNBA games.”
Africa surely has a huge market, so it will surely generate a huge amount of revenue for the league. NBA vice president and managing director for Africa Amadou Gallo Fall told AP:
“I can tell you this is the largest partnership in the history of the NBA in Africa,”
Last summer, the NBA hosted NBA Africa Game 2015 where Team Africa played Team World, and it was the first game on the continent. One thing that would easily surge the African market would be if an African player emerged as a superstar. Serge Ibaka and Luol Deng have been great African-born players in recent years, but they have yet to become superstars. Emmanuel Mudiay has been an outstanding rookie point guard for the Denver Nuggets, and with a ton of athleticism, he could easily become the star that makes basketball huge in Africa. The greatest African player is obviously Hakeem Olajuwon, but to get people in Africa more interested in the NBA today, Mudiay could be their version of Yao Ming.
