British Basketball League

See: List of British Basketball League seasons

Competitive national basketball in Great Britain has existed since 1936 when the Amateur Basket Ball Association (ABBA) founded the ABBA National Championship, a knockout competition featuring the regional champions from across England and Wales. An equivalent competition for Scotland was formed by the Amateur Basketball Association of Scotland in 1947. As fully amateur championships, the competitions were largely dominated by victorious teams from universities, YMCAs and Royal Air Force stations. A short-lived attempt at establishing a truly national league competition in the 1960s was met with some success; at its height the competition, known as the 'Rosebowl', featured 16 teams from across England, Scotland and Wales. In 1969, Scotland established its own national league with the ABBA following shortly after, with the formation of the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1972.

Over the next 15 years, basketball's popularity in Great Britain grew steadily and annual revenues for the ABBA – renamed as the English Basket Ball Association (EBBA) in 1975 – increased from £23,440 in 1972 to £303,500 in 1981. With the increased commercial potential of basketball and the NBL evident, teams started to attract entrepreneurial owners and benefactors along with football clubs, such as Manchester United and Portsmouth, looking to replicate the multi-modal sporting club patented by European powerhouses such as Real Madrid and Barcelona. In 1982, the NBL reached a broadcasting deal with newly launched television channel Channel 4, further increasing the visibility of the league to a national audience. The NBL's upward commercial trajectory continued with the EBBA signing sponsorship agreements with major national companies such as Prudential Insurance, Bell's whisky and the Carlsberg Group, generating an estimated income of £1,196,000. A joint venture company, Basketball Marketing Limited, was established in 1982 by the EBBA and team owners to market the league collectively to potential sponsors and share revenue from TV contracts; with the agreement that 40% of revenue was held by the EBBA and the remaining 60% shared between all member teams.

In 1983, the Basketball Owners' Association (BOA) was established by owners of 9 different NBL teams to represent their interests as internal conflict arose regarding the financial relationship between them and the EBBA. Kevin Routledge, a director at Leicester Riders, claimed at the time that "there was a feeling about men's clubs that insufficient emphasis was being given to them, particularly recognising that in terms of spectator, sponsorship and media appeal they were very much top of the heap." The sentiment was echoed by Dave Elderkin, Manager of Sunderland 76ers, who noted that sponsorship revenue was divided between the EBBA's 650 member clubs, and though the Division 1 teams generated the most sponsorship they were only receiving a small fraction of the return; Sunderland were reportedly paid just £2,000 from central sponsorship earnings in 1986.

By April 1986, still unsatisfied by the relationship with the EBBA, a contingent of team owners set forth to organise a breakaway competition, dubbed the British Basketball League. The initiative was led by John Deacon, owner of Portsmouth, who had rallied support for the new league from fellow teams Bracknell Pirates, Crystal Palace, Edinburgh, Hemel Hempstead & Watford Royals, Kingston and Sunderland, with each team contributing a £5,000 entry fee. Not all teams were initially onboard with the new proposals however, as established names like Birmingham Bullets first rejected the move and opted to stay within the existing EBBA structure. The EBBA established a Committee of Inquiry to conduct a review and establish the terms of the handover, and a new organisation – the Basketball League Limited – was formed by the team owners to oversee the operations of the new competition.

The new organisation proposed commencing with a new 16-team league competition for the 1987–88 season, that would include the 13 existing teams of the NBL Division 1 along with two promoted teams from Division 2, plus Scottish champions Livingston and a possibility of future expansion into Scotland and Ireland. Some reports also suggested Wales-based Rhondda were approached as a potential addition. Additional proposals for the new league included prize money being awarded to competition winners, a new supplementary League Cup competition for member teams, and the removal of relegation between the new league and NBL Division 2 for the first two seasons, to encourage financial stability for its member teams; promotion would still be offered to the top two teams within Division 2, subject to financial and facility guarantees. Furthermore, all member teams within the Basketball League Limited would be equal shareholders of the new organisation and be eligible to compete in European competitions, whilst the EBBA would retain disciplinary powers, appointment of match officials and remain completely in control of other competitions, such as the National Cup.

Following the conclusion of the 1986–87 season, the EBBA signed a formal agreement with the Basketball League Limited, handing over full control and administration of the top national basketball competition to the new organisation. The agreement was signed at Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United, whose basketball team would feature in the newly formed league. Signing the agreement to establish the new league was Keith Mitchell OBE and Mel Welch, President and Secretary of the EBBA respectively, along with John Deacon, Chairman of the Basketball League Limited, and John Barr, Treasurer of the new organisation.

At official launch, the 16 confirmed teams to feature in the new league were announced as:

The new league faced challenges from the off-set when Rhondda – the league's only Wales-based team – folded in August 1987, just weeks before the start of the new season. The sudden loss of a major sponsor meant the team were unable to finance the upcoming campaign, where they would compete against teams with budgets of up to £250,000. London-based Brunel Crystal Palace also faced similar financial challenges during the off-season, searching for additional sponsors to cover their £100,000 outgoings. Despite these setbacks, the fledging organisation did achieve some immediate commercial success; a new 3-year sponsorship agreement with the Carlsberg Group saw the new competition branded as the Carlsberg Basketball League, along with additional naming-rights deals for the postseason playoffs and the Tournament of Champions, both of which were also sponsored by Carlsberg. The newly-established League Cup competition was branded as the NatWest Bank Trophy following a deal with National Westminster Bank.

The EBBA's player import rules – where teams were restricted to having two foreign "import" players plus one "naturalised" British player – were carried over to the new competition. A small complication arose as the league also featured Scotland-based Livingston, and the ruling meant that English players would count as foreign players for teams based in Scotland.

The first game of the new Carlsberg Basketball League and the 1987–88 season took place on 13 September 1987, when Scotland-based Livingston defeated Oldham Celtics, 98–81, at the Forum Arena in Livingston. The former Scottish National League team went on to have a very successful season overall. Whilst Portsmouth were successful in retaining their national champions title in the inaugural league championship – continuing their success from the previous National Basketball League – they were soundly defeated by Livingston in both the Playoff Final (81–72) and NatWest Bank Trophy Final (96–91).

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.

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.

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.

On 14 June 2024 British Basketball, the national governing body for basketball in the UK, terminated the league's licence, meaning that the UK men's professional league would no longer be run by the current operating company behind the BBL. British Basketball cited financial concerns as a principal driver of the decision, and promised that interim measures would be put in place to ensure that a 2024/25 season takes place.