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FIBA Intercontinental Cup Information
In this Basketball preview blog, we are going to focus on the FIBA Intercontinental Cup tournament, which takes place each year.
The league features 6 of the best teams from around the world who compete to claim the tag as the best club team in the world!
Established in 1965, the tournament has been known as the Intercontinental Cup since 2013 and underwent an expansion in 2023.
Below, we are going to look at the upcoming tournament, look back at past champions and look at betting odds to enhance your betting experience with the Intercontinental Cup.
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2025 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Preview
Who won the Intercontinental Cup?
Spanish side Unicaja are the reigning champions have defeated NBA G League United 75-60 in the 2024 final in Singapore.
When is the Intercontinental Cup?
The 2025 Intercontinental Cup will take place in September, with it starting on the 18th and running through to the final on the 21st and will for a third year running be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Who are the favourites to win the Intercontinental Cup?
You can expect the bookies to have the reigning champions, Unicaja, as favourites to retain their title, although NBA G League United will be looking for revenge.
Who will win the Intercontinental Cup?
Head over to the OLBG Basketball Tips to see who they are tipping to win, not only the outright winner but also matches throughout the tournament.
Additionally, if you only want to view the tips from the top tipsters, those who have shown a profit on basketball over the past year, then head over to the Best Basketball Tipsters page.
What is the Intercontinental Cup Format?
The six teams competing will be split into two groups of three. Each team will face the other two teams in their group, with the teams finishing 1st advancing to the final.
The teams finishing in 2nd go into the third-place game, whilst the teams finishing in 3rd head to a fifth-place game. The Final and place-deciding games are one-off matches.
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2025 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Groups
Here are the two groups for the 2025 FIBA ICC tournament and the fixtures for the group stages.
FIBA ICC Group A
| Team | Qualification | Best Result |
|---|---|---|
| Al Ahli Tripoli | BAL season | Debut |
| Unicaja | Basketball Champions League | Winners (2024) |
| Utsunomiya Brex | Basketball Champions League Asia | Debut |
- 18th Sept: Al Ahli Tripoli vs Unicaja
- 19th Sept: Utsunomiya Brex vs Unicaja
- 20th Sept: Al Ahli Tripoli vs Utsunomiya Brex
FIBA ICC Group B
| Team | Qualification | Best Result |
|---|---|---|
| Flamengo | Basketball Champions League Americas | Debut |
| Illawarra Hawks | NBL season | Winners (2014 & 2022) |
| NBA G League United | NBA G League | Runners-Up (2024) |
- 18th Sept: NBA G League United vs Flamengo
- 19th Sept: Illawarra Hawks vs Flamengo
- 20th Sept: NBA G League United vs Illawarra Hawks
How often do Favourites win in the Intercontinental Cup?
Here is how the favourites have performed each year. Games have varied over the years, and with the expansion in 2023, we now get nine games each year.
As you can see, over the last ten tournaments, favourites have won 79.49% of games, and last season won all bar one game, meaning underdog backers may struggle!
| Year | Favourites | Winners | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2 | 1 | 50.00% |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 1 | 1 | 100.00% |
| 2019 | 4 | 4 | 100.00% |
| 2020 | 4 | 4 | 100.00% |
| 2021 | 1 | 1 | 100.00% |
| 2022 | 4 | 2 | 50.00% |
| 2022-23 | 4 | 4 | 100.00% |
| 2023 | 9 | 6 | 66.67% |
| 2024 | 9 | 8 | 88.89% |
| Total | 39 | 31 | 79.49% |
Intercontinental Cup League Past Winners
Only six teams have won this tournament more than once: Real Madrid leads the way with five wins, although their last success came in 2015. Another Spanish club is Canarias, which has won this three times and more recently than Madrid, with all three coming since 2017.
Both Akron Wingfoots (1967, 1968 & 1969) and Varese (1966, 1970 & 1973) have three wins apiece, but as you can see, those came a long time ago. The only other multiple winners are Cantù (1975 & 1982) and, more recently, Flamengo (2014 & 2022).
| Season | Champions | Score | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Unicaja | 75–60 | NBA G League United |
| 2023 (II) | Franca | 70–69 | Baskets Bonn |
| 2023 (I) | Canarias | 89–68 | São Paulo |
| 2022 | Flamengo | 75–62 | San Pablo Burgos |
| 2021 | San Pablo Burgos | 82–73 | Quimsa |
| 2020 | Canarias | 80–72 | Virtus Bologna |
| 2019 | AEK | 86–70 | Flamengo |
| 2017 | Canarias | 76–71 | Guaros de Lara |
| 2016 | Guaros de Lara | 74–69 | Skyliners Frankfurt |
| 2015 | Real Madrid | 91–79 | Bauru |
Intercontinental Cup Winners by Country
Spanish teams have been the most successful in this tournament, which is no surprise given that we have already highlighted that Real Madrid are 5x winners and Canarias are 3x winners. The other three have come from FC Barcelona, San Pablo Burgos and Unicaja Málaga.
Second on the list and four behind Spain are Italian clubs with seven wins, three of those from Varese, two from Cantù and then each of Virtus Roma and Olimpia Milano has one win apiece.
| Rank | Club | Winners | Runners-Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Spain | 11 | 4 |
| 2nd | Italy | 7 | 6 |
| 3rd | Brazil | 4 | 10 |
| 4th | USA | 4 | 1 |
| 5th | Greece | 3 | 0 |
Author Information
Andy Powell manages this FIBA Intercontinental Cup 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.
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