The general sponsor of the LIBL in the new season will be “Optibet”, and as Mētra revealed, its financial contribution will be the same as that of the previous sponsor “Pafbet”, thus ensuring stability.
“I think that the quality of the tournament has only increased. In the presence of the new sponsor, all clubs will feel confident that they will be able to survive,” said Mētra.
“If before there were unpaid tails from the clubs that hindered the development of the league, this year the financial discipline has improved. We must thank the club managements. Also this season, we will pay attention to the fact that the rules given by the league, which are not drastic, must be followed. In addition, with “Prometey” the participation fee for departures has decreased slightly,” Mētra continued.
In the previous two seasons, the ULEB Eurocup team “Prometey” of Slobojansk also competed in the tournament, but the Ukrainian team not only left Latvia, but also ceased its activities.
“Our desire by attracting Prometey was to increase the number of valuable games. But this season, the clubs will have more opportunities to win the title or medals. The sporting intrigue will have leveled off,” Mētra said about Prometey’s departure.
In the previous season, the “Rīgas zeļļi” team made its debut in the league, which successfully attracted fans and became vice-champions in the first year. Mētra mentioned the appearance of several new basketball players on the Latvian basketball scene as an interesting aspect of this season.
“I am happy that several Latvian clubs have renewed their squads with local players who were abroad in previous years. I believe that these clubs will show a sufficiently high class,” said Mētra.
The 2024/2025 LIBL season will start on September 20 and the main tournament will run until March 16. After a week-long break, the elimination tournament will begin, in which there will be series of up to two victories in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and on April 11-12, the fights for medals will take place.
In the 2024/2025 season, 15 teams will play in the LIBL. Latvia will be represented by the same seven teams that competed last year – state champion and LIBL bronze medalist “VEF Rīga”, “Rīgas zeļļi”, “Ventspils”, “Liepāja”, “Ogre”, “Valmiera Glass” University and “University of Latvia” Estonia will be represented by LIBL vice-champion Tallinn Kalev, University of Tartu, Rapla Utilitas, Parnu Sadam, TalTech Tallinn, Keila Coolbet, Viimsi and Keila.
All home games of Latvian clubs can be watched live on the television channel TV4 and on the website “Sportacentrs.com”, while the games taking place in Estonia this season will be watched on the paid platform of the Estonian cooperation partner “Delfi.tv”.
In the past season, Slobojanska’s “Prometey”, which played in Riga, became the champion, defeating Tallinn’s “Kalev” in the final, while “VEF Rīga” won the third place.
2024-09-10 22:01:39