Expansion of Deadline for GBBL Granted by British Basketball Federation: Explanation Provided
The British Basketball Federation (BBF) has awarded a long-term licence to GBB League Ltd (GBBL), a new league backed by the Seattle-based WestRiver Group, in a deal worth £15.5 million. This investment marks the largest ever in the history of British professional basketball.
GBBL, led by former NBA executive Marshall Glickman, aims to launch a new league with at least 10 teams in the 2026-27 season and ambitions to expand to 14 teams, targeting cities including Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, and others.
However, the nine existing clubs organised under Super League Basketball (SLB) have rejected GBBL’s advances and refused to participate in its tender process. SLB has sued the BBF, alleging the tender process was illegal, while the BBF has counter-sued, accusing SLB of anti-competitive behavior and breaches of governance and FIBA regulations.
The BBF asserts it negotiated in good faith to offer SLB clubs opportunities to join GBBL but they declined. The dispute centers on governance and control of British professional basketball, with the BBF supporting GBBL’s candidate league and SLB resisting competition.
GBBL, after deadline extensions, met financial requirements by proving committed funding from WestRiver and is expected to announce additional investors soon. The revised deadline for GBBL to demonstrate its equity commitments was pushed back from the end of May to the end of July, in a move to ensure things were done correctly.
The BBF is reassuring sophisticated investors given the long-term history of false starts and recent history of conflict in British basketball. The Federation believes that it is more important to get these things right than to do them quickly.
The current status is that the legal and governance disputes between BBF/GBBL and SLB are ongoing with no confirmed teams yet for GBBL. This situation represents an escalating conflict over the future structure and control of professional basketball in Great Britain.
- Despite the legal and governance disputes, GBBL, led by former NBA executive Marshall Glickman, intends to launch a new sports league focusing on basketball, targeting cities like Leeds, Liverpool, and Birmingham, with aspirations to expand to 14 teams in the 2026-27 season, provided they can demonstrate sufficient technology-backed equity investments.
- The NBA, observing the escalating conflict over the future structure and control of professional basketball in Great Britain, may find the ongoing legal disputes between the British Basketball Federation (BBF) and Super League Basketball (SLB) a barrier to potential collaborations, given the associations' volatile history and the necessity for stability in sports investment.
