Joe Tsai’s family office has doubled down on Asian sports, leading a Series A round in the Asian University Basketball League (AUBL) as wealthy backers increasingly look at sports properties as a long-term growth and brand-building play.
Blue Pool Capital, the Hong Kong-based investment firm that manages the Alibaba co-founder’s family wealth, led the round after previously backing AUBL at seed stage, the league said.
New investors include Marc Lasry’s Avenue Capital Group, Nan Fung Group, HSG, David Blitzer-linked Bolt Ventures, and former Chinese Basketball Association president Yao Ming, whose participation marks his first investment in an emerging sports league.
The mix of investors is notable because it brings together several family office- or principal-backed groups with strong ties to global sports ownership, including Tsai, Lasry and Blitzer.
That suggests AUBL is being positioned not just as a college tournament, but as a scalable media and IP platform tied to Asia’s deep basketball fan base and growing appetite for live sports content.
This is an inference based on the investor lineup, AUBL’s expansion plans and the backgrounds of its backers.
AUBL said its inaugural summer tournament in Hangzhou featured 12 university teams, drew more than 65 million livestream views and over 29,000 spectators, with Under Armour and J.P. Morgan among early commercial partners.
The league plans to return to Hangzhou on Aug. 2-9, 2026, before launching a 16-team home-and-away format later in the year across major Asian cities.
The 2026 field will include first-time entrants from the Philippines and Australia. For Blue Pool, the deal adds to a broader push beyond traditional family office investing.
The firm has recently been expanding its private equity activity and, according to recent reporting, raised its first standalone private equity fund, underscoring a willingness to pursue more institutional-style dealmaking while still drawing on Tsai’s consumer, media and sports networks.
In Asia, where university sports remain relatively under-monetised compared with the United States, AUBL’s fundraising could be an early sign that family offices and principal investors see whitespace in building sports leagues around content, sponsorship and youth development rather than relying solely on team ownership.