BNXT League


The BNXT League is a professional basketball league in Belgium and the Netherlands. The league is the first tier in both the Dutch and Belgian system, replacing the DBL and PBL. The inaugural season was the 2021–22 season, which started in September 2021.

History

On 10 December 2020, it was announced that the Belgian Pro Basketball League and Dutch Basketball League would merge to form a new multinational league. All clubs from the Dutch DBL voted for, while 9 of 10 teams in Belgium voted in favor of the decision. Serious talks about the initiative had been ongoing since fall 2019. On 20 May 2021, the new name "BNXT League" and logo of the league were announced.
The league started its inaugural season amidst an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a great number of games had to be played behind locked doors as a result of national lockdowns. On 11 June 2022, ZZ Leiden were crowned the inaugural BNXT champions. The following year, on 13 June 2023, Leiden repeated as champions.

Sponsorship

On 10 September 2021, the league announced its first name sponsorship when Belgian betting company betFirst signed to become naming sponsor for three seasons.

Competition formula

From 2021–22 to 2023–24, the league consisted of different stages. In the first stage, teams played each other home and away in the national regular season. After this, the teams were divided in the Elite Gold and Elite Silver group for the cross-border season. Next, the teams from the Elite Gold and the 3 best teams from the Elite Silver played in the national playoffs to compete for the national championships. The two winners of the national playoffs then played in the BNXT League Final.
Starting from the 2024–25 season, the league will have a new format in which all 19 teams play each other home and away in the regular season. The highest ranked teams from each country play national playoffs, and the two national winners play for the BNXT championship.

Teams

The following 18 teams will play in the 2025-26 season. All teams from the Pro Basketball League and Dutch Basketball League transferred to the BNXT League in 2021. The newest club to have joined the BNXT League are the Kortrijk Spurs, who joined in 2023.

Stadiums and locations

ClubLocationVenueCapacityFoundedNational
titles
Nts|5218

Former teams

BNXT champions

The finals were played in a two-legged format in 2022, after that season the format was changed to a best-of-three playoffs series. Since the 2024–25 season, the BNXT League championship has been awarded to the club that finishes first in the regular season.
SeasonChampionsScoreRunners-upFinals MVP
2021–22ZZ Leiden146–142
DonarWorthy de Jong
2022–23ZZ Leiden OostendeDavid Collins
2023–24Oostende164–124
ZZ LeidenDamien Jefferson
2024–25House of Talents Spurs

National champions

Netherlands

SeasonChampionsScoreRunners-upFinals MVP
2021–22Heroes Den Bosch3–2ZZ LeidenThomas van der Mars
2022–23ZZ Leiden3–2DonarThomas Rutherford
2023–24ZZ Leiden3–1Heroes Den BoschBrock Gardner
2024–25Heroes Den Bosch3–0ZZ LeidenLe'Tre Darthard

Belgium

SeasonChampionsScoreRunners-upFinals MVP
2021–22Oostende3–1Kangoeroes MechelenKeye van der Vuurst de Vries
2022–23Oostende3–1Antwerp GiantsVrenz Bleijenbergh
2023–24Oostende3–1Antwerp GiantsDamien Jefferson
2024–25Oostende3–1Kangoeroes MechelenTimmy Allen

Awards