The EuroLeague and IMG, a sports and media company that serves as the league’s business partner, have agreed to extend their working relationship for another 10 years, top executives from the companies told The Athletic. The new deal should keep the EuroLeague’s 13 permanent members together and tied to the league through the 2035-36 season.
The EuroLeague, a conglomeration of the top basketball clubs in Europe, is widely seen as the second-best basketball competition in the world after the NBA. It has faced a period of uncertainty lately as the licenses for those 13 clubs — like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Olimpia Milano and others — were set to run out after next season. Those teams would have been free to leave if they had not re-signed, a possibility that became more acute with talk that the NBA may launch its own competition in Europe.
“Everybody is staying together,” EuroLeague CEO Paulius Motiejunas said. “And we continue to think of how we can grow the league even more.”
The new agreement comes amid talk that the NBA could soon start its own league in Europe, not only giving the EuroLeague a direct competitor on the continent but raising the potential that the NBA could pull in existing European clubs into its new league. Instead, the EuroLeague is renewing its contract with IMG and is using it to project strength for what lies ahead.
There are a lot of questions about what it could mean in the future for both leagues. Here we’ll answer some.
The EuroLeague is a 18-team club competition made up of the continent’s top teams. It is akin to the Champions League in European soccer. The teams play in their domestic leagues and they play each other twice each season, with top finishers advancing to a playoff. The 18 teams are comprised of 13 permanent members who play in the EuroLeague under an ‘A’ license, and five at-large teams that earn their way in and may not always be the same each season.
IMG is a global company that effectively serves as EuroLeague’s business arm. It sources and facilitates sponsorships, media rights fees and other commercial deals for the league.
The current deal between the EuroLeague and IMG is set to expire after the 2025-26 season. That is also when the league’s licenses with its 13 permanent members are set to expire, which would have allowed them to leave the EuroLeague. The teams are also expected to renew their licenses through 2036 as well.
There has also been some internal tumult in recent years. Motiejunas was hired as CEO in 2023. The EuroLeague has sought new ways to increase revenue and had to deal with the possible entry of the NBA into its market amid speculation that some teams might jump.
“It’s stability,” Motiejunas said. “It’s good to know that you have somebody behind your back and working hand-in-hand to help you grow the product. And obviously, in these turbulent times, keeping everybody together. It’s a really important thing.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said the league is “intensively” exploring the possibility of launching a new competition in Europe, though he has not laid out much detail aside from that.
The NBA’s decision whether to start its own European project has weighed on basketball figures on the continent. There has been much discussion about what the NBA would do and how it would do it. One prominent theory among some European team owners and others who have monitored the league is that it could launch a league with existing European teams and new expansion teams. A league source told The Athletic in September the NBA might take investment from the Gulf states.
There is no timeline for when the NBA could announce its finalized plans. One interesting note: The San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers will play two games in Paris later this month, and Silver first announced his intentions there in August during the Olympics.
The NBA has been working with FIBA on what the league could look like. Andreas Zagklis, the secretary general for FIBA, said in December that “the next month will show where we are headed in this matter.”
If the NBA does try to pull in current European teams, the EuroLeague’s deal with IMG should wall-off the most prominent teams on the continent and keep them out of the NBA’s European project if it does not involve the EuroLeague. The new contract contains opt-out clauses for teams. Montejiunas, as well as IMG president Adam Kelly, declined to give specifics on what they are. Kelly said they are not tied to revenue goals, unlike the current deal.
“If we’re not delivering for you, then we’re never going to hold people to unfair contracts,” Kelly said. “Where we collaborate effectively is where we continue to demonstrate the value that we deliver. And, you know, if you have a contract that runs until the end of the century, but the two sides are completely misaligned and not performing, then you know the contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”
Motiejunas believes the EuroLeague is in a better position to deal with whatever might be coming.
“Clearly, we are stronger, because we know what the future holds on our side,” he said.
He added, “We are stronger because we’re sticking together and having a strong partner by our side. Like I mentioned, and not commenting because of the rumors, we know there’s something out there. We don’t know what is out there, but we know, and we understand that we have the strongest European league. We have one of the strongest partners in the world to work on the media side. So we have many cards in our hands to see that the league continues to grow and we still continue to be the best. What the NBA will do, let’s see what they will announce, if they announce something and we go from there.”
Motiejunas does not see the NBA as a threat, but said he is ready to talk again with the NBA too. Kelly cautioned that standing up a new league in Europe won’t be easy. The EuroLeague would obviously be a competitor, but he said there is difficulty inherent to the continent.
“The entry of new leagues, entry of new sports into particularly the European market, you saw the challenge that football had in trying to launch the Super League,” Kelly said. “Fans are very particular when it comes to sport in Europe, and the established brands really hold an enormous amount of strength and power. And when it comes to European basketball, those brands all exist within EuroLeague… The NBA will face significant challenges if they try to enter into this region. So it’s very, very hard to build with the best product; we’ve demonstrated that growth over the past, you know, eight, nine years in particular. But the NBA, you know, in sort of trying to expand into the European region, will face challenges. But when it comes to our growth, certainly, we believe there’s headroom [to grow].”
This deal should keep the league’s core teams together for the foreseeable future. The A-license clubs, which gain automatic entry into the competition every season, are now under contract for 11 more years. There are also five teams each season that earn their way into the EuroLeague. Motiejunas did not rule out adding more teams either.
The executives believe it should allow the EuroLeague to continue to increase revenue. That has been a sticking point for some member teams. The economics of European basketball are hardly as rich as American sports or European soccer. Some, maybe most, top European basketball teams lose money. They and the league itself have been looking for new ways to make more of it.
The EuroLeague has worked with IMG to facilitate media rights fees, sponsorships and events revenue since 2016. Kelly says revenue has increased five-fold since their relationship began. The league will hold its final four in Abu Dhabi next year for the first time, and Kelly said it intends to talk to the tech companies with streaming networks about a distribution deal.
“So all of these organizations realize the power of sport when it comes to Europe, when it comes to basketball, EuroLeague is the best of the best,” he said.
(Photo: Aaron M. Sprecher / Getty Images)
