The Latvian-Estonian Basketball League is the highest professional men's club

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

league in Latvia and Estonia; it has been organised since 2018, run by the

Latvian Basketball Association The Latvian Basketball Association ( Latvian: ''Latvijas Basketbola Savienība''), also known as LBS, is the national governing body of basketball in Latvia. It was founded in 1923 and was one of the FIBA Europe co-founders, but due to the Sovi ...

and the

Estonian Basketball Association The Estonian Basketball Association ( et, Eesti Korvpalliliit) is the governing body of basketball in Estonia. It was founded in 1923, and joined FIBA in 1934. After 1940 though, they suspended operations due to being occupied by the Soviet Unio ...

History

The league was established in 2018 when the

Latvijas Basketbola līga The Latvian Basketball League (LBL; lv, Latvijas Basketbola līga) also known as the '' Pafbet'' LBL for sponsorship reasons, is the national basketball championship in Latvia; composed of 6 teams. It is considered the biggest basketball league ...

(LBL) and

Korvpalli Meistriliiga The Korvpalli Meistriliiga ( en, Basketball Champions League), known as the OlyBet Korvpalli Meistriliiga for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier level and most important professional basketball league in Estonia. It is controlled by the Est ...

(KML) merged. In its inaugural season, 15 teams participated in the league. After a Final Four is played to determine the winner of the league, there are playoffs to decide the national champions of Latvia and Estonia. The first game was on 28 September 2018, with Estonian champions Kalev/Cramo hosting a game against the Latvian champions

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

. On 9 April 2019,

won the first league championship. On November 19, 2021 at a meeting in

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet o ...

, representatives of the Latvian and Estonian Basketball Association agreed to continue the development of a joint league for the next three years. Both parties acknowledged that the Pafbet Latvian-Estonian Basketball League promotes the development of players and coaches, attracts basketball fans and inspires young people to focus on basketball. In June 2022, Ukrainian club

BC Prometey BC Prometey ( uk, БК Прометей), also known as Prometey Slobozhanske, is a Ukrainian basketball club based in Kamianske. It played in the Ukrainian Basketball SuperLeague, the highest tier of basketball in Ukraine, from 2019 to 2022. I ...

joined the league as the Ukrainian SuperLeague was suspended due to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. The team will play its home games in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Title sponsorships

Since inaugural season in 2018 the League has had

title sponsor Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

ship rights sold to two companies, most recently to Paf betting company.

Competition format

The competition follows a double round-robin format. During the course of a season each club plays each other club twice (once at home and once away). Teams' rankings at season end are determined by winning percentage. At season end, the eight top teams play-off, pitting the first place standings team against the 8th place team, and so on. The play-off format initially was supposed to be Quarterfinals and Final Four, but since the inaugural season it has changed every season.

Home Grown Player Rule

A foreign player (not Latvian or Estonian) who has been registered and played in the Latvian National Championship or the Estonian National Championship for three consecutive seasons between the ages of 12 and 19 is considered to be a local player.

Current clubs

16 teams, 9 from

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, 6 from

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and 1 from Ukraine, is contesting the league in the 2022–23 season.

Venues and locations

Champions

Performance by club

References

External links

Official website
{{Men's professional basketball leagues Basketball leagues in Estonia, 1 Basketball leagues in Latvia, 1 2018 establishments in Europe Sports leagues established in 2018 Latvian–Estonian Basketball League,