The NBA Board of Governors has approved the sale of Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavericks to the families that own Las Vegas Sands Corp. control, approved. The sale was originally announced a month ago; The families of Dr. Miriam Adelson – the wife of the late Sheldon Adelson – and Sivan and Patrick Dumont agreed to purchase the franchise for an estimated value of $3.5 billion.
Dumont, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands and Adelson's son-in-law, will become governor of the Mavericks. It's a sweet deal for Cuban, known to most non-sports fans for his decade-and-a-half stint on the television show Shark Tank, as the deal will not only make him billions but will also keep him in control of basketball operations.
Forbes values the Mavs at $4.5 billion, so it may have been an underpayment, but the fact that Cubans will be allowed to continue running the team may have been factored into the price.
This could be part of Cuban's long-term goal of building a broader entertainment district with a new arena and casino. Casino gambling is not legal in Texas, but Cuban appears to be planning ahead. He has had a relationship with the Adelsons for years, including receiving their In Pursuit of Excellence Award at a scholarship fundraiser in 2017.
In 2022 he said that Dallas Morning News“My goal, and we would work with Las Vegas Sands, is if we build a new arena, it's going to be in the middle of a resort and casino. “That's the mission.”
Although Sheldon Adelson was online poker's public enemy number one during his lifetime and made it his mission to prevent the legalization of online poker in the United States, he, Miram and their company have long pushed for the expansion of casino gaming. gambling.
Miriam Adelson donated $2 million last year to a PAC called Texas Sands, which in turn donated to state lawmakers and paid lobbyists to try to legalize casinos in the state. She also donated $1 million to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The Adelsons have been among the country's largest Republican donors for decades.
Despite the illegality of casino gambling in Texas, Texas is becoming quite a problem for the alliance between the NBA and the casino moguls. In 2017, Golden Nugget owner Tilman Fertitta acquired the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion.
Fertitta was also one of the original investors in the NFL's Houston Texans, but was forced to sell his stake in the team in 2008 due to league rules preventing employees or owners from being associated with gambling.
Photo credit: Flickr.com / Michael Tipton
