The National Badminton League (NBL) was a professional team

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

league in England. Organised by

Badminton England Badminton England is the national governing body for the sport of badminton in England. It aims to govern, encourage and develop the sport throughout England. Originally established in 1893 as the Badminton Association of England in Portsmou ...

, it was launched in October 2014 as the first ever national badminton league in the UK. Reaching seven franchise teams in its third and final season (16-17), the inaugural season launched with six teams. Team matches were played with an abbreviated scoring system across all five disciplines (best-of-five games, first four games played to nine points) and tie–break format (fifth game to five points), with one match each match night being broadcast live on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

in the first two seasons. The 16-17 season was broadcast on

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Bro ...

. On 29 March 2017, it was announced on the National Badminton League website that it would cease operations with immediate effect.

History

Badminton England announced the creation of the NBL in April 2014. A player auction was held in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

on 2 June 2014. The first league fixtures took place on 6 October 2014. Team Derby were the winners of the inaugural Play-off Finals. AJ Bell were announced as title sponsor of the NBL in November 2015, from which point it became the AJ Bell NBL. Season 3 16-17 saw the introduction of two new franchises in Bristol Jets and Suffolk Saxons. MK Badminton did not continue into the 16-17 season.

became the official broadcaster of the AJ Bell NBL in the 16-17 season. On 29 March 2017, it was announced on the National Badminton League website that it would cease operations with immediate effect, as it was - in the view of Badminton England - not “self-sustainable in the short to medium term”.

Format

The NBL consisted of seven franchises. The teams played each other once during the league season, either home or away. At the end of the regular season, the top two teams faced each other in the championship final to determine the winner of the NBL. The match-night format saw teams playing 5 events (men's singles, women's singles, mixed doubles, men's doubles and women's doubles) - each played to 'best of 5 games'. Games were played to a first to 9 points rally scoring system with the deciding 5th game being a tiebreak played 'first to 5' points. Only 2 players could 'double up' and play 2 events per match-night.

Teams

Seven franchises competed in the 2016–17 season, six of which were affiliated with local universities.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official websiteNBL at Badminton England
Badminton tournaments in England 2014 establishments in England Sports leagues established in 2014 Sports leagues disestablished in 2017