What the NBA’s Africa Venture Reveals About Investing on the Continent

Jun 17, 2025

What Investors Can Learn from NBA Africa

Basketball match in Africa with two players running and one dribbling

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The NBA launched the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2019 as a bold expansion into Africa, backed by shareholders including Barack Obama, Nike, MTN, PepsiCo, and Helios. Despite raising capital in 2021, Bloomberg reports much of it is now depleted. The BAL faces hurdles: unaffordable ticket prices, limited facilities, low marketing spend, and talent drain to U.S. leagues. With venues leased from governments and attendance lagging, the NBA is recalibrating. Africa offers long-term promise, but the NBA’s experience highlights the need for measured, locally grounded investment strategies.

Author:

John P. Causey IV

What the NBA’s Africa Venture Reveals About Investing on the Continent

The NBA’s long-term ambitions in Africa remain intact, but recent developments signal a period of reevaluation and strategic reset. While the league has achieved strong results in other global markets such as China, the Philippines, Mexico, and the UAE by scaling gradually, its entry into Africa was marked by a more aggressive rollout. For investors and operators eyeing the continent, the NBA’s experience offers valuable lessons in pacing, adaptation, and local alignment.

The NBA’s involvement in Africa stretches back to the 1990s, with youth programs and exhibition games helping build awareness of the sport. A major milestone came in 2003 with the launch of NBA Academy Africa in Senegal, which has helped nurture elite-level players such as Pascal Siakam and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In 2019, the league raised the stakes by launching the Basketball Africa League (BAL), a joint venture between the NBA and FIBA aimed at professionalizing the sport across the continent. It was a landmark moment, positioning Africa not just as a talent pipeline, but as a standalone market with commercial and sporting potential.

As is often the case with foreign investor-led pushes into Africa, the scale and speed of the NBA’s rollout arguably got ahead of the market. There is something about Africa that tempts even experienced players to go all in, chasing the continent’s size and long-term promise while underestimating local friction points. The gaps in the market are real, but they often exist for good reason including: infrastructure, affordability, regulatory complexity, and entrenched competition.

Big Name Shareholder Backing

The ownership structure of NBA Africa reflects high-profile backing. Shareholders include the NBA, FIBA, Barack Obama, Luol Deng, Mo Ibrahim, Grant Hill, Nike, MTN, PepsiCo, and Helios Fairfax Partners. Despite the fanfare, financial transparency has been limited.

According to Bloomberg sources, much of the capital raised in 2021 is nearly depleted, though exact figures remain unavailable. In response to reports of financial pressures and high-profile executive exits, NBA COO Mark Tatum stated in late 2023:

“We view both NBA Africa and the BAL as long-term investments and are encouraged by the success and the growth of both initiatives since their launch a few years ago.”

Africa Market Realities Bit the NBA Hard

Challenges have mounted. While the BAL has held seasons successfully in multiple countries, culminating in finals held at Kigali Arena, attendance has been mixed, with frequent reports of empty seats.

Several structural issues limit traction:

Ticket affordability: Prices remain out of reach for many fans in key markets.
Infrastructure gaps: Africa lacks an adequate base of basketball-ready, well-maintained facilities.
Limited local marketing spend: Awareness remains low beyond host cities.
Talent flight: Africa’s top players often exit early for U.S. or European leagues, weakening the on-court product.
Fierce competition: Football (soccer) dominates the sports landscape, making fan conversion difficult.

Venue Access and Real Estate

NBA Africa’s physical footprint is thin. The organization maintains headquarters in Johannesburg, with satellite offices in Dakar, Nairobi, and Cairo. However, the league does not own arenas. Venues are leased from local governments or private parties on a per-event basis. This adds cost and limits control but has avoided large CAPEX and building management costs and hassles.

Three of the most prominent venues, the BK Arena in Kigali, Arena do Kilamba in Luanda, and Dakar Arena, are all government-owned and were funded and built with support from Chinese and Turkish contractors. This leaves NBA Africa operating at the mercy of local availability and shifting political considerations.

Looking Ahead

Despite the setbacks, the NBA is signaling that it remains committed to its African venture. The BAL recently concluded its 2024 season with an expanded schedule and participation from 12 countries, showing organizational resilience even amid budgetary constraints.

Still, the experience underscores the importance of phasing, flexibility, and local integration in African markets. In contrast to its more measured approaches in Asia and Latin America, the NBA’s full-court press in Africa may have skipped key steps (i.e., building grassroots fanbases, local commercial partnerships, and a stable development league ecosystem).

As the NBA’s experience shows, brand equity alone doesn’t guarantee staying power.

VANTAGE'S TAKE

Africa remains a compelling long-term growth market, but one that demands patience, local grounding, and a measured approach. The NBA’s experience is a reminder that brand power and capital alone aren’t enough. There’s something about Africa that tempts even seasoned investors to overextend, driven by the scale of the opportunity and lack of clear data. But market gaps often exist for real, structural reasons. The NBA case isn’t a caution against Africa. Instead, its a call to start smaller, learn faster, and that local fit matters more than speed.