VTB United League

Basketball league

VTB League

The VTB League named after its sponsor VTB Bank (Vnechtorgbank), one of the leading banks in Russia, was founded in 2008 as the VTB United League Promo Cup. The tournament was played from December 20 to 22 in Moscow with eight participants from five different countries.

In its inaugural 2009–10 season, the VTB United League featured clubs from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine. The league counted as many as 18 clubs at one point as squads from Belarus, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic or Kazakhstan joined in.

Since 2013 and the unification with the Russian PBL, the VTB League is mostly made up of Russian clubs : 9 ouf of 13. CSKA Moscow has won 9 out of 10 VTB Leagues, losing only once in the final in 2011 to Khimki Moscow.

Teams play 24 games, home and away, the top 8 teams playing in a best of five series playoffs format. Although most teams are located in Western Russia, Enisey Krasnoyarsk is more than 4.000 kilometers away from Moscow.

Location: Europe

Country info: Russia has 146 780 700 citizens (9th largest country in the world). Spoken language is Russian. The country's largest city is Moscow.

Regular-season schedule: September to April

Last 5 VTB League Champions

CSKA Moscow (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)

All-Time Best VTB League Basketball Players

JR Holden, Vitaly Fridzon, Andrei Vorontsevich, Kyle Hines, Milos Teodosic, Nando De Colo.

From VTB League to the NBA

Sergei Bazarevich, Andrei Kirilenko, Victor Khryapa, Sergey Monia, Pavel Podkolzin, Yaroslav Korolev, Sergey Karasev, Sasha Kaun, Alexei Shved, Timofey Mozgov