Euroleague Basketball President & CEO Jordi Bertomeu and Efes Beer Group CEO Alejandro Jimenez were in a press conference at Cıragan Palace, İstanbul today to announce that Euroleague extended the sponsporship collaboration with Efes Group three more years.

Both sides were very happy to announce that they will continue working together and noted that the collaboration starts back at 1976.

Bertomeu also made important remarks upon questions. He stressed that Euroleague does not take NBA as its role model. He gives credit to NBA as a great marketing product but noted that “We enjoy basketball” which means, according to me, European basketball has its own values different than NBA. Moreover, he stressed that the player quality is on a higher level now, of course the players from NBA helped but the ones who came this year did not go back. That means, for example Andrei Kirilenko and Sasha Vujacic did not agree to play for CSKA and Efes Pilsen just because of the lockout. “We already have very good player quality and don’t desperately need to import players from NBA” Bertomeu expressed.

Considering revenue, Bertomeu gave some details. The total revenues were increased by 17% this year and for now, Euroleague has a budget of 28 million euros. The 70% of this budget comes from TV deals and 75% of the money distributed among the clubs although not in an equalitarian manner but according to a criteria which was imposed by the clubs themselves. He also told about their concerns on the financial structure of the clubs. As Bertomeu remarked since 2005, Euroleague is giving a special care in that issue and financial fair play rules will come into effect next season.

Considering the integration of VTB United league in Euroleague structure, Bertomeu commented that the negotiations are ongoing. It has been known that VTB League wants to award a Euroleague place to its champion and it has not been approved yet. However, for now, for the team that finished VTB United league in second place, a Euroleague place award seems a weak possibility.