The Basketball Africa League (BAL) organisers have announced the 12 teams and game schedule for the opening leg of the league’s milestone fifth season, which will tip off with the Kalahari Conference group phase from Saturday, 5 April – Sunday, 13 April at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco.
The 2025 BAL season, which will feature three regular-season group phases and culminate with the playoffs and finals at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa in June, will feature a record six first-time BAL participants.
This includes the league’s first teams from Cape Verde (Kriol Star Basketball) and Kenya (Nairobi City Thunder), as well as defending champion Petro de Luanda (Angola) and 2022 champion US Monastir (Tunisia) – the only teams to have qualified for all five BAL seasons.
| Kalahari Conference | Sahara Conference | Nile Conference |
| Al Ittihad (Egypt)* | ASC Ville de Dakar (Senegal)* | Al Ahli Tripoli (Libya)* |
| Fath Union Sport (FUS; Morocco) | Kriol Star Basketball (Cape Verde)* | Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Basketball (APR; Rwanda) |
| Stade Malien (Mali) | Petro de Luanda (Angola) | Made by Basketball (MBB; South Africa)* |
| Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria) | US Monastir (Tunisia) | Nairobi City Thunder (Kenya)* |
*First-time BAL participant
Each conference will play a 12-game group phase, during which each team will face the other three teams in its conference twice. During the group phase play, the home team in each country will play on every gameday.
In the season opener, Mali’s Stade Malien will face Nigerian champions and last year’s bronze medallists Rivers Hoopers, while home team Fath Union Sport (FUS) of Morocco will take on Egyptian side Al Ittihad in the second game.
Eight teams from across the three conferences will travel to Pretoria for four seeding games followed by an eight-game, single-elimination playoffs and finals from Friday, 6 June – Saturday, 14 June.
