Sports Teams Score Lucrative Deals in China – Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—China is filled with sports fans, from President Xi Jinping on down. Now Chinese companies are betting big that those fans will pony up to watch their favorite teams.

Chinese media and Internet companies have struck big deals in recent months for the rights for everything from the Los Angeles Clippers to Spanish soccer-club matches, often paying many multiples to the prices they paid in the past. The companies are driven by…