🏀 SLB Championship regular season winners London Lions are all set for a SLB Play-Off Semi-Final against Leicester Riders at the Copper Box Arena on Sunday 10 May.
Tickets are on sale here.
A new Super League Basketball (SLB) season is drawing to a conclusion for London Lions who have also taken part in the 2025/2026 BKT EuroCup. Their EuroCup campaign is now over. However, the Londoners remain on course for a domestic quadruple of SLB silverware! London Lions tickets are on sale now to experience the action live.
Top of the SLB Championship table after 26 wins from thirty two games, London Lions have already been crowned regular season champions. Adding to the SLB Trophy and SLB Cup silverware already secured. Lions defeated Newcastle Eagles 74-68 in the Trophy final at the beginning of February. The Londoners then overcame Manchester Basketball in the Cup final at AO Arena.
Next up at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, it’s knockout basketball for the Lions as they host defending Play-Off champions Leicester Riders in the second leg of their SLB Play-Off semi-final showdown. En route to the semi-finals, London Lions saw off Newcastle Eagles while Leicester Riders got the better of Sheffield Sharks. The winner between Lions and Riders will advance to the Play-Off Finals at The O2 on Sunday 17 May.
SEASON OVERVIEW
The Lions are in domestic and European action between September 2025 and May 2026. In 2024/2025 they didn’t compete in Europe but were regular season SLB champions, only to be knocked out by Newcastle Eagles in the play-off semi-finals.
This season, under interim head coach Vytautas Pliauga (who has stepped in while Tautvydas Sabonis is away from the team for personal reasons), the Lions are looking to emulate their stellar 2023/2024 campaign. A year when they had a historic run to the semi-finals of the EuroCup, only to lose out to Paris Basketball in the semi-finals. This came after the Lions became the first British team in the 21-year history of the EuroCup to reach the play-offs in 2022/2023. During that campaign the Londoners completed a domestic treble, with Lions legend Sam Dekker sealing Play-Off Final glory against Cheshire Phoenix, courtesy of a three-pointer right on the buzzer.
MISSION QUADRUPLE 2025/2026
London Lions are out of Europe but the 2025/2026 quadruple dream – winning the SLB Trophy, SLB Cup, SLB Championship regular season and SLB Championship play-offs – remains alive! Riding high at the top of the Championship (and confirmed as regular season champions) and with the SLB Trophy secured, the Lions are fresh from their SLB Cup final against Manchester Basketball. The Lions proved too strong for their Manchester rivals at the end of March. They took the spoils courtesy of an 83-74 scoreline, to secure their second piece of silverware this season. Which was shortly just a couple of weeks later with confirmation of their status as SLB Championship regular season champions. Three trophies and counting … just the play-offs await.
Photos: @mossfoto
LONDON LIONS TICKETS, TIMINGS & TRAVEL INFO
🎟️ London Lions tickets for the 2025/2026 season are on sale via the ‘Get Tickets’ link.
🏀 Tip-off is at 7.30pm for weekday games and at 4pm for Sunday games.
🚊🚗 Travel tips: Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, E20 3HB. The nearest railway stations are Hackney Wick overground and Stratford International station. Both are approximately a 15-minute walk. Stratford International is one stop (5 minutes) from London St Pancras on the Javelin train. Stratford (with links to the underground and DLR) station is about a 15-minute walk. Plan your journey at the Transport for London website. Limited parking is available at the Copper Box Arena, however parking is available at the nearby Westfield Shopping Centre.
🏀 ABOUT SUPER LEAGUE BASKETBALL
Super League Basketball (SLB) is a new professional basketball league. It replaced the British Basketball League (BBL) in August 2024 as the top professional league in the UK.
The primary competition is the SLB Championship. The 9 SLB teams each play each other four times (twice at home, twice away) over a 23-week season, equating to 32-game regular season. The current Play-Off champions are Leicester Riders.
The top eight teams in the nine-team SLB will qualify for the post-season. Here they will battle it out in two legged quarter-finals and semi-finals for a place Play-off Final in May 2026 at The O2 in London. At stake: the biggest prize in British basketball.
The SLB teams for season 2025/2026 are B.Braun Sheffield Sharks, Bristol Flyers, Caledonia Gladiators, Cheshire Phoenix, London Lions. Manchester Basketball, Newcastle Eagles, Sheffield Sharks and Surrey 89ers.
There are two knock-out competitions that run alongside the SLB Championship. Information below based on 2024/2025.
The SLB Trophy starts off the season. It features five weeks of round robin two-group stage action before the Championship campaign commences in October. The final will take place at Utilita Arena Birmingham on 26 January 2025. The event marks the first major final in SLB history.
The SLB Cup is a straight knockout competition. It’s scheduled to take place over six weeks from February 2025, ahead of two-leg semi-finals and a single-leg final in March at a venue to be confirmed. Then the road to the Play-offs (as above) will resume with the SLB Championship action concluding on Sunday 27 April.
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