ECA Shareholders Executive Board review season to date; hold strategic discussions

The Executive Board members of Euroleague Commercial Assets met in Barcelona, Spain on Monday to review the evolution of the EuroLeague and EuroCup seasons, as well as take strategic decisions for the future.

The meeting started with Euroleague Basketball President and CEO, Mr. Jordi Bertomeu providing a set of the most important data related to the 2016-17 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAYS EuroCup seasons. Mr. Bertomeu presented the attendees numbers about the competitions new era, its fanbase, and the business evolution.

After just over one third of the revolutionary new EuroLeague round-robin Regular Season being completed, an increase in both competitiveness and speed of the game have been observed, including an important increment in the number of games decided by close margins. The upgrades in the product were also embraced by the fans. The EuroLeague gathered unprecedented growth in arena attendance, digital consumption, television reach and audience.

The attendees also heard the latest evolutions of the EuroCup, which similarly to the EuroLeague, also presented positive growth figures in attendance (21%) and digital consumption across all platforms.

The Clubs were presented with the confirmation that revenue streams from the recently created Euroleague Basketball & IMG Joint Venture evidenced growth rates of 78% in media rights and 34% in marketing partnership sales so far, with overall revenues exceeding the year one forecast. Projects to grow the EuroLeague platform through innovative technologies and therefore increase the positive experience for fans worldwide whilst growing revenues were also presented by Euroleague Basketball executives.

Representatives of the clubs also expressed their opinion on the revamped EuroLeague with a highly positive valuation on the experience so far by all Board members. Clubs stressed the boosted interest for the League by its fans, reflected by significant growth in attendance figures, media interest, hours on TV and audience.

The 2017-18 competitions draft calendar was discussed, and will be further debated in the Domestic Leagues working meeting on December 20th, then approved in the next ECA Shareholders Meeting.