European Women's Basketball League

The European Women's Basketball League, shortly EWBL, formerly known as Eastern European Women's Basketball League or EEWBL, is a top-level professional regional basketball league, featuring female clubs from EWBL members (Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Turkey).[1][2]

European Women's Basketball League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2022–23 European Women's Basketball League
SportBasketball
Founded2015
First season2015–16
No. of teams16
CountryEWBL members
Most titlesSlovakia Good Angels Košice, Latvia TTT Riga
(2 title)
Level on pyramid1
Official websiteewbl.eu

History

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The competition was founded in 2015 under the name Eastern European Women's Basketball League (EEWBL), as a women's regional tournament for Eastern European countries.[3][4] As the competition expanded to countries outside Eastern Europe,[5][6][7][8] it was re-named European Women's Basketball League (EWBL) ahead of the 2018–19 season.[9]

Expansion

Since the inaugural season, the league have the following changes to the number of teams and the countries participating.[9]

  • 2015–16 - 8 teams from 6 countries (Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland).
  • 2016–17 - 12 teams from 9 countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Turkey).
  • 2017–18 - 16 teams from 10 countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey).
  • 2018–19 - 16 teams from 10 countries (Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia and Sweden).

Format

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The league has a regular season followed by a final four. The regular season is divided in three stages, each stage is played at a different location and each team play more than one opponent per stage. That reduces the clubs financial travel and accommodation costs for clubs (compared to traditional home and away league format). The best teams of the regular season qualify for the final four stage.[10]

Summary

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Year Host Final Bronze final
Winner Score Runner-up Third place Score Fourth place
2015–16
Details[11]
 
Riga
 
TTT Riga
81–67  
Lotos Gdynia
 
Astana Tigers
58–54  
Tsmoki-Minsk
2016–17
Details[12]
 
Košice
 
Good Angels Košice
67–44  
TTT Riga
 
Dynamo Moscow
88–69  
Lotos Gdynia
2017–18
Details[13]
 
Riga
 
Good Angels Košice
74–71  
TTT Riga
 
Dynamo Moscow
76–62  
Udominate Basket
2018–19
Details[14]
 
Rostov on Don
 
TTT Riga
73–63  
Tsmoki-Minsk
 
Rostov Don
74–65  
Zabiny Brno
2019–20
Details
Curtailed and voided due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020–21
Details
 
Minsk
 
Horizont Minsk
70–60  
Nika Syktyvkar
  TTT Riga and   Prometey
2021–22
Details
 
Piešťany
 
Žabiny Brno
57–51  
Piešťanské Čajky
 
Kibirkštis Vilnius
87–69  
SBŠ Ostrava
2022–23
Details
 
Warsaw
 
Levhartice Chomutov
77–73  
BC Neptunas Klaipeda
 
SKK Polonia Warsaw
100–53  
BC Frankivsk-Prykarpattya

List of champions

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Team Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
  TTT Riga
2
2
2016, 2019 2017, 2018
  Good Angels Košice
2
2017, 2018
  Horizont Minsk
1
2021
  Žabiny Brno
1
2022
  Levhartice Chomutov
1
2023
  Lotos Gdynia
1
2016
  BC Tsmoki-Minsk
1
2019
  Nika Syktyvkar
1
2021
  Piešťanské Čajky
1
2022
  BC Neptunas Klaipeda
1
2023

MVP by edition

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References

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  1. ^ "Season 2019: five new teams in, classification games out". EWBL. 8 August 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  2. ^ "Liga basketbalistek bude mít jen jedenáct týmů a nové logo". iDNES (in Czech). 26 September 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Eastern European Women's Basketball League". Sportowe Fakty (in Polish). Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  4. ^ Punčochář, Jiří (9 January 2018). "Žabiny si otestovaly Východoevropskou ligu. Chtějí ji hrát stabilně". iDNES (in Czech). Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  5. ^ "KEUS/Royal Eagles begint aan Europees avontuur in EEWBL". Dutch Basketball Association (NBB) (in Dutch). 22 September 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  6. ^ "Boiago Signs First Professional Contract in the EEWBL". OUA. 29 June 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Webbsändning av Luleå Baskets matcher i EEWBL". Basketligan dam (in Swedish). 22 September 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  8. ^ "Basketbal:EEWBL: Good Angels úspešné aj proti Lulea Basket". Šport.sk (in Slovak). 2 December 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  9. ^ a b "EEWBL changes name to European Women's basketball league". EWBL. 1 June 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  10. ^ a b c "About EWBL". EWBL. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  11. ^ "Undefeated TTT win first crown, Kristen Mann is MVP". EWBL. 17 April 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  12. ^ "Good Angels triumph in Košice". EWBL. 2 April 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  13. ^ a b "Good Angels shock TTT with buzzer-beater by Darxia Morris". EWBL. 18 March 2018. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  14. ^ "Good Angels shock TTT with buzzer-beater by Darxia Morris". EWBL. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Champions and winners 2016". EWBL. 19 April 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  16. ^ "Champions and winners 2017". EWBL. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
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