MIES, Switzerland/SHENZHEN, China - FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, on Wednesday announced a nine-year integrated partnership with Tencent, one of the world's leading digital companies.

The multi-faceted agreement involves digital media rights as well as the hosting of the FIBA.com website in China. The extensive FIBA event coverage will highly benefit from the introduction of FIBA's new competition system and include the FIBA Basketball World Cups 2019 and 2023 and their Qualifiers, the FIBA Asia Cups 2017, 2021 & 2025 and their Qualifiers, as well as the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cups, all other continental Cups (Men and Women) and Youth World Championships.

Patrick Baumann, FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member, said: "FIBA is extremely excited to enter into a long-term agreement with Tencent to further the promotion and development of basketball in China. Tencent is one of the biggest companies in the world in its sector just as basketball is one of the most popular sports. The partnership is a vital part of FIBA's ongoing strategy and basketball fans in China will be able to see a feast of high-level basketball events and additional programming over the coming years."

Caitlyn Chen, Corporate Vice President of Tencent, said: "Tencent has been in sports media for more than a decade, garnering experience in live broadcast, news reporting, programming production, social interactions as well as fostering a large user base. As part of the FIBA partnership, Tencent will also deliver rich content and premium game-watching as well as interactive experience through PC, mobile and OTT platforms. FIBA has world-class basketball events and the new competition calendar will give fans access to even more great games throughout the year. Tencent’s partnership with FIBA will create a win-win situation maximising the assets of media and IP and promoting the game of basketball in China and beyond."

FIBA Media, the recently-created strategic partnership between FIBA and the Perform Group, was responsible for the agreement and will now be working to secure additional free-to-air coverage to further enhance the visibility of basketball in China.

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About Tencent 
Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet users. Every day, hundreds of millions of people communicate, share experiences, consume information and seek entertainment through our integrated platforms. Tencent’s diversified services include QQ and Weixin/WeChat for communications; Qzone for social networking; QQ Game Platform for online games; QQ.com and Tencent News for information, and Tencent Video for premium video content.

Tencent was founded in Shenzhen in 1998 and went public on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004. The Company is one of the 50 constituent stocks of the Hang Seng Index. Tencent seeks to evolve with the Internet by investing in innovation, providing a hospitable environment for partners, and staying close to users.
 
For more information, please visit www.tencent.com/ir.

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About FIBA
FIBA (fiba.com) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 215 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
 
For further information about FIBA visit fiba.com or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba,  instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.