All 13 NBL Division 1 men’s clubs from last season have come together to set up their own competition called the ‘British Championship Basketball’ (BCB), Hoopsfix understands.

The company, officially incorporated in April, has full support from the British Basketball Federation and the three home nations but stems from years of growing frustration with Basketball England’s management of the second-tier competition.

Hoopsfix understands former Basketball England CEO Stewart Kellett was a major blocker against the move that has had strong support from the Basketball England board, and Kellett’s mismanagement of the relationship with the clubs, in small part, contributed to his resignation.

The BCB will launch with 14 teams, all 13 from last season plus Bristol Flyers (Bristol Academy Flyers II in NBL Division 2 last season), and is focused on being considered a professional league in the UK that provides a pathway and opportunities for homegrown talent, enforcing nine homegrown spots with just three import players allowed per roster.

They are affiliating directly with the BBF to secure Governing Body Endorsements (GBEs) for their import players – a shift that would have happened this summer regardless, due to a new agreement between the BBF and Basketball England that sees the BBF take full responsibility for issuing GBEs.

While their route to GBEs will run through the BBF, the clubs have made it clear they don’t want to undermine the SLB; the BCB clubs are united in not stepping in to be the officially BBF-licensed professional league for the 2025-26 season, in order to avoid complicating or undermining SLB’s ongoing dispute with the BBF.

Despite outreach from the GBBL – the group awarded the 15-year professional league operating licence from the BBF – the clubs have remained committed to charting their own course and steering clear of the SLB-BBF conflict.

The move was all-but confirmed on Monday with Basketball England revealing the NBL structures to clubs across the country, as ‘NBL Division 1’ now features the clubs from Division 2 last season with no sign of last year’s Division 1 teams.

Hoopsfix understands that two Scottish teams will join the Kitking Trophy – which will fall under the BCB banner – this season to test the waters with intentions to join the league in 2026-27, with the league clear on wanting to go beyond just English teams.

Russell Levenston (Nottingham Hoods), Gary Johnson (Reading Rockets), Mark Clark (Hemel Storm), and Kirk Dawes (City of Birmingham Rockets) are listed as Directors of the new company, and Hoopsfix understands they will be joined by three nominated directors from the home countries, while former BE Director Russell Bell – who finished his term in October 2024 – is also expected to step down from the BBF board to take on the role as BCB Independent Chair.

The fourteen clubs, who will be equal shareholders in the company, decided to bet on themselves, ironically, in similar fashion to how the British Basketball League was first set up in 1987, believing they can do a better job of commercialising their product.

They took control of Basketball England’s Trophy competition in 2020, which has since had a title sponsor in every year of its existence (first being the Lynch Trophy, before becoming the KitKing Trophy), and a sold out finals event – two things Basketball England has failed to deliver for its flagship event, the NBL Playoff Final – with attendances seemingly in decline, partly due to the finals being consistently staged in Manchester, despite most competing teams coming from the South.