Founded | 5 June 2014 |
---|---|
First season | 2014–15 |
Folded | 2023–24 |
Replaced by | Super League Basketball |
Country | Great Britain |
Federation | British Basketball |
Confederation | FIBA Europe |
Number of teams | See more |
Level on pyramid | 1 |
Domestic cup(s) | WBBL Cup WBBL Trophy |
Related competitions | British Basketball League (men's counterpart) |
Last champions | London Lions (2nd title) |
Most championships | Sevenoaks Suns (3 titles) |
TV partners | BBC Sport |
Website | WBBL.org.uk |
The Women's British Basketball League (WBBL) was the top-level women's basketball league in Great Britain, founded on 5 June 2014 as the women's counterpart to the British Basketball League (BBL). The league's headquarters sat in Leicester alongside the offices of the men's BBL. It was replaced by Super League Basketball like the men’s competition.
Like the BBL, the organisation used a franchise-based system so there is no promotion and relegation between the WBBL and the English Women's Basketball League, which forms the lower divisions. Along with the WBBL Championship and the post-season Play-offs, it also ran two knockout competitions featuring all WBBL member teams - the WBBL Cup and WBBL Trophy.
Officially approved by the British Basketball League and England Basketball, the newly created Women's British Basketball League was announced to the public on 5 June 2014, and the 2014–15 season was the league's first full season of competition.
The initial line-up included pre-existing teams from England and Wales, competing in a franchise-based organisation similar to the men's British Basketball League model, with no promotion or relegation in operation with the lower leagues. [1] All eight teams from the pre-existing English Basketball League Division One (Women) competition were selected as member clubs, as well as the two finalists from the 2014 Division Two (Women) Play-offs, Brixton Lady TopCats and Leeds Beckett University. Since the league's inauguration, both Leeds and Brixton have resigned from the league, but three new clubs have joined in that time, including the league's first member club from Scotland. [2]
Team | Location | Arena | Founded | Joined | Head Coach |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Caledonia Gladiators | East Kilbride | Playsport Arena | 2016 | 2016 | Miguel Ángel Ortega Marco |
Cardiff Met Archers | Cardiff | Archers Arena | 2000 | 2014 | Stef Collins |
Durham Palatinates | Durham | Sports and Wellbeing Park | 2017 | 2017 | |
Essex Rebels | Colchester | Essex Sports Arena | 2018 | 2018 | Ashley Cookson |
Leicester Riders | Loughborough | Loughborough University | 2011 | 2014 | Ben Stanley |
London Lions | London (Stratford) | Copper Box Arena | 2008 | 2014 | Styliani Kaltsidou |
Manchester Giants | Manchester | National Basketball Centre | 2004 | 2014 | Marg Jones |
Newcastle Eagles | Newcastle upon Tyne | Vertu Motors Arena | 2005 | 2014 | Noelia Cacheiro |
Nottingham Wildcats | Nottingham | Nottingham Wildcats Arena | 1976 | 2014 | Karen Burton |
Oaklands Wolves | St Albans | Oaklands College | 2009 | 2016 | |
Sheffield Hatters | Sheffield | All Saints Sports Centre | 1961 | 2021 | Vanessa Ellis |
Team | Location | Arena | Joined | Left |
---|---|---|---|---|
Leeds Beckett University | Leeds | Carnegie Sports Arena | 2014 | 2015 |
Brixton Lady TopCats | London (Brixton) | Brixton Recreation Centre | 2014 | 2016 |
Gloucester City Queens | Gloucester | Oxstalls Arena | 2021 | 2022 |
Sevenoaks Suns | Sevenoaks (Guildford) | Surrey Sports Park | 2014 | 2023 |
The WBBL Championship is the flagship competition of the Women's British Basketball League and features all member teams playing a 22-game regular season (in a round robin format), from October through to April. Matches are played according to FIBA rules and games consist of four-quarters of 10 minutes each. Two points are awarded for a win, with overtime used if the score is tied at the final buzzer – unlimited numbers of 5-minute overtime periods are played until one team is ahead when a period ends. At the end of the regular season, the team with the most points is crowned as WBBL Champions. If points are equal between two or more teams then head-to-head results between said teams are used to determine the winners. In the case of a tie between multiple teams where this does not break the tie, the winners are then determined by the points difference in the games between said teams. [3] Following the completion of the Championship regular season, the top eight ranked teams advance into the post-season Play-offs which usually take place during April.
Season | Champions | Runners Up | Third Place |
---|---|---|---|
2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | Nottingham Wildcats | Team Northumbria |
2015-16 | Nottingham Wildcats (1) | Team Northumbria | Sheffield Hatters |
2016-17 | Nottingham Wildcats (2) | Leicester Riders | Sevenoaks Suns |
2017-18 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | Leicester Riders | Sheffield Hatters |
2018-19 | Sevenoaks Suns (2) | Leicester Riders | Sheffield Hatters |
2019-20 | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | ||
2020-21 | Sevenoaks Suns (3) | Leicester Riders | London Lions |
2021-22 | London Lions (1) | Sevenoaks Suns | Sheffield Hatters |
2022-23 | London Lions (2) | Caledonia Gladiators | Leicester Riders |
The post-season Playoffs usually takes place in April, featuring the top eight ranked teams from the WBBL Championship regular season compete in a knockout tournament. Teams are seeded depending on their final positioning in the Championship standings, so first-place faces eighth-place, second versus seventh-place, third against sixth-place and finally fourth plays the fifth-placed team. Both the Quarter-finals and the succeeding Semi-finals are played over a two-game series (home & away) with the higher seed having choice of home advantage in the either the 1st or 2nd leg – an aggregated score over the two games will determine which team will advance to the next stage. As with the Quarter-finals, teams in the Semi-finals are also seeded, with the highest-ranking team drawn against the lowest-ranking team in one Semi-final and the two remaining teams drawn together in the other Semi-final. The culmination of the post-season is the grand Final, a one-off game played at the end of April, where the winners will be crowned as Play-off Champions. [4]
Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 84 - 69 | Nottingham Wildcats | Worcester Arena, Worcester |
2015-16 | Team Northumbria (1) | 75 - 68 | Nottingham Wildcats | The O2 Arena, London |
2016-17 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | 70 - 61 | Nottingham Wildcats | The O2 Arena, London |
2017-18 | Sevenoaks Suns (2) | 69 - 44 | Leicester Riders | The O2 Arena, London |
2018-19 | Sevenoaks Suns (3) | 60 - 55 | Leicester Riders | The O2 Arena, London |
2019-20 | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||
2020-21 | London Lions (1) | 93 - 71 | Newcastle Eagles | Morningside Arena, Leicester |
2021-22 | London Lions (2) | 70 - 45 | Sevenoaks Suns | The O2 Arena, London |
2022-23 | London Lions (3) | 57 - 41 | Leicester Riders | The O2 Arena, London |
The WBBL Trophy, now officially the Betty Codona Trophy, is an annual pool stage and knockout tournament featuring all WBBL member clubs.
For the first two seasons, pairings were drawn completely at random – there were no seeds, and a draw took place after the majority of fixtures have been played in each round. A preliminary round took place between the lowest-finishing teams in the previous league season, so that the tournament proper started with eight teams in the first round.
From the 2016-17 season, the format was revamped, splitting the teams into a number of geographical groups. The top teams from each group qualify for the semi-finals, which are played as straight knockout ties.
Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 76 - 62 | Nottingham Wildcats | Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham |
2015-16 | Sheffield Hatters (2) | 79 - 45 | Barking Abbey Crusaders | Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham |
2016-17 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | 82 - 67 | Leicester Riders | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
2017-18 | Leicester Riders (1) | 68 - 53 | Sevenoaks Suns | Cheshire Oaks Arena, Ellesmere Port |
2018-19 | Leicester Riders (2) | 76 - 74 | Durham Palatinates | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
2019-20 | Leicester Riders (3) | 70 - 66 | Durham Palatinates | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
2020-21 | London Lions (1) | 96 - 64 | Nottingham Wildcats | Worcester Arena, Worcester |
2021-22 | London Lions (2) | 72 - 36 | Sevenoaks Suns | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
2022-23 | London Lions (3) | 81 - 70 | Leicester Riders | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
2023-24 | London Lions (4) | 83 - 67 | Essex Rebels | Utilita Arena , Birmingham |
The WBBL Cup is an annual knockout competition featuring all WBBL member clubs. It is a straight knockout competition.
Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
2016-17 | Manchester Mystics (1) | 71 - 60 | Nottingham Wildcats | Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham |
2017-18 | Nottingham Wildcats (1) | 70 - 66 | Caledonia Pride | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
2018-19 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 62 - 60 | Sevenoaks Suns | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
2019-20 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | 74 - 64 | Durham Palatinates | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
2020-21 | Leicester Riders (1) | 78 - 67 | Sevenoaks Suns | National Basketball Centre, Manchester |
2021-22 | London Lions (1) | 87 - 47 | Newcastle Eagles | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
2022-23 | London Lions (2) | 95 - 42 | Leicester Riders | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
2023-24 |
The Betty Codona Classic was an annual three-day tournament named in honour of Betty Codona OBE, a stalwart of women's basketball in Britain for over 50 years and founder of the country's first women's team, Sheffield Hatters. [5] The competition was originally set up as an independent event for the top clubs in Women's basketball and predates the creation of the WBBL by a year, but was adopted as an official WBBL competition after the league was established. [6]
The original format featured the top eight-placed WBBL teams after the first 8 games of regular season play. [7] For the 2016/2017 edition, the competition was moved to become the opening event for the WBBL season, resulting in a two-tiered format where the Classic Cup was contested by the top four from the previous season's league, with fifth to eighth placed teams from last year's league competing for the Classic Plate.
Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013-14 | Nottingham Wildcats (1) | 69 - 43 | Loughborough Riders | Nottingham Wildcats Arena |
2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 79 - 73 | Nottingham Wildcats | All Saints Sports Centre, Sheffield |
2015-16 | Nottingham Wildcats (2) | 89 - 81 | Sheffield Hatters | All Saints Sports Centre, Sheffield |
2016-17 | Nottingham Wildcats (3) | 86 - 59 | Sheffield Hatters | Nottingham Wildcats Arena |
The WBBL concludes each season with a number of individual awards based on overall performance from the year. [8] The three end-of-season awards are; MVP Award (Most Valuable Player - which proposes the player with the best performance over the year); the Young Player of the Year (the best performance of a younger player usually at the age before or during university); and Coach of the Year (the coach with the best performance over the season). The WBBL also awards MVP Awards for the Playoffs, Trophy and Cup finals. In addition, 'Team of the Year' and 'Defensive Team of the Year' places are awarded to demonstrate the best five players in the league as well as the best five defensively players of the year in the league.
Season | Most Valuable Player | Young Player of the Year | Coach of the Season |
---|---|---|---|
2014-15 | Steph Gandy (Sheffield Hatters) | Savannah Wilkinson (Barking Abbey Crusaders) | Vanessa Ellis (Sheffield Hatters) |
2015-16 | Amber Stokes (Nottingham Wildcats) | Georgia Gayle (Sheffield Hatters) | Dave Greenaway (Nottingham Wildcats) |
2016-17 | Ashley Harris (Nottingham Wildcats) | Gabby Nikitinaite (Sevenoaks Suns) | Len Busch (Sevenoaks Suns) |
2017-18 | Cat Carr (Sevenoaks Suns) | Holly Winterburn (Leicester Riders) | Len Busch (2) (Sevenoaks Suns) |
2018-19 | Sarah Toeiana (Sheffield Hatters) | Holly Winterburn (2) (Leicester Riders) | Len Busch (3) (Sevenoaks Suns) |
2019-20 | Not awarded due to Covid-19 | Not awarded due to Covid-19 | Not awarded due to Covid-19 |
2020-21 | Cat Carr (2) (Sevenoaks Suns) | Holly Winterburn (3) (Leicester Riders) | Len Busch (4) (Sevenoaks Suns) |
The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The organisation that operated the competition, Basketball League Limited, folded in July 2024 after the British Basketball Federation terminated its operating license. It was succeeded as the top-level men's basketball competition with Super League Basketball.
The Newcastle Eagles are a professional basketball club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in Super League Basketball, the top-tier professional basketball league in Britain for men and women, and the European North Basketball League. They are the most successful club in the history of British men's professional basketball, with 27 British professional titles and 3 English titles as of 2024.
Leicester Riders are a British professional basketball team and the oldest club in the British Basketball League (BBL). Riders compete in the Super League Basketball (SLB). Established in 1967, the club have played in various locations around Leicestershire before moving to their current purpose-built home venue, the Mattioli Arena, in 2016.
The National Basketball League, or NBL for short, is a league competition representing semi-professional and amateur basketball clubs from England and Wales. It forms levels 2 to 5 on the British basketball pyramid, in line with the Scottish Basketball Championship, sitting directly below the top tier competition, Super League Basketball.
The British Basketball League Trophy, often shortened to the BBL Trophy, is an annual cup competition for the British Basketball League (BBL). It is the unique of peripheral competitions operated by the League during the regular season, The competition's structure and format vary from season to season and, unlike the BBL Cup, often includes invited clubs from the English Basketball League and the Scottish Basketball League, and representatives from Basketball Wales, a novelty in BBL events which gives the competition much of its character.
The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League. For most of the competition's history, the draw has featured the elite of English basketball, but teams from the British Basketball League currently do not compete in the National Cup, as they compete in their own separate competition, the BBL Cup.
The Essex & Herts Leopards were an English semi-professional basketball club, based in Brentwood, Essex and St Albans, Hertfordshire. The Leopards competed in Division 1 of the English Basketball League. The team was established in 1997 as Ware Fire, but following the demise and eventual closure of the former British Basketball League franchise Essex Leopards in 2003, a supporters group known as 'Leopards Alive' merged with the Ware-based club and rebranded the team as Essex & Herts Leopards in 2004.
Leeds Force were an English professional basketball team based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The Force played in the British Basketball League, the top flight of British basketball. They played their home games at the Carnegie Sports Arena, located on the Headingley Campus of Leeds Beckett University. The club announced its dissolution on 11 June 2018.
The Big Bash League(BBL) also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is an Australian men's professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash League replaced the previous competition, the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash, and features eight city-based franchises instead of the six state teams which had participated previously. The competition has been sponsored by fast food-chicken outlet KFC since its inception. It was in 2016/17 one of the two T20 cricket leagues, alongside the Indian Premier League, to feature amongst the top ten domestic sport leagues in average attendance. The winner of BBL 13 (2023/2024) was the Brisbane Heat, who beat the Sydney Sixers by 54 runs in the final.
The 2013–14 BBL season was the 27th campaign of the British Basketball League since the league's establishment in 1987. The season featured 12 teams from across England and Scotland, including new entrant Birmingham Knights. East London Royals and Essex Leopards were both due to become the 13th and 14th League members respectively, but after deferring their original entries from the 2012–13 season for a season, both franchises withdrew their applications to join the BBL due to financial constraints.
The Sheffield Hatters are a women's basketball club from Sheffield, England. The club have been mainstays of the women's game in England for many years, having celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2011, and were founder members of the professional Women's British Basketball League, which launched in 2014. They currently play in the new competition, launching in 2024 called Super League Basketball which is the new top competition for women’s basketball in Great Britain.
The 2014–15 BBL season was the 28th campaign of the British Basketball League since the league's establishment in 1987. The season featured 13 teams from across England and Scotland, including new entrants, Bristol Flyers and Leeds Force. The season started on 26 September 2014 and ended on 10 May 2015 with the Play-off Final at The O2 Arena.
The British Basketball League Championship, often shortened to the BBL Championship, is the top-level men's professional basketball league in the United Kingdom. Established in 1987, the competition is administered by the British Basketball League and comprises 10 teams from both England and Scotland. Each team plays a 36-game regular season, from September until April, with the team that finishes in first place being crowned as League champions.
The Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) also known as Weber WBBL for sponsorship reasons, is the Australian professional Women's Twenty20 Cricket league. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 season through to 2014–15. The competition features eight city-based franchises, branded identically to the men's Big Bash League (BBL). Teams are made up of current and former Australian national team members, the country's best young talent, and up to three overseas marquee players.
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The 2022–23 WBBL season was the ninth season of the Women's British Basketball League, the top British women's professional basketball league, since its establishment in 2014. The season features 12 teams from across England, Scotland and Wales.
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