Dutch Basketball League


The Dutch Basketball League, formerly the Eredivisie, was the highest professional basketball league in the Netherlands, run by the Federatie Eredivisie Basketball. Since 2021, the league has been replaced by the Belgian-Dutch BNXT League.
The league had a closed system: to participate, a team has to have enough money and potential. The league began in 1960 as the Eredivisie and was organized by the NBB and later the FEB. In 1977 the league introduced play-offs. As of 2019, the Dutch Basketball League consists of ten teams and plays under the FIBA rules.

History

2010s

Starting with the 2010–11 season, the Eredivisie changed its name to the Dutch Basketball League, shortly the DBL. The beginning of the 2010s saw Donar and ZZ Leiden emerge as top teams in the Netherlands. Donar won five titles, including three straight. The decade also saw clubs disappear due to financial problems, with Amsterdam in 2011, West-Brabant Giants in 2011,
Magixx in 2014. The decade also saw the emergence of new clubs in Apollo Amsterdam and Den Helder Suns.
In Europe, Donar had one of the biggest successes in Dutch history after reaching the semi-finals of the 2017–18 FIBA Europe Cup. It was the first European semi-final of a team since Amsterdam in 2001.

2020s

In December 2019, it was announced that the DBL has partnered with the Belgian Pro Basketball League to look at the potential of a future "BeNe League". The 2019–20 season was cancelled prematurely in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time in league history that a season was not finished and no champions were named. Due to the pandemic, entry requirements for the following season were lowered which led to the entrance of Basketball Community Gelderland, The Hague Royals and Almere Sailors.

Format and rules

Each team has to play all the other teams in the league four times, twice at home and twice away. This means that the league's regular season ends after all teams play 36 matches. Like many other national domestic leagues in continental Europe, the Dutch Basketball League takes a winter break once each team has played half of its scheduled games.

Playoffs

At the end of the league season schedule, the eight best teams in the standings play in a play-off, pitting the first place team in the standings versus the eighth place team in the standings, and so on. The quarter finals are played in a best-of-three format and the semi-finals are played in a best-of-five format, and the finals are played in a best-of-seven format.
In seasons were the number of teams dropped to 9 or lower, six teams qualified for the playoffs. In this case, the numbers one and two qualified for the semifinals and the other four teams played the quarterfinals.

Foreign players

The DBL has had many rules in place to restrict the number of foreign players of clubs. This way the league seek to keep developing Dutch talent in the league. For several seasons.
Until 2019, teams in the DBL were not allowed to have more than four players without a Dutch passport in their on court team at the same time.
  • 2015–2017: maximum 4 foreign players
  • 2017–2019: maximum 5 foreign players
  • 2019–2021: minimum of 6 home grown players

    Logos

Clubs

Current clubs

As of the end of the 2020–21 season:
Club
CityArenaCapacity1st season
in DBL		No. of seasons
in DBL		DBL titlesLast title
Almere SailorsAlmereTopsportcentrum Almere2020–211––
Apollo AmsterdamAmsterdamApollohal2012–138––
Aris LeeuwardenLeeuwardenKalverdijkje2004–0516––
BALWeertSporthal Boshoven2017–184––
Heroes Den Bosch's-HertogenboschMaaspoort1962–6354162015
Den Helder SunsDen HelderSporthal Sportlaan1981–822961998
DonarGroningenMartiniPlaza1970–715172018
FeyenoordRotterdamTopsportcentrum1988–8932––
Landstede HammersZwolleLandstede Sportcentrum1995–962512019
The Hague RoyalsThe HagueSportcampus Zuiderpark2020–211––
Yoast UnitedBemmelDe Schaapskooi2020–211––
ZZ LeidenLeidenVijf Meihal1967–683142021

Timeline

The following is the timeline of the teams in the Dutch Basketball League era.

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at:2011 color:lineColor layer:back width:0.66 #First LPB season
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bar:Donar at:2014 $champ mark:
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bar:Leiden from:2011 till:end color:darkblue $t:white $LeftMargin text:"ZZ Leiden"
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bar:Apollo from:2012 till:end color:black $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Apollo Amsterdam"
bar:Feyenoord from:2011 till:end color:red $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Rotterdam / Feyenoord"
bar:Leeuwarden from:2011 till:end color:red $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Aris Leeuwarden"
bar:Suns from:2017 till:end color:blue $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Den Helder Suns"
bar:Kings from:2012 till:2014 color:skyblue $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Den Helder Kings"
bar:BSW from:2011 till:2017 color:blue $t:white $LeftMargin text:"BSW Weert"
bar:Royals from:2020 till:end color:green $t:white $LeftMargin text:"The Hague Royals"
bar:United from:2020 till:end color:blue $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Yoast United"
bar:Magixx from:2011 till:2014 color:purple $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Matrixx Magixx"
bar:Sailors from:2020 till:end color:red $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Almere Sailors"
bar:Windmills from:2018 till:2019 color:skyblue $t:white $LeftMargin text:"Dutch Windmills"

  • * – Indicates championship season

    Former clubs

The following clubs are not competing in the DBL during the 2020–21 season, but have previously competed in the DBL for at least one season. Teams in italics were folded and do not exist anymore.
a: Founding member of the DBL.

Champions

List of Dutch Basketball League winners