History
European Basketball Leagues
European Basketball Leagues traces its origins to 25 June 1991, when the professional leagues of Italy, France, and Spain founded the Union des Ligues Européennes de Basket-Ball (ULEB) in Rome. Early collaborative initiatives included joint All-Star Weekends in Madrid (1992), Rome (1993), and Valencia (1994), showcasing top players from the founding leagues and the French League, which soon joined the event.
The organization grew steadily during the 1990s. The Greek League became the fourth member in 1996, followed by the British, Belgian, and Swiss leagues in December 1999. A landmark moment in European basketball occurred on 9 June 2000 in Sitges, when ULEB and Europe’s leading clubs decided to create and manage a new top-tier continental competition: the Euroleague, whose inaugural game took place on 16 October 2000 in Madrid.
In the years that followed, membership continued to expand. The leagues of Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland joined in 2001, and in 2002 ULEB created the ULEB Cup, a second-tier European competition. ULEB managed both the Euroleague and ULEB Cup until 2009, when ownership of the competitions was transferred to Euroleague Commercial Assets (ECA), a company majority-owned by 11 major European clubs.
Further additions included the Lithuanian League in 2003 and the Israeli League in 2005. In 2014, the VTB United League became the newest member, succeeding the PBL (admitted in 2011). Over the years, other leagues—including Portugal, the Adriatic League, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic—were members but later departed for various structural or organizational reasons.
In 2022, ULEB welcomed two additional members: Swiss Basketball (SBL) and Korisliiga (Finland), strengthening the organization’s northern and central European representation.
On 3 December 2025, during the General Assembly held in Brussels, the organization reached a historic milestone: the formal approval of its name change from ULEB to European Basketball Leagues. During the same meeting, members also approved the admission of Basketligaen (Denmark) — which will become the newest addition to the organization’s network.
Today, European Basketball Leagues represents 13 professional basketball leagues across Europe and acts as a minority shareholder of both ECA (via its wholly owned entity Euroleague Basketball SL) and Basketball Champions League SA.
The organization is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, under the presidency of Tomas Van Den Spiegel.