Euroleague is also referred to as the Turkish Airlines Euroleague because of sponsorship reasons. It is ideally the highest level of basketball competition that you can get to regarding basketball club competition in Europe. The league was introduced back in 2000, coming as a replacement of FIBA European Champions Cup.
Popularity
The Euro League is among the most popular leagues in the world, having an average attendance of almost 9000 attendants for the league matches that were played in the 2017-18 season. The number was fifth highest in all professional sports leagues worldwide, to give a better perspective of those figures. In the US alone, it was the second-highest, right after the NBA.
From when the league started, the title has been won by 21 different clubs, with 13 of the clubs having won the title more than once. Real Madrid is the most successful club in the league in terms of the number of titles ever won.
League Era
In 2015, IMG agreed to go on a venture with Euroleague, which was to last a minimum of ten years. The commercial operations are to be managed by both Euroleague and IMG. The €630 million deal had projected revenues of €900 million. It changed the format of the league, which now has 18 teams that play against each other during the regular season before going to the playoffs.
The League uses the double round-robin system, where each team plays all the other teams twice during the regular season, home and away. Out of the 18 teams, A-licensed clubs are guaranteed to participate in the league over the ten years.
Sponsorship
The main sponsors of Euroleague Basketball are Turkish Airlines, who committed to a €15 million strategic deal back in 2010. According to the agreement, the name of the main competition was changed to Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball.