By Eurohoops team/ info@Eurohoops.net
With Dubai entering EuroLeague basketball, the NBA is reportedly considering the possibility of entering Europe. According to a detailed report by “Sportico”, the NBA is currently “exploring options” in Europe, including the creation of a new league.
Per the same report, the league might be a joint venture with FIBA, following the BAL model, which currently exists in Africa.
However, many times in the past 30 years the scenario of a European expansion was mentioned and then abandoned by the NBA.
The key point of the report is that the NBA “has been approached by stakeholders on several ways to expand the European business outside of a EuroLeague partnership”.
More than that, the “investment bank Raine Group has been hired to evaluate the NBA’s opportunities in Europe” and here comes the most interesting part of the report.
The basketball product in Europe in conjunction with the Middle East has huge potential: “The NBA thinks that the basketball ecosystem in Europe and Middle East could be worth as much as $3 billion in annual revenue, based on Raine’s projections”.
And that makes the move of EuroLeague with Dubai even more interesting.