The NBA on Wednesday approved the sale by American billionaire Mark Cuban of his majority stake in the Mavericks team to the families who run the Las Vegas Sands Corporation casino group.
Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson who died in 2021, is the main shareholder of the company, which operates large casinos in Singapore and Macau, after selling its assets in Las Vegas. His son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, CEO of Las Vegas Sands corporation, will become boss of the Mavericks, the League said in a press release, adding that the sales process should take place before the end of the week.
This approval from NBA franchise owners comes nearly a month after the transaction was announced. Mark Cuban, who is expected to receive $3.5 billion (€3.2 billion) according to American media, will retain operational control of the club and there is no indication that the franchise is leaving Dallas.
In October, Forbes magazine valued the Mavericks seventh out of thirty clubs in the NBA, at 4.5 billion dollars (4.1 billion euros). Aged 65, Mark Cuban became a billionaire when he sold his company to Yahoo in 1998 and, according to Forbes, his fortune is around $6.2 billion (€5.6 billion).
A basketball enthusiast — he often attends Mavericks games — he acquired a majority stake in the team in January 2000 for $285 million. In 2022, he unveiled his project for a new arena for the Mavericks, which he wanted to build as part of a casino, provided that the state of Texas legalized gambling.
