The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from England and Scotland. There are no clubs from Wales or Northern Ireland. The BBL runs three additional knockout competitions alongside the BBL Championship which are the BBL Cup, BBL Trophy and the end-of-season BBL Playoffs. In March 2024, there will be a BBL All-Star game which will replace the BBL Cup knockout competition.

The BBL sits above the National Basketball League and the Scottish Basketball Championship which effectively form the second tier of British basketball. There is currently no automatic promotion or relegation between the lower leagues and the BBL because of the franchise system in use in the BBL although several clubs have been successful in making the step up from the NBL in recent years.

The 10 member franchises of the BBL jointly own the league and a chairman is elected by the teams to oversee league operations. The head offices are located in Leicester where the country's oldest team the Leicester Riders are also based.

In partnership with Basketball England the BBL launched a women's league in 2014 branded as the Women's British Basketball League (WBBL).

History

See: List of British Basketball League seasons

Establishment (1987–1992)

The British Basketball League was formed in 1987, with leading clubs from the National Basketball League of England and Scottish National Basketball League. In 1988, Portsmouth F.C. won the inaugural BBL Championship title; the following year saw Kingston win the first of three back-to-back league crowns.

Early growth (1992–2002)

The 1990s also saw a growth in popularity and commercialism within the league. Games were televised and the league picked up sponsors such as Peugeot, Lego, Playboy and Budweiser, while attendances at games also increased. The Manchester Giants opened the 1995–96 season in front of a record 14,251 fans at the Nynex Arena against the London Leopards, a record crowd for a basketball game in Great Britain. It stood until 2006, when the NBA started staging games at the O2 Arena in London.

London clubs dominated the league, with London Towers, Crystal Palace and the Greater London Leopards all sharing success in the mid-1990s. In 1999, a Conference format similar to the NBA was introduced, with clubs split North and South. The two Conference champions met in a Championship series to decide the champions for the next three years.

Tougher times (2002–2012)

A single division format returned in 2002 and five different franchises won the Championship title in the five years after that. The new millennium, however, also saw a series of setbacks for the BBL. The collapse of ITV Digital cost the league financially, with many franchises struggling to recover from the lost revenue that the £21 million contract was providing. Long established franchises such as the Manchester Giants, Essex Leopards, Derby Storm, Thames Valley Tigers and Birmingham Bullets withdrew from the league, though new teams have been formed under the Giants and Leopards names. The membership crisis brought about the addition of new franchises such as Guildford Heat (formed by supporters of the defunct Thames Valley Tigers), and elected teams from the lower-tier English Basketball League, including the Plymouth Raiders. Both teams made a refreshing impact on the old boys, with the Heat qualifying for the Play-offs in their rookie season.

During the same season Newcastle won 30 of their 40 regular season league fixtures to clinch the Championship crown – the previous season saw the Eagles win 31 matches but lose out to Chester Jets in the final week, by just two points. That title was one of four pieces of silverware won during the dubbed "clean-sweep" season of 2005–06, the Eagles marching on to claim the BBL Cup, BBL Trophy and Playoff's – the complete set.

Current setup (2012–present)

The intervening years saw the perennial success of the Newcastle Eagles, the reemergence of the Leicester Riders as a dominant force in the domestic game, and the rise and fall of teams based in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Essex, Durham and Worthing. Long term franchise Milton Keynes relocated to London, to become a 2012 Olympics legacy tenant at the Copper Box Arena, and a new incarnation of the famous Manchester Giants name re-entered the league in the same year.

The 2015 Playoffs Final took place at The O2 Arena, London, following a string of sell-out attendances at Wembley Arena between 2012 and 2014. The event saw a record breaking crowd of 14,700.

As of the 2016–17 BBL season Italian sportswear manufacturer Kappa have been the exclusive kit supplier for all teams, replacing a previous deal with Spalding.

The past decade has seen sustained growth across the league, with the biggest advances in facilities. Some clubs have now built their own venues, including Newcastle, Leicester, Sheffield and Caledonia, and Manchester, Cheshire and Surrey and have moved into much improved facilities, while Plymouth, and the most recent election from the EBL, the Bristol Flyers, have announced plans for their own arenas. The 2018–19 season saw, for the first time in 11 years, British participation in European competition when Leicester competed in the Basketball Champions League and FIBA Europe Cup.

On 2 December 2021 the Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners bought 45.5% of the shares of the league. The company invested £7 million in the league, that also saw an organisational reform which included the appointment of a CEO.

英国篮球联赛是英国最高水平的篮球比赛。这个锦标赛吸引了来自全国各地的顶级篮球队伍参加。比赛通常在大型体育馆举行,吸引了大量的观众和媒体关注。

英国篮球联赛的比赛水平非常高,参赛队伍都是经过严格选拔的顶级球队。比赛期间,球员们展现出卓越的篮球技巧和战术智慧,给观众带来了精彩的比赛体验。

这个锦标赛不仅仅是一场篮球比赛,还是一个聚集篮球爱好者的社交活动。观众们可以在比赛期间与其他球迷交流,分享他们对篮球的热爱和支持。

英国篮球联赛的成功也为英国篮球运动的发展做出了重要贡献。它为年轻的篮球运动员提供了一个展示自己才华的舞台,并为他们提供了进一步发展的机会。

总之,英国篮球联赛是一个令人兴奋和激动的篮球盛事,它不仅展示了顶级篮球运动的精彩,也为篮球爱好者提供了一个共同热爱篮球的平台。