The Basketball Africa League (BAL) has announced its roster of broadcast partners for the 2022 BAL season, which will tip-off tomorrow, Saturday, March 5 at the Dakar Arena in Dakar, Senegal which include stops in Cairo, Egypt and Kigali, Rwanda.
The second BAL season will reach fans in 215 countries and territories in 14 languages through free-to-air and paid TV broadcast partnerships with Canal+, ESPN, NBA TV, Tencent Sports, TSN, American Forces Network (AFN) and Voice of America (VOA), and live streaming on the NBA App, NBA.com and NBA.com/BAL.
“The BAL is back with an impressive group of world-class broadcast distribution partners for our expanded second season,” said BAL President Amadou Gallo Fall. “As the competition intensifies and travels to more cities in Africa, we are excited that BAL games will reach more fans across Africa and the world on devices and platforms they use most through our partners and the official BAL website.”
In the season opener, Senegal’s Dakar Université Club (DUC) will take on Guinea’s Seydou Legacy Athlétique Club (S.L.A.C) at 12:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. GMT on Canal+, ESPNews and TSN in the first of 38 games taking place across three cities over the next three months. The second BAL Finals will be held Saturday, May 28 at 12:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. GMT on Canal+, ESPNews and TSN.
The 12 BAL teams, which represent 12 African countries and include defending BAL Champion Zamalek (Egypt), have been divided into two conferences – the Sahara Conference and the Nile Conference.
Each conference will play a 15-game group phase during which each team will face the five other teams in its conference once. The Sahara Conference group phase will take place at the Dakar Arena from March 5-15, while the Nile Conference group phase will take place at Hassan Mostafa Indoor Sports Complex in Cairo from April 9-19.
The top four teams from each conference will qualify for the BAL Playoffs, which will feature a single-elimination tournament and Finals at Kigali Arena from May 21-28.
New Fortress Energy (NFE), Rwanda Development Board (RDB), NIKE, Jordan Brand and Wilson will return as BAL Foundational Partners. The league’s roster of world-class marketing partners also includes Flutterwave and Hennessy.
