Basketball Africa League To Tip Off Milestone Fifth Season On April 5 With First Games In Morocco

The Basketball Africa League (BAL) has announced that the league’s milestone fifth season will tip off on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco and culminate with the 2025 BAL Finals on Saturday, June 14 at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa, marking the first BAL games in Morocco and the first time the BAL Finals will be held in South Africa.  The 2025 BAL season will feature the top 12 club teams from 12 African countries playing 48 games in Rabat; Dakar, Senegal; Kigali, Rwanda; and Pretoria.

The 12 teams will once again be divided into three conferences of four teams each.  Each conference will play a 12-game group phase during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice.  The Kalahari Conference group phase will take place from April 5 – Sunday, April 13 in Rabat.  The Sahara Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, April 26 – Sunday, May 4 at the Dakar Arena in Senegal.  The Nile Conference group phase will take place from Saturday, May 17 – Sunday, May 25 at BK Arena in Kigali.  Eight teams from across the three conferences will qualify for the Playoffs in Pretoria, which will tip off on Friday, June 6 and culminate with the 2025 BAL Finals on Saturday, June 14.  Beginning today, fans can register their interest in tickets to games in all four markets at BAL.NBA.com.

“We have seen tremendous growth over the BAL’s first four seasons in the level of on-court competition, attendance, and engagement from fans and partners in Africa and globally,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall.  “Our milestone fifth season will build on that momentum and further showcase the level of talent and passion for basketball in Africa, including through the first BAL games in Morocco and the first BAL Finals in South Africa.”

“The Kalahari Conference marks another expansion of the BAL into a new country on our continent, and we are more than satisfied,” said Anibal Manave, President of FIBA Africa.  “Year after year, this competition grows, giving greater exposure to our sport and helping to elevate the level of basketball in Africa by making the league more and more competitive.”

This season, the national league champions from seven countries – Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tunisia – will automatically qualify for the BAL.  The other five teams will qualify through the Road to the BAL qualifying tournaments conducted by FIBA Africa across the continent from October – December 2024.

In addition to the games, the BAL will once again collaborate with its partners to conduct youth development and social impact programming in all four markets, including Jr. NBA, coaching and referee clinics, environmental days of service, the fourth BAL Innovation Summit, networking sessions to engage with members of the media, and a series of camps and workshops for young women as part of BAL4HER, the league’s platform for advancing gender equality in the African sports ecosystem.

Rwanda Development Board, NIKE, Jordan Brand, and Wilson will return as BAL Foundational Partners.  The league’s roster of marketing partners also includes Castle Lite, Hennessy and RwandAir.

On June 1, Angola’s Petro de Luanda became the first sub-Saharan African team to win the BAL Finals after previous champions from Egypt and Tunisia.  The 2024 BAL season reached fans in 214 countries and territories in 17 languages, set an attendance record of more than 120,000 fans across the four host countries, and generated more than 1.2 billion impressions across NBA and BAL social media channels.

Additional information about the 2025 BAL season will be announced in the coming months.