Global basketball governing body FIBA has added a stop in Dubai, UAE, to its top-flight 3×3 World Tour calendar as part of a new multi-year partnership with the Dubai Sports Council (DSC).
The Dubai event, part of the World Tour’s ‘Masters’ elite tier of two-day showcases, will take place on November 7 and 8 as part of a late-season swing of events across Asia before the December season finale in Brazil.
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That will be the first of three annual World Tour stops in Dubai under the agreement, supporting the city’s growing event-hosting ambitions.
Indeed, to this end, DSC director of events Eisa Sharif said: “Bringing the FIBA 3×3 World Tour to Dubai is another important step in our commitment to supporting and growing basketball in the emirate, while aligning with the ambitions of the Dubai Sports Strategic Plan 2033.
“Hosting the world’s best 3×3 players in Dubai also supports our focus on talent development, creating opportunities to inspire the next generation of players and connect local talent with the highest levels of the sport. Dubai is the home for global events, and bringing the FIBA 3×3 World Tour to the emirate further reinforces our commitment to strengthening Dubai’s position as a leading destination for international sport.”
The Dubai World Tour stop is not the top-line Masters event to visit the Middle East, and indeed is not the only stop in the region on the 2026 tour, which will also visit Manama, Bahrain, on November 20 and 21.
Manama, which has hosted Masters events annually since 2023, also hosted the season-ending 3×3 Finals in 2025, while prior events have also been staged in Doha, Qatar, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The tour also stopped in Abu Dhabi, UAE, between 2021 and 2025 (including the 2022 Finals), with Dubai now replacing it as the sole UAE event on the circuit.
Speaking to Sportcal last month, FIBA 3×3 managing director Alex Sanchez discussed why Asian markets are such a target for the tour, saying: “The reality is that two-thirds of the world's population live in Asia,” he explained. “So if you take this into account, if we want to grow, let's go where the biggest potential market is, and two-thirds of our potential market actually live in Asia.
“It's also true that we've been able to generate interest in very different kinds of Asian markets: Mongolia, Singapore, and [the Gulf countries], that are culturally and geographically different.”
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