The United Kingdom's British Basketball League (BBL) and Women's British Basketball League (WBBL) are reportedly looking for a new window of commercial and sporting opportunities in the Far East.

According to The Voice, Bob Hope, who is the current commercial director of the premier professional basketball league in the UK, would be attending a business meeting with senior members of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in Beijing later this week to continue the essential process of building a partnership to promote basketball.

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"The Asian market is huge, and obviously China, in particular, has established itself as a major powerhouse in basketball," explained Hope.

He praised the remarkable achievements that China has chalked in basketball and stated BBL's ambitious plan to go globally.

"They will host the next FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2019, have a high-profile domestic competition and obviously compete at an elite level on the international stage - as we witnessed recently at the Rio Olympics," he said.

"With the announcement of the BBC broadcasting deal and other major announcements in the pipeline, we are keen to now take the next step, and that means a push to develop the BBL brand internationally," Hope told iSportConnect.

BBL is the UK's top professional basketball league. It runs two knockout competitions alongside the BBL Championship; the BBL Trophy, and the BBL Cup, as well as the post-season Play-offs.

The league, which was founded in the year 1987, currently consists of 12 professional basketball teams with representation from both Scotland and England.

China, on the other hand, has the CBA, which is regarded as the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Asia. The league, which was founded in 1995, has 20 participating clubs.

TagsBritish Basketball League, chinese basketball association, bob hope, Basketball, wbbl, Sichuan Blue Whales, Newcastle eagles