09 October, 2018
05 May, 2019

Competition System


The Basketball Champions League 2018-19 season will involve 56 teams, including many national champions out of the 45 European countries that have been invited.

A total of 300 games will be played over the course of eight months of competition in this second season of the Basketball Champions League.

Games will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in order to safeguard national leagues’ schedules, and national team windows are integrated (and protected) in the calendar.

Thirty-two (32) teams will play in the Regular Season of the Basketball Champions League. Twenty six (26) of those teams will be directly qualified for the Regular Season (based on sporting criteria), and six (6) teams will be joining after the Qualification Rounds.

Qualification Rounds

The competition will start on 20 September 2018.

Six (6) teams will qualify for the Regular Season from the Qualification Rounds. 

The 30 teams involved will face each other in three elimination rounds played in a home-and-away format. 

According to the opt-out clause (see Article 4.3c and 16.1 of the Regulations). number of non-qualified teams will then participate in the FIBA Europe Cup.

Regular Season

The Regular Season will tip off on 9 October 2018 and conclude on 6 February 2019.

The 32 teams competing in the Regular Season will be divided into four (4) groups of eight (8) teams. Each team in the group will play all others home and away.

Play-Offs

Sixteen (16) teams advance to the Play-Offs phase, consisting of the Round of 16 and the Quarter-Finals. These will be the top four (4) teams from each group.

The 5th and 6th place finishers of each group will qualify for the FIBA Europe Cup Play-Offs. The 7th and 8th place finishers will be eliminated.

The Round of 16 will tip off on 5 March 2019 and conclude on 13 March 2019. The 16 teams will play home and away and the 8 winners will advance to the Quarter-Finals.

The Quarter-Finals will start on 26 March 2019 and conclude on 3 April 2019. The 8 teams will play home and away and the 4 winners will advance to the Final Four.

More details on the Play-Offs phase are available in the Article 18 of the Regulations

Final Four

The Final Four will take place on 3-5 May 2019. The location will be determined after completion of the Quarter-Finals.
The final event will be hosted in one of the four qualified club's arena.

More details on the Final Four are available in the Article 19 of the Regulations.