The Basketball Tournament, a winner-take-all event in which former pros and reunited college teams compete for $2M, "is expanding to China in a partnership with former NBA All-Star Yao Ming," according to Eben Novy-Williams of BLOOMBERG. Tournament co-Founder Jon Mugar said that Yao and Beijing Starz Int'l Sports Management Co. "will help launch a tournament next year in China." The Chinese version will be modeled after the U.S. tournament, "in which teams gain free entry through social-media support and the most active fans share in the prize money." Mugar said that he has been "exploring overseas expansion for more than a year." China's "robust social-media culture" and the opportunity to work with Yao, a giant in the country, "made the choice easy." Mugar, who is also the tournament's CEO, said, "They may even understand it better than we do, how to better integrate fans and teams through social media." The original 64-team tournament, known as TBT, "features top overseas pros, former NBA All-Stars and reunited college teams," like the '09-10 Villanova Wildcats and various recent players from Syracuse. Yao is a minority owner in Beijing Starz Int'l and his Team Yao agency "works closely with the company on a number of sports projects, including the China University Basketball Super League" (BLOOMBERG, 8/1).
