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ACB League

Liga Endesa
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event2016–17 ACB season
Liga Endesa.jpg
Logo ACB
Formerly Liga Nacional
(1957–1983)
ACB Primera División
(1983–1988)
Sport Basketball
Founded 1983
Inaugural season 1983–84
CEO Francisco Roca Pérez
No. of teams 17
Country  Spain
Continent Europe FIBA Europe (Europe)
Most recent
champion(s)
Real Madrid (11th title)
Most titles FC Barcelona (15 titles)
TV partner(s) #0
(best match per round)
Movistar Deportes
(rest of the matches)
Level on pyramid 1st tier
Relegation to LEB Oro
Domestic cup(s) Spanish King's Cup
Spanish Supercup
International cup(s) EuroLeague
(1st tier)
EuroCup
(2nd tier)
Champions League
(3rd tier)
Official website ACB.com (Spanish)

The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the first tier level professional men's basketball league in Spain. It began in 1957, with the name of Liga Nacional, and was originally organized by the Spanish Basketball Federation. The league changed to its current form, beginning with the 1983–84 season, after the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB) took control over the league. The league is rated as one of the top three European national domestic/regional leagues in the European national basketball league rankings system.

The ACB League, which is played under FIBA rules, currently consists of 17 teams, of which the most successful have been FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Each team has to play all the other teams in its division twice, once at home and once away. This means that in Liga ACB the league's regular season ends after all teams play 34 matches.

At the end of the league, the eight best teams in the standings start a play-off, pitting the first place team in the standings versus the 8th place team in the standings, and so on. There are three playoff rounds, each consisting of five game series, and the winner of the finals round becomes the champion of the Liga ACB. This is similar to the NBA playoffs system, but shorter.

Each season, the two last qualified teams of the regular season are relegated to LEB Oro and replaced by the two first qualified teams of this league.

Until 2012, in the 29 editions played of the Liga ACB only three teams resigned to promote due to acting as reserve teams or lack of funds. These three teams were CB Guadalajara and CB Cornellà in 1993 and CB Cajabilbao in 1994.


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