The London Lions Basketball Club has been acquired by Tesonet, a tech hub and a shareholder of Zalgiris Kaunas - a prestigious organization with a storied history in the EuroLeague.
The deal comes after Tesonet was able to acquire a UK-based club with huge market potential. Zalgiris Group is providing the London Lions with a short-term, three-month loan to cover essential costs, which will be repaid to the Group by Tesonet.
“Contributing to the management of the Lions Club gives Zalgiris new opportunities to raise its profile in Europe, be close to London’s young talent and ensure the long-term growth of the sporting pyramid,” said Dainius Liulys, the new Director of Zalgiris Group. - The London Lions Club, which will participate in top-level international tournaments, will become another platform to attract and develop promising young basketball players from around the world. At the same time, the club will be able to learn from Zalgiris Basketball Club’s sporting pyramid and management, strengthening its sporting potential and growing its fan base.”
“The business transaction will not change the objectives, commitments and management model of Zalgiris Basketball Club. We are located in Kaunas, where everyone lives for basketball, and we have excellent sports infrastructure for the Zalgiris team. When the opportunity arises, we will look to take as much as possible from London. However, it is a very multicultural city, with a lot of people from other countries. We have always wanted to see more young people from different basketball schools in Zalgiris Kaunas youth teams. Now it will be a great opportunity to be close to that and try them out,” said Zalgiris President Paulius Jankunas.
The cooperation between Lions and Zalgiris will be marked by the development of promising youngsters in a basketball market with huge opportunities. The youngsters will have a platform to play in the local British Basketball League (BBL) and, in the future, in European club basketball tournaments. Players who grow up in the club’s system will not only help them to achieve top results, but will also generate revenue that the Lions will share with Zalgiris. This will also be an opportunity for the Kaunas club organization to grow - both financially and in terms of experience in developing an international project.
London has repeatedly become one of the hottest basketball hotspots in Europe. Since 1993, the NBA has hosted friendlies between its league clubs here. Since 2011, 9 NBA regular season games have been played in London, and the NBA has also run youth basketball camps in London, which have attracted a lot of interest.
Last season, when the Lions won the British Basketball League championship and reached the semi-finals of the EuroCup, they attracted a lot of interest from local basketball fans. In the EuroCup, the club’s matches were watched by a total of more than 33,000 fans, placing the club 6th among the 20 teams in the tournament in terms of total home crowds. The finalization of the deal could take another month or so.
