2025 BAL season

The 2025 BAL season, also known as BAL Season 5, will be the 5th season of the Basketball Africa League (BAL). The season will begin on 5 April and end on 14 June 2024 with the final. The playoffs and finals will be held in Pretoria, South Africa, for the first time.

Petro de Luanda are the defending champions, having won the previous season. The winners will earn the right to play in the 2025 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

Venues

The Moroccan Royal Basketball Federation (FRMBB) announced on 12 November 2024 that Rabat would be one of the host cities of the first phase of the 2025 season.

On 21 November 2024, the BAL announced that the group phase would be hosted in three countries, as the Nile Conference is hosted at the Salle Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, Morocco, the Sahara Conference in Dakar Arena, Dakar, Senegal, and the Kalahari Conference in the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda. The playoffs and final will be played in the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa.

Qualification

The number of directly qualified teams changed from the previous four seasons, as the BAL now allocated eight direct slots to designated leagues and markets. As such, the champions of Morocco were given a direct spot in the tournament, while only four teams would qualify through the Road to BAL. FIBA Africa had reported that the champions of South Africa received direct qualification, and this was effectively honored when South African champions MBB were given a wild card spot.

Teams

The defending champions Petro de Luanda were the first team to qualify, as they won the 2023–24 Angolan Basketball League on 12 May 2024 to qualify for a record-extending fifth season in a row. Al Ittihad Alexandria will make its debut, becoming the third Egyptian club to play in the league and it is the greatest Egyptian basketball club in history. ASCVD became the third Senegalese club to qualify following their Nationale 1 title. MBB from South Africa was announced on 12 January 2025 as the last representative, after they were given a wild card.

The season had six debuting teams, setting a new record.

Method of qualification and statistics

Personnel

Pre-season

As the champions of the 2024 BAL season, Petro de Luanda played in the 2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup in September 2024. They finished in fifth place.

Schedule

The full schedule for the season was officially released on 21 November 2024.

Group phase

The group phase is played between 5 April and 25 May 2024. The twelve teams of the group phase are allocated into three conferences. The BAL announced the official schedule on 28 February 2025.

Tiebreakers

The ranking of teams in the regular season was determined as follows:

Win-loss record;
Head-to-head record;
Point differential in the games between the respective teams;
Number of points scored in the games between the respective teams;
Average point differential in all games against other teams in the Conference;
Average number of points scored in all games played against other teams in the Conference;
Drawing.