Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is working on a deal to sell a majority stake in the NBA franchise to the family that runs the Las Vegas Sands casino company, a person with knowledge of the talks said Tuesday night.
The deal is in the $3.5 billion valuation range and could take weeks for the league to complete, a person who spoke to The Associated Press said the details were not disclosed.
Cuba oversees basketball operations in the deal. NBA reporter Marc Stein was the first to report the potential sale.
The company controlled by casino owner Sheldon Adelson’s widow, Miriam Adelson, announced on Tuesday that it would sell $2 billion of her shares to buy an undisclosed professional sports team.
Cuba said it was interested in partnering with Sands a year ago. He has been a proponent of legalizing gambling in Texas, an issue that did not make it out of the state legislature during the two-year session that ended earlier this year.
The 65-year-old Cuban, who announced next year that he will leave the popular business TV show “Shark Tank” after its 16th season, quickly rose to fame after buying the Mavericks in 2000.
Dallas was one of the worst franchises in pro sports in the 1990s, but turned into one of the best under Cuban, with a lot of help from star forward Dirk Nowitzki.
Miriam Adelson is the controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which built the Venice and Palazzo resorts but now has casino operations in Singapore and Singapore. Sheldon Adelson, founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands; He died in 2021 In 87.
The company announced the $2 billion sale in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing identified Adelson. and Miriam Adelson Trust as the vendor but did not specify a team, league or location.
If the $2 billion total goes toward the buyout, that means Adelson could acquire at least 57 percent of the NBA team — at an estimated $3.5 billion.
Adelson, 78, a medical doctor, will own 51.3% of the company following the sale. The family owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper.
“We are currently advised by the selling stockholders that they intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, along with additional cash, to finance the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise,” the company said in an SEC filing.
The vetting process for new owners in the NBA takes at least several weeks, and then approval must be given by the league’s board of directors.
Cuban said late last year that he wanted to build a new arena in downtown Dallas that would become a casino resort if Texas legalized gambling.
Supporters of legalized gambling in Texas had hoped to get a constitutional amendment to voters in the most recent session, but the measure didn’t make it very far in the legislative process. The Republican-controlled Legislature does not convene in regular session until 2025.
Cuba is unlikely to be out of the spotlight as it dominates the basketball scene. In fact, efforts to legalize gambling in Texas could raise the profile of a billionaire who has been at the top for nearly 25 years in sports, business and finance.
A self-proclaimed basketball rookie who graduated from Indiana University, Cuban is always on the court for Mavericks games. He’s always outspoken, racking up millions in fines as his own. Many of his speeches were aimed at the authorities.
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Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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