Singapore — The National Basketball Association (NBA) has announced that the league will expand its presence in Asia-Pacific by opening an office in Singapore.
The Singapore studio joins the league’s Manila and Mumbai offices in reporting to NBA Asia managing director Scott Levy based in Hong Kong and will expand the league’s existing efforts in the region, such as live game distribution, youth development programming, interactive fan events, merchandise sales and social responsibility efforts.
NBA games and programming reach fans in the region through the league’s 20 media partners that span 11 countries and territories and eight languages. NBA League Pass, the league’s premium live game subscription service, has recorded double-digit subscriber growth in the region over the last three seasons. The league also has more than 35 million followers on social media across the region.
The prominent league has staged 17 preseason and regular-season games in the region, most recently in 2019 when the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors played two preseason games in Tokyo, Japan. In 2013, the Rockets and Indiana Pacers played their preseason basketball game in Manila, Philippines.
On the expansion to Singapore, Levy said that ver the past two decades, Asia-Pacific has proven to be a major growth region for the NBA.
“Opening an office in Singapore reflects the enormous opportunities to build on that positive momentum by working more closely with our valued partners and bringing our passionate fans in the region closer to their favourite NBA teams and players,” Levy commented.
Since 2007, the NBA has engaged more than 40 million boys and girls across the region through the Jr. NBA, the league’s global youth basketball program. Meanwhile, the Jr. NBA Coaches Academy program that aims to teach trainers how the sport should be coached has reached more than 88,000 teachers across seven countries regionwide.
With the opening of the Singapore office, the NBA adds another studio to its current 15 markets worldwide.
