Dubai Basketball will not ‘throw money’ at EuroLeague success

• EuroLeague debut for Dubai Basketball
• Smaller budget than competitors
• Aiming for long-term stability

Dubai Basketball will not break the bank in pursuit of glory in European basketball’s premier competition, according to the team’s chairman Abdulla Al Naboodah.

The club is competing in its debut EuroLeague season, having secured its place via the Adriatic League pathway in 2024, becoming the first Middle East-based team to take part.

Basketball is steadily expanding its footprint in the UAE and Dubai is positioning itself as a gateway between European and Middle Eastern markets. Al Naboodah said there were 177 academies in Dubai with “tens of thousands of kids” playing the sport.

The launch of Dubai Basketball Club and its entry into the EuroLeague marks a significant step in that strategy, testing whether a Gulf-based franchise can attract global talent, sponsors and broadcast audiences. 

Backed by Dubai’s event-hosting experience and a growing youth basketball scene, the move reflects a broader push to embed the sport into the emirate’s commercial and cultural landscape, rather than treating it as a one-off spectacle.

Dubai has one of the lowest roster budgets in the league, reportedly €16 million, according to general manager Dejan Kamenjasevic, who spoke in an interview with specialist basketball website BH Basket.

This compares with the €45 million total budget of Real Madrid and €37 million spent by Panathinaikos in the previous season, as per research from BasketNews.

By contrast, NBA teams in the US operated with an average payroll of approximately $169 million (€146 million) before taxes during the 2023-24 season.

But Al Naboodah said the club will continue to take a disciplined approach to funding.

“We’re not trying to throw money at it to make it work. We’re trying to make it sustainable so it goes on for decades,” he said at last month’s Dubai World Sports Summit.

The club is privately capitalised, owned by a Dubai-based investment group led by Al Naboodah, and structured as a commercially oriented expansion franchise.

“For us to have a team here (Dubai) with many expats living and many European people coming to see the team play, now is a no-brainer,” said Paulius Motiejunas, CEO of EuroLeague Basketball.

Dubai Basketball plays its home games at the emirate’s Coca-Cola Arena, drawing crowds of around 5,000, and has secured a mix of regional and international sponsors to support its EuroLeague debut. These include real estate developer Omniyat, wealth management company Equiti Group and state-backed travel logistics company dnata.

Adidas supply kits under a multi-year deal and the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism promotes the city through shirt and arena branding.

Other sponsors include Commercial Bank International, Subway, Gems Education and Audi.

Founded in 2000 following a split from The International Basketball Federation’s European arm, the EuroLeague has experienced high-profile financial collapses. Among them are Montepaschi Siena in 2014, after its banking sponsor imploded, and Unicaja Málaga, which retrenched after losing sponsor support during Spain’s financial crisis.

• Morocco’s World Cup approach is distinct from Qatar’s
• Gulf sports have the money, but not the sponsors
• American football belatedly sets sights on the Gulf

For the Gulf region, the growth of EuroLeague basketball is being validated by events such as the 2025 Final Four in Abu Dhabi, the first held in the Middle East, which brought Europe’s top four clubs together for semi-finals, a third-place game and the championship final. Abu Dhabi has also hosted high-profile NBA matches. 

Participation in basketball has climbed 60 percent in the UAE and 54 percent in the broader Middle East since the first edition of the Abu Dhabi Games in 2022, NBA data shows.

“We can have more teams, we can have more tournaments, we can have more competition and even more academies,” said Motiejunas. “We’re just exploring. The way the business is growing here I think basketball and sports in general will just catch up.”