Football team
VEF Riga
Club · Latvia · Latvia-Estonian League
«Vefiņš»
Riga's basketball identity runs through the Riga Radio Engineering Factory, VEF, whose works team took the court in 1958 and carried the plant's name across Soviet-era Latvia. The Soviet collapse ended the club in 1992, and it sat dormant for fifteen years before Valdis Valters, once its own star guard, took charge of the rebuild in 2007 and returned it to the domestic game.
What followed turned VEF Rīga into the dominant force in Latvian basketball: twelve Latvian Basketball League titles between 2011 and 2025, with barely a season since 2011 passing without the trophy going to Riga. The Latvian Cup arrived later and just as consistently, won four years running from 2022 to 2025, alongside two Latvian-Estonian League championships. In 2011, VEF became the first Baltic club to reach the EuroLeague, a step no team from Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia had managed before.
Domestic games are played at the Komandu sporta spēļu halle, a hall built for team sports rather than spectacle, while European nights move to the Xiaomi Arena, where the seating stretches to 11,200 for basketball. The gap between the two venues says something about the club's two lives: a steady league operation at home, and occasional nights when Riga wants a bigger stage.
The fiercest fixture in Latvian basketball is the derby with BK Ventspils. Valters, playmaker turned coach, remains the name tying the two eras together, the man who wore the factory's colours as a player and put them back on the court as a manager.
Latest results
All matches| 23 Sep | Latvia-Estonian League |
Latvijas Universitate
H
|
104:66 | W |
| 17 Sep | Champions League |
Dziki Warszawa
H
|
95:102 | L |
| 14 Sep | Champions League |
Absheron Lions
H
|
105:88 | W |
| 14 May | LBL |
Rigas Zelli
H
|
80:93 | L |
| 11 May | LBL |
Rigas Zelli
A
|
100:112 | L |
| 8 May | LBL |
Rigas Zelli
H
|
94:84 | W |
Standing
Champions LeagueGroup stage · Group F
| # | Team | M | W | L | Goals | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 AEK Athens
|
6 | 5 | 1 | 494:431 | 0 |
| 2 |
 Szolnoki Olajbanyasz
|
6 | 3 | 3 | 451:439 | 0 |
| 3 |
 Levice
|
6 | 3 | 3 | 461:467 | 0 |
| 4 |
 VEF Riga
|
6 | 1 | 5 | 411:480 | 0 |
Team statistics
matches counted in total: 294| Metric | Total | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | 294 | 155 | 139 |
| Scored | 25094 | 13256 | 11838 |
| Conceded | 21712 | 11062 | 10650 |
| Average per match | 85.4 | 85.5 | 85.2 |
| Conceded per game | 73.9 | 71.4 | 76.6 |
| Difference | +3382 | +2194 | +1188 |
Fixtures of VEF Riga
-
26 Sep · 15:00
BK Ogre
A
Latvia-Estonian League
-
29 Sep · 17:00
Keila KK
H
Latvia-Estonian League
-
3 Oct · 15:00
BK Liepāja
H
Latvia-Estonian League
-
23 Sep
Latvijas Universitate
H
104:66
W
-
17 Sep
Dziki Warszawa
H
95:102
L
-
14 Sep
Absheron Lions
H
105:88
W
-
14 May
Rigas Zelli
H
80:93
L
-
11 May
Rigas Zelli
A
100:112
L
-
8 May
Rigas Zelli
H
94:84
W
-
4 May
Ventspils
H
67:75
L
-
2 May
Ventspils
A
104:94
W
Honours of VEF Riga
- Latvian Basketball League 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 12
- Latvian Basketball Cup 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 4
- Latvian–Estonian Basketball League 2022, 2025 2
- BBL Cup 2011 1