Japanese professional baseball approved the sale of the struggling Yokohama BayStars team to mobile social gaming company DeNA on Thursday. Nippon Professional Baseball had agreed to the takeover before DeNA gained the necessary nine votes from the 12 Japanese clubs to complete the buyout, the company said in a statement. Yokohama, which has finished bottom of Japan’s Central League every season since 2008, is currently owned by Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and had been up for sale for two years. DeNA said it would purchase a 66.92 percent stake in the loss-making club in a deal reportedly worth 9.5 billion yen (2.38 million) and scheduled to go through on Friday. Yokohama will become the first Japanese baseball team to be sold since 2004, when mobile phone operator Softbank Corp bought the Hawks from supermarket chain Daiei Inc. The team will remain in Yokohama.