NBA Europe – Between Global Vision & Local Reality – Exploring the strategic, cultural, and economic stakes of a new European League in cooperation with FIBA
On March 27, 2025, the NBA and FIBA held a joint press conference featuring NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, publicly confirming the NBA’s intention to establish a new basketball league in Europe in cooperation with FIBA.
This announcement marked a significant milestone, formalizing ambitions that had been circulating literally for decades. Long before this event, there had been persistent rumors, strategic interviews, and statements, including those from former NBA Commissioner David Stern, hinting at the NBA’s high interest in expanding into the European market.
In fact, NBA leadership had already signaled growing interest earlier in the year. During the Olympics and in interviews at the beginning of the year, Adam Silver publicly acknowledged the NBA’s exploration of international expansion opportunities, specifically referencing Europe as a promising region for growth. These remarks further fueled speculation, setting the stage for the recent announcement.
The information shared during the press conference, however, remained limited in scope, as both parties officially announced that they would start exploring different possibilities, and nothing had been finally decided yet. As a result, the analysis presented in this report is primarily based on the available public statements and initial insights.
This report aims to assess the potential project through the lens of European basketball stakeholders, focusing on ensuring that any future developments serve the best interests of European basketball as a whole.
You can download the report via this link.
The Economic Design of Euroleague – Analysis of Discussions around Club Profitability, Player Salaries, League Expansion and Future of Financial Stability and Fair Play Regulations.
EuroLeague was established in 2001 with the primary goal of managing the top-tier European club competition in a more effective and economically feasible way,especially focusing on the interests of eleven leading clubs inEuropean basketball. Since then, mainly due to its similarities with the major sports leagues in the USA, a direct comparison to the NBA has been inevitable.
On the sporting side,there is a common consensus that the league has established its position as a high-quality basketball competition, especially in tactical terms, and is deemed to be the second-best basketball league in the world. For instance, today’s NBA superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic who previously played in Europe praise the quality of the league on different occasions. However, when it comes to its business model, especially in terms of financial sustainability, EuroLeague receives hefty criticism from many different fronts.
In recent years, amplified by the negative impact of the pandemic on club financials, the degree of criticism has reached a significantly higher level which ultimately led to the departure of the long-term CEO and President of the organization, Mr. Jordi Bertomeu, in 2022. While some of the criticism may not be deemed substantiated (nor fair), there are certain issues which need to be taken seriously and addressed with well-thought and effective measures.
Key discussions currently circle around over all financial stability and sustainability of EuroLeague clubs, (lack of) profitability, high player salaries and league’s expansion plans. All these topics have a direct relevance for the economic design of sporting contests.
In this study,we aim to provide an in-depth analysis of above-mentioned discussion points by using the principles and concepts of sports economics. Ultimately, this study has the sole objective of providing a contribution to the ongoing discussions as well as finding most effective solutions that are in the best interest of European basketball as a whole.
You can download the report via this link.
Quo Vadis Euroleague Basketball? – Insights into one of the most uncertain periods of European club basketball
On May 26, 2022, it was reported that the Euroleague Shareholders Executive Board voted to remove Mr. Jordi Bertomeu, the President, Chairman and CEO of Euroleague Basketball from all his positions.
This step was preceded by some key decisions made over the last 12 months, starting with a secret meeting organized by some of the Euroleague licensed clubs back in April 2021, followed by the removal of Mr. Bertomeu from the Executive Shareholders Board, the key management body in Euroleague Governancemodel. Back then the official comment was that this would just be a formal change with no impact on the decision-making processes at Euroleague, nor on Mr. Bertomeu’s role and responsibilities. It was also reported that the clubs engaged an external audit firm to perform a special audit of Euroleague’s financials.
Mr. Bertomeu is not just “any” basketball manager. He has been the CEO of Euroleague since from the beginning and the Chairman of the Board and President for more than 10 years, making him arguably the most influential basketball executive in Europe. He has been the main personification of the idea of Euroleague. Therefore, his departure requires an in-depth analysis. Has the idea of Euroleague failed entirely? What are the underlying reasons/issues? Is there a future for Euroleague?
This study aims at providing answers to (some of) these questions.
You can download the report via this link.
Europe’s leading basketball news portal Eurohoops has also reported about this report.
FIBA vs Euroleague – What is in the best interest of European Basketball?
Even if the current dispute seems to be focused on the national team calendar, essentially it is about the governance model of European Basketball, i.e. who is in charge of managing the European Basketball, scheduling the games, running the top competition, setting the rules of “(the business of) basketball”, in summary who sets the tone for the highest level (club) competition in Europe. The aim of this report is to take an objective look at the current situation from a more holistic perspective and take into consideration the interests of all key stakeholders, i.e. not only top clubs, but also all other clubs participating domestic leagues, local federations, sponsors, athletes, referees, managers etc.
You can download the report via this link.
Spanish daily sports newspaper, Mundo Deportivo and Europe’s leading basketball news portal Eurohoops have also reported about this study.
Players Agents in European Basketball – Current Challenges and Improvement Suggestions
There has been a great deal of criticism and a public perception that the behavior of (some of) the agents is excessively unethical. In addition, sports agency is a field in which outsiders perceive there is a quick and easy money to be made. And more recently, market concentration trends in this field have been causing some serious concerns with regard to (possible) conflicts of interest. The purpose of this study is to objectively analyze the current issues in the European basketball market and present suggestions for improvement.
Youth Development Analysis & Survey – Key Success Factors for Junior-to-Senior Transition in European Basketball
The main objectives of this study are to (i) analyze the effectiveness of the current youth development model in European basketball, (ii) create a higher visibility as to the main success/failure factors of transition from junior to senior (elite) level, (iii) identify the most significant challenges that the leading youth development programs are currently facing including the financial aspects and (iv) provide concrete suggestions for improvement to ensure a more sustainable youth development model in Europe. In its first part, the study focuses on the detailed analysis of U16, U18 and U20 European Championships (Final Round/A Division) from different perspectives. The overall objective is to identify certain (quantitative/objective) characteristics, common factors and/or patterns (if any) that the successful national teams (might) demonstrate in terms of winning titles at junior level, and (more importantly) “producing” elite basketball players for the highest competition levels. The second part of the study consists of interviews (and their evaluations) with players which focus on determining the key success factors for the junior-to-senior elite level transition.
Critical Review of Euroleague’s Financial Stability and Fair Play Rules
In an effort to improve the financial stability of the clubs participating the Euroleague competition as well as ensure comparability of financial statements of the clubs, Euroleague introduced a new set of rules effective as of the 2015/16 season. This report takes a critical look at the details of the rules and assesses their effectiveness for achieving the stated objectives.
German BBL Club Licensing System
German clubs licensing system has its roots in 1960s (initially starting in football) which is based on some important pillars such as sportive qualification/success, robust financial basis including a no-debt and break-even requirements, organizational and infrastructure related rules and some formal requirements such as submission of (audited) financial statements and documents. The report deals with the question as to whether this concept can be a good model for other European leagues.
Youth Development in Turkish Basketball
In recent years the Turkish junior national teams (U16, U18 and U20) have been very successful at international tournaments (both at European and Global level) showing up in medal-winning ranks whereas the latest similar success of the A national team goes back to 2010 (World Cup in Turkey) demonstrating a much rarer achievement. This report provides an objective analysis of the possible root causes for the gap between the pretty dominant success record of talented young players at junior levels and poor senior national team performance. It also delivers clear action items that can be applied by the decision-makers to mitigate this adverse trend.
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