Dumont’s Macao playbook: how NBA China games serve Sands and shape the Mavericks’ arena plans

Oct. 15, 2026 — When the NBA flew the Mavericks and Rockets to Macao last week, the trip was about more than two preseason games. For Patrick Dumont, the Mavericks governor who also runs Las Vegas Sands, it was a showcase for his casino company’s push into sports and entertainment, a test of the NBA’s rebuilt relationship with China, and a preview of what he wants to build in Dallas.

The New York Times on Wednesday called Dumont the “most important person” in bringing NBA games back to China. The league stayed away from the mainland and Macao for years after then-Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s 2019 post backing Hong Kong protesters, a fallout Commissioner Adam Silver once said cost the NBA hundreds of millions of dollars. Dumont believed the relationship was damaged but not beyond repair, and he pitched league officials on a return through Macao, where Sands China operates The Venetian and its arena.

A multiyear deal, now in its second year

Sands China and the NBA reached a multiyear agreement at the end of 2024 to stage annual preseason games in Macao. The Suns and Nets opened the series in October 2025. This year Dallas and Houston played at The Venetian Arena on Oct. 9 and Oct. 11, with a fan day in between, NBA House events and a Community Impact Week that the league ran with Sands’ charity arm. About 400 journalists were expected, most of them from mainland China and elsewhere in Asia.

Before the games, Dumont hosted a party for more than 200 guests at the Sands-owned Parisian Macao. Kyrie Irving, who scored 17 in Dallas’ 132-115 win in the opener, gave the hosts the credit: “Patrick and Sands have done a great job of bringing the NBA back here, and being able to collaborate.”

The league has kept building its China business around the games. NBA China already has Alibaba’s cloud unit as its official cloud and AI partner, and it runs four flagship stores, 45 NBA kids stores and more than 5,000 partner retail stores in the country. This week it also announced a development partnership with CBA champion Shanghai Jiushi.

Why a casino company wants NBA games

For Sands, the games are part of a required shift. Macao is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, and all six concessionaires that renewed their 10-year licenses in January 2023 promised to spend more than MOP 100 billion (about US$12.5 billion) on non-gaming attractions. Sands China’s share is MOP 33.4 billion (about US$4.15 billion), including a 50,000-square-meter tropical conservatory.

The timing matters. Macao’s gross gaming revenue fell for a fourth straight month in September, down 17.5% year over year to MOP 18.1 billion (about US$2.25 billion), a two-year low. Speaking to Bloomberg during the trip, Dumont said Sands still wants to invest in Macao and is “extremely excited about our investments in non-gaming areas.” He also welcomed the extension of the U.S.-China trade truce to Jan. 10, 2027: “The world’s two largest economies have everything to gain by finding better ways to collaborate and invest in each other.”

Macao’s government sees it the same way. “Gaming is important. But at the same time, we also need to develop other activities and other kinds of industries, so that we don’t put our eggs just in one basket,” Macao Government Tourism Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes told CNBC.

Lessons for the Mavericks’ Dallas arena

Dumont also brought ideas home. Brad Townsend wrote in the Dallas Morning News that Dumont sees The Venetian Arena as proof of “an approach, an aesthetic, a desire for hospitality, a desire for top-flight food and beverage” that he believes can be “executed really well in Dallas.”

The Mavericks plan an arena, team headquarters, training facility and entertainment district on the 104-acre former Valley View Mall site in North Dallas, which would replace American Airlines Center. Casino gaming is still not legal in Texas, and Dumont has said the Dallas plan will not include a casino resort because there isn’t room for one. “We can’t save land for some future date, when maybe, possibly, potentially casino gaming will pass,” he said. “We’ve got to do what’s right for the Mavericks today.” Sands owns separate land in Irving where a resort could be built if the law ever changes.

What it means

The Macao series shows how ownership ties are shaping where and how the NBA does business abroad. A governor whose main company runs resorts in Macao made it easier for the league to get back into its biggest overseas market, and the NBA gave Sands marquee content for its non-gaming plans. With Dumont also speaking publicly about Las Vegas expansion and a new arena in Dallas, the Macao games are one part of a wider strategy that ties basketball, hospitality and real estate together.