EuroLeague 2025/2026: the season in which European basketball expanded the map and hit the accelerator

When the EuroLeague opened on September 30, 2025, with 20 clubs and a 38-round calendar, it was clear there was no longer any room for a slow start to the season. This is the first year of the expanded format and the first without the old Turkish Airlines sponsorship title in the competition’s name, but on the court everything remained that makes the EuroLeague still the toughest club league outside the NBA: relentless travel, road games on the edge of deafening noise, and teams punished for one bad night, not for one bad month. By April 7, 2026, the regular season has still not been completed, but the picture has already sharpened enough to see who is charging toward the playoffs and who has remained trapped between one great win and too many missed nights. At the top are Olympiacos and Fenerbahce with records of 23-12, right behind them Real Madrid and Valencia at 22-13, and in the zone that leads directly to the quarterfinals are also Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv and Žalgiris. Behind them, Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Crvena zvezda and Monaco are already bunching together, teams that today would be playing in the play-in and within a few days could go from dreams of the Final Four to the summer collapse of analysis. Below the line are still Maccabi, Dubai and Milano, close enough that every night changes the arrangement of nerves across the entire standings.

What the format looks like when the league grows to 20 clubs

For the 2025/2026 season, the EuroLeague switched to a double round-robin system with 20 participants, which means everyone plays everyone else at home and away, for a total of 38 games in the regular season. The top six teams go directly to the playoffs. Clubs placed 7th through 10th enter the play-in: the seventh and eighth teams play one game for passage to the quarterfinals, the ninth and tenth teams play an elimination game, and the winner of that matchup then faces the loser of the 7-8 clash for the final ticket among the last eight. The quarterfinals are played in a best-of-five format, and the finish is once again the Final Four, only without the third-place game. The semifinals are scheduled for May 22, and the final for May 24, 2026. That kind of schedule forgives neither the rich nor the clever. In the old rhythm of 34 rounds, a bad week or two could be survived. In the new rhythm, with 38 games, additional travel and double rounds arriving early in the season, roster depth is no longer a luxury but a basic condition for survival. That is why it is clear why Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Real and Valencia held the top for so long: not because they are only better in their starting five, but because they crack less when the schedule turns brutal.

Who is playing in this EuroLeague

In the 2025/2026 season, the participants are Anadolu Efes Istanbul, AS Monaco, Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, Crvena zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, Dubai Basketball, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Munich, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv, LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv, Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, Paris Basketball, Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, Real Madrid, Valencia Basket, Virtus Bologna and Žalgiris Kaunas. It is a list that neatly shows where the EuroLeague is today. There are the old rulers of arenas from Athens, Piraeus, Madrid, Barcelona and Belgrade, but also new projects. Dubai Basketball became the first club from outside Europe, if the Israeli representatives are excluded, to play in this competition. Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv came in through the EuroCup and brought new energy, while Valencia returned as a club that no longer wants to be a passing guest but a permanent factor. On the court, that means a clash of styles and biographies. Olympiacos still runs on toughness, pace control and internal hierarchy. Fenerbahce is the defending champion and again looks like a team that knows when a game must be broken open with defense, and when it must be stolen with the experience of Wade Baldwin, Marko Gudurić and Nigel Hayes-Davis. Real Madrid still has that old European aura of a club for which every series looks like a natural state, and Panathinaikos is again playing a season with the ambition of an eighth star, relying on names such as Kendrick Nunn, Kostas Sloukas, Jerian Grant and Juancho Hernangomez. Monaco still revolves its offense around Mike James and the speed of its guards, Baskonia lives off the shooting explosions of Markus Howard, and Crvena zvezda and Partizan, as always, carry half the city on their backs. There are also other recognizable figures this season: Shane Larkin at Efes, Nikola Mirotić and Shavon Shields at Milano, Codi Miller-McIntyre and Chima Moneke in the Basque story, Walter Tavares and Facundo Campazzo in the Madrid framework, Kevin Punter and Jan Vesely in Barcelona, Carsen Edwards at Bayern, Theo Maledon and Nando De Colo are no longer the same European moment but a reminder of how quickly the EuroLeague renews itself, while Žalgiris once again looks like a club that squeezes more out of system and discipline than the roster on paper promises.

Arenas: the places where the EuroLeague is actually played

The EuroLeague cannot be described without arenas. This is a season that again shows that the competition is made not only of rosters but also of acoustics, pressure and the feeling that every offensive possession comes through a wall of noise.

• Panathinaikos – Telekom Center Athens, Athens, 18,989
• Partizan – Belgrade Arena, Belgrade, 18,386
• Crvena zvezda – Belgrade Arena, Belgrade, 18,386
• Real Madrid – Movistar Arena, Madrid, 17,453
• Baskonia – Fernando Buesa Arena, Vitoria-Gasteiz, 15,504
• Žalgiris – Žalgiris Arena, Kaunas, 15,415
• Fenerbahce – Ülker Sports and Event Hall, Istanbul, 13,800
• Milano – Mediolanum Forum, Assago, 12,700; some games also at Allianz Cloud Arena, 5,420
• Olympiacos – Peace and Friendship Stadium, Piraeus, 11,640
• Maccabi – Menora Mivtachim Arena, Tel Aviv, 10,383
• Virtus Bologna – Virtus Arena, Bologna, 9,980; in some slots also PalaDozza, 5,570
• Bayern – SAP Garden, Munich, 11,500
• Barcelona – Palau Blaugrana, Barcelona, 7,585
• Monaco – Salle Gaston Médecin, Fontvieille, 4,700
• Anadolu Efes – Basketball Development Center, Istanbul, 10,000
• Dubai Basketball – Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai, 13,221; some European dates also in Sarajevo, Juan Antonio Samaranch Olympic Hall, 12,000
• Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv – Arena 8888 Sofia, 12,373, and Arena Botevgrad, 4,500
• LDLC ASVEL – Astroballe, Villeurbanne, 5,556
• Paris Basketball – Adidas Arena, 8,000; for bigger nights also Accor Arena, 15,705
• Valencia Basket – Roig Arena, Valencia, 15,600

Just from those figures, you can see the breadth of the experience. In Monaco, everything is compressed and close, almost chamber-like. In Kaunas and Belgrade, you get the impression that the crowd breathes with the ball. In Madrid and Athens, the space is larger, but even there there is no air when the game enters the final three minutes. Paris and Valencia have brought new infrastructure and a different, more modern scenography, while Hapoel’s and partly Dubai’s season are a reminder that EuroLeague 2025/2026 is not only a sports story but also a logistical one.

What the 2025/2026 season is already saying

This season’s numbers show that the expansion has not killed quality, but spread it across more cities. According to data closed on March 27, 2026, average attendance stood at 9,503 spectators per game, and the total number in the stands was more than 3.12 million people. The largest recorded attendance was 21,854 spectators at the Belgrade derby between Partizan and Crvena zvezda on December 12, 2025. The highest-scoring game of the season so far is Barcelona’s crazy 134:124 against Baskonia after three overtimes, while one of the most striking margins was seen when Olympiacos ran over Partizan 104:66 in Belgrade. At the individual level, by the end of March the season also had clear leaders: Kendrick Nunn was the top scorer with 19.7 points per game, Nikola Milutinov the leading rebounder with 7.1 rebounds, and Codi Miller-McIntyre the best assister with 7.4 assists. Those numbers are not just decoration. Nunn explains why Panathinaikos can still survive even when the game descends into chaos. Milutinov is one of the reasons why Olympiacos looks solid even when the offense is not flourishing. Miller-McIntyre is proof that even in a turbulent season it is possible to hold the tempo of an entire team.

From Berlin to Abu Dhabi, then back to Athens

The last two completed final tournaments explain well where the EuroLeague was before this season. In Berlin in 2024, Panathinaikos beat Real Madrid 95:80 in the final and took its seventh European title, the first since 2011. It was a night in which Kostas Sloukas conducted the game like an old master organizer of a heist, Kendrick Nunn added fire, and Panathinaikos returned from comeback status to the ranks of champions. A year later, in 2025, the title went to Fenerbahce. In Abu Dhabi, the Turkish club beat Monaco 81:70 and became champion of Europe for the second time in its history. Nigel Hayes-Davis played a final worthy of a front page, scoring 23 points and grabbing 9 rebounds, and Fenerbahce broke the game open with the fourth quarter, the way serious teams usually win trophies: without panic, without excess movement, with a clear sense of when to take the air away from the opponent. Now the stage is set for Athens. The 2026 Final Four will be played at Telekom Center Athens, an arena with a capacity of more than 18 thousand seats, and the city will host the final tournament for the second time, the first time since 2007. It is also important that from this season onward there is no longer a third-place game, so the finish becomes even more stripped down: two semifinals, one final night, without a consolation prize for the loser.

The history of the competition and why this season carries extra weight

The modern EuroLeague format officially began on October 16, 2000, when Real Madrid beat Olympiacos 75:73 in the first game of the new era. The first points of the modern EuroLeague were scored by Dino Rađa. Twenty-five years later, on December 18, 2025, the competition reached its millionth point, and the historic ball through the hoop was sent by Theo Maledon in the game between Real and Paris. It is a nice fact, but also more than that: confirmation that the league is changing, accelerating and piling up memories without respite. In the historical hierarchy, Real Madrid still stands as the most decorated European club, while Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Maccabi, Barcelona, Virtus, Fenerbahce, Partizan, Žalgiris and Milano each in their own way carry parts of the old continental memory. That is why this season is not only a story about new standings. It is a collision of the old aristocracy and new projects, of cities that already have European scars and cities that are only now seeking to leave their mark.

Interesting facts that make this season different

• The first EuroLeague with 20 clubs has brought 38 rounds and even greater pressure on roster depth.
• Dubai Basketball entered the competition as a historic breakthrough beyond the usual European map.
• Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv is playing its debut EuroLeague season, but not in a classic home environment, rather in neutral arenas.
• The 2026 Final Four returns to Athens, and the final stage has been shortened to three games because the third-place game has been abolished.
• On December 18, 2025, the competition reached the millionth point of the modern era.
• Attendance is still enormous; the previous, completed 2024/2025 season set the regular-season record with an average of 10,589 spectators per game.

That is why EuroLeague 2025/2026, for now, looks like a season in which there is no single dominant force, but there are several clubs that look serious enough to come to Athens for the title, not for an excuse. Olympiacos has toughness, Fenerbahce the gravity of a champion, Real the name that always forces the opponent to check its pulse one more time, Panathinaikos championship quality, Valencia the most stable rise of recent months, and Monaco and Barcelona enough talent to change the story in one series. And that is exactly why this season is good to watch and difficult to predict: almost nobody is certain, and almost everyone at the top has a reason to believe that May belongs to them.