SBP President Al S. Panlilio, EASL co-founders and top officials Henry Kerins and Matt Beyer, PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas, and PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial. EASL HANDOUT
MANILA, Philippines—The PBA, along with the other major Asian basketball associations, officially formalized their partnership with the East Asia Super League that would set up a pan-regional tournament with a home-and-away format.
Japan’s B.League, the Korean Basketball League, and Taiwan’s P.League+, as well as top teams from Hong Kong and Macau also made the deal with the EASL.
This agreement will also feature into the PBA’s calendar.
The EASL’s goal is to bring eight of Asia’s best teams from across the continent’s top leagues and come together for weekly games competing for a $1 million prize.
A total of eight teams will be split up into two groups of four with the clubs playing in a round-robin format.
Each team plays a home-and-away game in their group, six games each, for a total of 24 games during the group stage set from October 2022 to February 2023, with two EASL Group Stage games taking place every Wednesday night.
The top two teams from each group will then advance to the Final Four playing in a sudden death semifinal and championship games in March 2023.
This is a change from the EASL’s previous formats wherein it worked as an invitational during a week-long tournament in Macau.
“EASL is proud to take the next step to elevate the sport of basketball in Asia and be Asia’s premier pan-regional league, as well as the most prolific and dynamic Asian basketball storytellers in the digital world for our majority Gen Z and young Millennial fanbase,” the league said in a statement.
Former NBA stars Baron Davis, Metta World Peace, and Shane Battier have given their advisory support as the league’s ambassadors while agent Bill Duffy, the agent to superstar Luka Doncic, has a similar capacity.