Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) announced on Thursday that it has signed a multi-year with NBA China to develop artificial-intelligence-backed applications to boost live game viewing and other fan engagement experiences.
The announcement comes ahead of the NBA’s return to China, where it had been gone for six years. Some NBA teams, including the Brooklyn Nets, will play regular season games on Friday and Sunday in Macau, the Asian gambling destination. The Brooklyn Nets are owned by Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai.
“It is an exciting time at the intersection of sports and technology,” Tsai said in a statement. “AI and cloud technologies are enablers of connection—between player and fan, brand and consumer, global vision and local culture. By collaborating with NBA China and introducing Alibaba’s latest innovations, we are here to excite NBA fans through the enablement of exceptional experiences that they’ve never seen before.”
As part of the deal, NBA China will create an AI model that is based on Alibaba’s Qwen series of foundation models. The Qwen family of models has helped spur a rally in Alibaba’s share price and are partly responsible for the company announcing a massive boost to its AI-related spending last month.
Other aspects of the deal include Alibaba Cloud debuting a real-time 360 replay solution for the NBA China games; and NBA China using Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure to host its digital destinations, including the NBA app, the league’s official website in China and NBA China mini-programs.
NBA China will also use Alibaba Cloud’s intelligent analytical tools, while Alibaba’s consumer facing apps, including its Quark and Tongyi apps, will become official marketing partners of the NBA China.
Alibaba shares fell 1.2% in premarket trading on Thursday.