VTB United League Spending Jumps 60% in 2025/26
The VTB United League's costs rose to 2.17 billion roubles, driven by the new WINLINE Basket Cup and a bookmaker deal worth about 600 million roubles.
The VTB United League has published its financial figures for the 2025/26 season, showing total spending of 2.17 billion roubles — up 60% on the previous year.
The league put the jump down to the launch of the WINLINE Basket Cup. Spending on running competitions rose from 612.3 million to 1.09 billion roubles, while the prize fund grew from 200 million to 324 million roubles. According to the Telegram channel "24 sekundy", the combined increase across those two items comes to roughly 600 million roubles — a figure it links to the league's contract with bookmaker WINLINE.
Before the season started, the league said WINLINE's funds would go entirely towards staging the new tournament.
"I'll say this separately: in the season when we increased investment in organising our own competitions, we did not cut, but in fact increased, mandatory spending on supporting youth and grassroots sport. This was done using targeted contributions received from bookmakers," said Ilona Korstin, general director of the VTB United League.
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