Macau is becoming a city of sports and entertainment

Grant Chum, CEO and president of Sands China, said during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to town that ended Friday that Macau is diversifying its economy away from gambling and becoming a “city of sports and… a city of entertainment”.

In an interview on “Squawk Box Asia,” Chum cited a deal announced in early December between Sands China and North America's National Basketball Association to host two NBA preseason games in China.

“We will bring the NBA China Games back to China, but this time in Macau,” Chum told CNBC's Emily Tan. “We don’t want to just have a one-off event. We believe that a multi-year partnership, where we will play these pre-season games over several years, will really strengthen Macao’s positioning.”

The games are part of Sands China's commitment to invest $4.5 billion in the city by 2032, of which “over 90% … will go to non-gaming investments,” Chum said.

Overall they are six gambling providers Macau – China's special administrative region – pledged to invest nearly $15 billion to reduce its economy's reliance on gambling revenue. The operators' gaming licenses were renewed in 2022 – albeit for 10 years instead of 20 – after each promised to invest heavily in non-gaming projects.

But for some, Change is not happening fast enough.

In a speech in Macau on Friday, Xi praised the special administrative region before laying out “three expectations” for the city, including a call to “sustain with the trends of the times” while showing “greater courage to reform and innovate.” according to a transcript from China's State Council.

Xi also urged the city to take steps to attract more foreign talent, a sentiment echoed by Allan Zeman, non-executive chairman of Wynn Macao, on Thursday's “Squawk Box Asia.”

Chum said Sands China has already completed one major project – the renovation of the 14,000-seat Venetian Arena, formerly known as Cotai Arena, in November.

“We have invested over $200 million in the major modernization and renovation of the Venetian Arena,” he said. “This facility will be state-of-the-art, not only for exhibitions and conferences, but also for live concerts and, increasingly, large sporting events.”

The Venetian Arena will host NBA preseason games beginning in 2025. The first two games between the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns are scheduled for October, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said earlier this month.

Chum said these games would strengthen Macao's standing as a destination for major global events.

“We expect this will strengthen Macau’s brand equity over time,” he told CNBC.

Chum said Macau's gaming revenues had recovered to about 80% of 2019 levels, while tourist arrivals – which he called “the important thing health indicator for the tourism economy” – reached pre-pandemic levels in August and October.

Friday marked the twenty fifth anniversary of the return of Macau to China by the British in December 1999.

The NBA deal also marks the return of preseason games to China for the primary time since 2019. In October of that 12 months, China abruptly ended an agreement to broadcast preseason games as a result of a tweet by then-general Houston Rockets land manager Daryl Morey, who expressed support for anti-Beijing protesters in Hong Kong.