BEIJING, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The National Basketball Association (NBA) and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba announced on Thursday a multi-year partnership, as the league returns to the Chinese market for the first time since 2019, with two games in Macau.

The NBA is due to play two pre-season games in the Chinese special administrative region on Friday and Sunday, part of a five-year contract with Las Vegas Sands' Macau unit Sands China.

It marks the first time the NBA is playing in Macau, the world's largest gambling hub, and follows a years-long absence amid controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong protests.

The Macau games aim to bolster the NBA's profile in China, where around 300 million play basketball, at a time of rising political tensions between the United States and China.

The announcement by Alibaba Group ( BABA ) said it would provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services with the NBA and enhance fan experiences on the NBA app in China.

Alibaba Cloud will be the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China, it said.