The Basketball Tournament (TBT) and ESPN today announced a multi-year extension of their exclusive multiplatform broadcast rights agreement, with ESPN committing to increasing coverage of the fast-growing event, which features 64 teams of top professional, college alumni, and international basketball players competing in a single-elimination 5-on-5 tournament for a winner-take-all $2 million prize.
The highly-competitive tournament has attracted some of the best basketball players currently playing around the world. In 2016, 63 recent NBA players competed, and 20 teams were composed of alumni from Division I programs including Syracuse, Michigan State, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Memphis, and Villanova. Overseas Elite, a team put together by a CAA agent consisting of his clients, won for the second year in a row. A record 353 teams consisting of more than 2,150 players applied to compete in TBT last year - nearly three times as many as the inaugural event in 2014. TBT's physical footprint also continues to expand, with new cities hosting regional competitions in 2017 and multiple cities vying to host the 2017 championship weekend. Ratings for TBT games on ESPN platforms in 2016 increased across all demographics over 2015, led by a +140% increase among younger viewers (18-34). As part of the new agreement, ESPN has committed to airing at least 15 TBT games on ESPN or ESPN2 in 2017 (up from nine in 2016). All 63 games will air on ESPN networks, beginning Saturday, July 8.Videos