Here are the top China Sports Business news stories you need to know from this week:

Exhibit NBA
NBA China has announced the NBA’s first permanent exhibition in China named “The Exhibit and Store” will open in Haikou, Southern China, in late October. Launched in partnership with the Mission Hills Group, the 2275-square-meter facility will highlight the rich history of the league and quality of the game. Read more on Mission Hill’s Website (English) and SZnews (Chinese)

Australian Open Serves Up Baijiu Partnership
Grand Slam tennis event the Australian Open (AO) has teamed up with Chinese baijiu brand, Luzhou Laojiao, as part of a five-year strategic partnership. The Chinese liquor brand becomes the exclusive Official Global Baijiu Partner of the AO, as well as the highest tier Chinese partner. Read more on SportsPro (English) and Sohu (Chinese)

• Mailman Take: This is a significant partnership and the largest Chinese sponsorship deal in the history of the tournament. Cooperating with another Chinese brand, after teaming up with Ganten Water earlier this year, highlights how important China is to the AO. The tournament has currently tied up 6 brands from Asia (China 2, Japan 2, South Korea 1, Singapore 1) as it continues to expand in Asia-Pacific. The deal is reportedly worth $60 million over five years, similar to Tennis Australia’s major sponsor Kia. The prize money for next year’s event has increased 10 per cent to $43 million.

Shanghai Masters Brings on J.P. Morgan
The annual ATP Masters 1000 tennis tournament has partnered with multinational financial services company J. P. Morgan, seeing them become a Diamond Sponsor. J.P. Morgan is now one of the second tier sponsors of the Shanghai Masters, alongside Guangming, the Patron Sponsor. The tournament is currently taking place at the iconic Qizhong Tennis Center in Shanghai. Read more on Sina (Chinese) and Shine (English)

Vatti & CFA
Chinese kitchen appliance manufacturer Vatti is now an official partner of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and Chinese national football teams (Team China). Read more on Vatti’s Official Website (Chinese)

X Financial and NBA China
A multi-year marketing partnership was recently announced, positioning X Financial as an official marketing partner of NBA China. X Financial is a leading technology-driven personal finance company in China and marks NBA China’s first time to cooperate with a company in China’s personal finance industry. Read more on PR Newswire (English) and Ecosports (Chinese)

Li-Ning and EDG Alliance
Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning has become an official partner of the esports club, Edward Gaming’s League of Legends team, for the 2018 League of Legends World Championship. Read more on Li-Ning’s Official Weibo (Chinese)

Stiga’s Big Six
Swedish table tennis brand Stiga has announced the sponsorship of six Chinese Table Tennis Super League teams for the 2018-2019 season. Read more on Sina Sports (Chinese)

In other news:

Landmark Moments
Hundreds of millions of people travelled during the Golden Week in China and posted short ‘check-in’ video clips at landmark spots on popular short-form video platform Douyin. Among these videos, 300,000 videos posted were in Beijing locations, which gathered a total of over 1 billion video views. A flag-raising ceremony video on National Day gained 37.8 million views and 1.78 million likes. Read more on People.cn (Chinese)

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