A representative for Alibaba declined to comment.

It is perhaps the most notable trophy acquisition yet for Mr. Tsai, a Taiwan-born lawyer who moved to the United States to attend high school, before attending Yale. He became a corporate lawyer and then a private equity executive. But it was a meeting in 1999 with Jack Ma, a former English teacher turned entrepreneur who had the idea for an e-commerce company, that set him on a path to wealth.

Mr. Tsai helped build Alibaba into a titan of China’s internet community, creating a company that earned $6.3 billion in profit and $23 billion in sales in its most recent fiscal year. Its $25 billion initial public offering in 2014 was the biggest stock market debut in history.

That success has buoyed the wealth of Mr. Tsai: Forbes estimates that he is currently worth $9 billion.

He has already spent some of his wealth in sports, an interest of his dating back to his time as a lacrosse player at Yale. In August, he bought the San Diego expansion team of the nascent National Lacrosse League for what Bloomberg News reported was a $5 million price tag.

The acquisition is the latest example of an executive from a Chinese conglomerate — or a Chinese company itself — spending heavily to acquire pieces of sports properties, including the Premier League team Manchester City and other top clubs on the European continent. They have also invested in FIFA sponsorships and in companies that handle international broadcast and media rights.

With a population of 1.3 billion people and a rising middle class with an unquenchable thirst for sports, China is considered a lucrative and largely untapped market for both consuming and participating in sports.

But deals such as Dalian Wanda’s $650 million purchase of the Ironman competition and its expansion into marathons and road races have been questioned by analysts for the high prices that have been agreed upon. Buyers from China and Chinese companies have also pumped money into everything from professional cricket to world snooker tournaments and cycling.