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2027 Basketball Champions League Preview
The Basketball Champions League, also known as the FIBA Champions League or the abbreviated BCL, was established in 2016 with the Spanish team Tenerife winning the inaugural tournament.
It is the Basketball equivalent of the UEFA Champions League, where the top teams in Europe compete to see who is the best.
Spanish Dominance
24 teams that did not automatically get into the competition compete in the qualification rounds, of which only three will make it through to the main tournament, which is made up of a total of 32 teams.
The 2026-27 tournament proper will start around October time with Lithuanian side Rytas looking to make it back-to-back wins, having won their maiden title in 2026.
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How often do Favourites win in the Champions League?
The last three seasons have been somewhat bumper years for favourites, with all of them exceeding a win rate of over 70% overall. It was 72% in 2023-24, 73% in 2024-25 and then 72% in 2025-26; none of the previous three seasons managed that.
The 2023-24 season saw the largest number of favourites winning at home with 108 winning and only 34 losing, a 77% win rate, whilst on the road, last season is the only one of the last five to see a win rate of over 74%.
| Season | Home (W-L) | Road (W-L) | Overall (W-L) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 92-49 (65.25%) | 33-20 (62.26%) | 125-69 (64.43%) |
| 2022-23 | 93-48 (65.96%) | 39-19 (67.24%) | 132-67 (66.33%) |
| 2023-24 | 108-32 (77.14%) | 37-24 (60.66%) | 145-56 (72.14%) |
| 2024-25 | 98-35 (73.68%) | 46-18 (71.88%) | 144-53 (73.10%) |
| 2025-26 | 95-40 (70.37%) | 46-16 (74.19%) | 141-56 (71.57%) |
| Totals | 486-204 (70.43%) | 201-97 (67.45%) | 687-301 (69.53%) |
How many Points are scored in the Champions League?
Below is a table highlighting the Champions League games over the last five seasons and how many points both the hosts and visitors averaged during those seasons, as well as the game average.
The figures don't tend to differ a great deal from season to season; the game average over the last five seasons is 160.2, with each season seemingly taking a slight increase across most areas.
| Season | Total Games | Home Ave | Road Ave | Game Ave |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 195 | 79.5 | 77.4 | 156.9 |
| 2022-23 | 199 | 79.6 | 77.7 | 157.3 |
| 2023-24 | 201 | 82.7 | 78.0 | 160.7 |
| 2024-25 | 197 | 82.5 | 79.3 | 161.8 |
| 2025-26 | 197 | 83.5 | 80.8 | 164.3 |
| Totals | 989 | 81.6 | 78.6 | 160.2 |
Basketball Champions League Past Winners
Only three teams have won this tournament more than once: Tenerife, who won the first-ever tournament in 2016-17, also went on to win in 2021-22; they have made three finals in total, having been losing finalists in 2018-19.
San Pablo Burgos and Unicaja Malaga both achieved something that Tenerife didn't, and that was to win back-to-back championships, San Pablo Burgos doing so in 2020 & 2021, whilst Unicaja Malaga did it in 2024 & 2025.
| Season | Winners | Score | Runners-Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | Rytas Vilnius | 92 - 86 | AEK |
| 2024-25 | Unicaja Malaga | 83 - 67 | Galatasaray |
| 2023-24 | Unicaja Malaga | 80 - 75 | Lenovo Tenerife |
| 2022-23 | Baskets Bonn | 77 - 70 | Hapoel Jerusalem |
| 2021-22 | Canarias | 98 - 87 | Manresa |
| 2020-21 | San Pablo Burgos | 64 - 59 | KarΕΔ±yaka |
| 2019-20 | San Pablo Burgos | 85 - 74 | AEK |
| 2018-19 | Virtus | 73 - 61 | Canarias |
| 2017-18 | AEK | 100 - 94 | Monaco |
| 2016-17 | Canarias | 63 - 59 | Banvit |
BCL Winners by Country
Those three teams already mentioned for multiple wins are all Spanish, and with Unicaja Malaga's success in 2024-25, it means six of the nine tournaments have been won by Spanish teams; they also make up three runners-up and four third-placed teams.
That makes the Spanish by far the most successful supplier in this tournament with thirteen 'medal' wins, the next most medals are Greece, Turkey and France with three medals, although only Greece out of those have tasted success with gold.
| Rank | Club | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Spain | 6 | 3 | 5 | 14 |
| 2nd | Greece | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 3rd | Germany | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 4th | Italy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Lithuania | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5th | Turkey | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 6th | France | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 7th | Israel | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8th | Belgium | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Author Information
Andy Powell manages this Basketball Champions League Preview and other basketball content in this section of the site, as well as the Basketball Tipsters in the OLBG tipster competition, in his role in the OLBG Expert Team. Andy meticulously updates the data and results for these pieces. You can get Basketball betting advice in our bookmaker reviews as well as in our Best Basketball Betting Sites Guide.
**Statistics included in this blog include all matches (Qualification, Group & Playoffs) from the start of the 2021-22 season to the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. The home and away teams are decided by the matchup.
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