The Euroleague, sponsored by Turkish Airlines, is the most important professional club basketball competition in Europe, with teams from up to 18 different countries, members of FIBA Europe. The Euroleague is broadcast on television in nearly 200 countries worldwide.
The Euroleague (previously known as the European Champions’ Cup) was established by FIBA in 1958 and operated under its original name until 2000 when the Union of European Leagues of Basketball (ULEB) was created by the 24 richest clubs, mostly from Spain, Italy and Greece.
The 2000-2001 season began with two top European professional club basketball competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague and the new ULEB Euroleague. The top European teams were split between the two leagues: Panathinaikos, Maccabi Tel Aviv, CSKA Moscow and Efes Pilsen stayed with FIBA, while Olympiacos Piraeus, Kinder Bologna, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Baskonia and Benetton Treviso joined ULEB.
In May 2001, teams that competed in the FIBA SuproLeague during the 2000-01 season joined with those from the ULEB and the Euroleague was finally integrated. FIBA stayed in charge of national team competitions while ULEB took over the European professional club competitions.
The league usually includes domestic champions from the leading countries and the winner of the previous season’s Eurocup. The current entrance criteria selects a number of clubs via a formula based on competitive performance, television revenues and home attendance. These clubs receive ‘A Licenses’ which last for 3 years. Originally, 13 clubs received A Licenses, with Asseco Prokon Gdynia of Poland becoming the 14th before the 2011-12 season. A further 8 clubs receive one-year “B Licenses”, seven of which are based on the ranking of their domestic league and the eighth being a three-year “wild card” license based on similar factors to the A Licenses. The first of these was awarded to ASVEL Basket of France.
The winner of the previous year’s Eurocup receives a one-year “C License” into the Euroleague regular season. If the club qualifies for a direct B License into the regular season via its domestic league, the C License will be awarded to the club not already qualified for the regular season that is highest on the Euroleague entry list. Eight other clubs receive one-year B Licenses into the Euroleague qualifying rounds, with two advancing into the regular season.
The Euroleague’s first phase is the qualifying rounds which is an eight club knockout tournament with two teams continuing into the league. The next phase is the regular season in which 24 teams play home and away in groups of six, after which the bottom two in each group are eliminated. The Top 16 then compete in a double round-robin format in four groups of four.
The top two teams from each group advance to the quarterfinal round in a best-of-five match up with home advantage going to the higher placed team. The winners of the four quarterfinal series then clash in one-off knockout matches. The semi-final losers play for third place; the winners play for the championship.
Euroleague betting
There are plenty of opportunities to bet on the Euroleague. There are markets on head to head, line betting and total points. You can also bet on winning margin, quarter, half and full-time markets as well as individual players points tally. In the futures market you can bet on the outright tournament winner.
Euroleague odds
Most sportsbooks provide several betting markets for the Euroleague. There are markets on the winner, total points and handicap betting for all matches. You can also bet on winning margin, quarter, half and full-time markets as well as individual players points total.
