Stanley Ho’s son Mario joins $6.1 billion Boston Celtics ownership group

Mario Ho, the youngest son of late Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho, has become a co-owner of the Boston Celtics after joining a consortium that bought the National Basketball Association (NBA) team for $6.1 billion.

The 30-year-old entrepreneur, who leads Nasdaq-listed esports firm NIP Group, will sit on the Celtics’ managing board alongside other co-owners, including Aditya Mittal, Bruce Beal, Andrew Bialecki, Dom Ferrante, Rob Hale, Ian Loring, and incumbent Wyc Grousbeck. The investor group is led by U.S. private equity executive William “Bill” Chisholm.

“Thank you Bill [Chisholm] for letting me join the consortium and this record-breaking deal,” Ho wrote on social media. “As a lifelong Celtics fan, I’ll continue to give my everything to the organisation; the responsibilities officially start now! This is undoubtedly one of the happiest moments of my life.”

The Celtics’ $6.1 billion sale set a new record for the biggest buyout in U.S. sports at the time, according to a team statement, but was soon eclipsed when billionaire Mark Walter acquired the Los Angeles Lakers for about $10 billion.

Ho, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who married Chinese supermodel Ming Xi in 2019, was not involved in his late father’s SJM Holdings casino empire. He became one of the youngest founders of a Nasdaq-listed company in Asia when NIP Group went public in 2024.

The Celtics, the NBA’s most successful team with 18 championships, were put up for sale after clinching their latest title in 2024. The deal underscores growing Asian ties with the league: Sands China last year signed a multi-year agreement with the NBA to host two pre-season games annually in Macau, starting with the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns in October 2025.