ASVEL Basket

ASVEL Basket, rebranded as LDLC ASVEL since 2018 under a sponsorship deal, is a French professional basketball club based in Villeurbanne, a Lyon suburb. As the basketball branch of the ASVEL multi-sport organization, it plays in the LNB Élite, France’s top-tier league. Home games are held at both the OL Arena (capacity 12,523) and the Astroballe (capacity 5,560). Founded in 1948, it holds the record for the most successful French basketball club, with 21 LNB Élite championships and 10 French Cup titles.

In June 2019, OL Groupe, the holding company of football club Olympique Lyonnais, acquired a 25% stake in the men’s team and a 10% stake in the women’s team for roughly €3.7 million. The agreement also included plans for a new arena meeting EuroLeague standards.

The parent club emerged in 1948 from the merger of two multi-sport clubs in Lyon and its surroundings; ASVEL is an acronym combining Association Sportive Villeurbanne and Éveil Lyonnais. Over its history, ASVEL has amassed 21 French Pro A League championships, 10 French Cups, two French Supercups, one French Federation Cup, and one Semaine des As Cup (French Pro A Leaders Cup), making it France’s most decorated basketball club. In 2014, former San Antonio Spurs star and French national team player Tony Parker became club president. During the 2015–16 season, ASVEL secured its 18th French League title by defeating Strasbourg IG 3 games to 2 in the Finals, after trailing 2–0 and winning three straight games. In March 2017, NBA player Nicolas Batum became a shareholder in Infinity Nine Sports, the club’s main investment company, and took over as director of basketball operations, while Parker remained majority owner and president. In 2018, the club signed a 10-year naming rights deal with Groupe LDLC, switching its main colors from white and green to white and black, and updating its logo. In 2019, ASVEL returned to the EuroLeague after receiving a two-year wild card. The 2021–22 season saw ASVEL win its third consecutive Pro A title, its first three-peat in 32 years, by beating Monaco in the Finals. In subsequent seasons, ASVEL largely underperformed, with Monaco and later Paris Basketball surpassing it in the Pro A, and the team struggled in the EuroLeague.