MPBL All-Stars

The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) is a men's regional professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of 30 teams.

Founded in 2017 by eight-division boxing world champion and then-Senator Manny Pacquiao, the MPBL is not intended to be a competitor to the top-flight Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), but rather to provide a gateway for local, homegrown talents to showcase their skills. The league uses a home-and-away format, similar to the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association. The MPBL started an amateur league before being granted professional status by the Games and Amusements Board. Due to Pacquiao's role in the league, it has also been referred to as Manny Pacquiao's Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League.

The MPBL is the first in a series of leagues which bear the ''Maharlika Pilipinas'' name. It is followed by the Junior MPBL and Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) in 2023, and the Women's Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (WMPBL) in 2024.

The Pampanga Giant Lanterns are the current defending champions, beating the Quezon Huskers in three games during the 2024 MPBL finals. They are also currently the only team to win multiple championships.

History

2017: Founding

Pacquiao formally launched the MPBL on August 29, 2017, with the intent to feature both the commercial and barangay-level side, with teams on the commercial side to have a home locality in addition to a corporate sponsor. The plan was for the league to begin with Luzon-based teams only and then expand to Visayas and Mindanao later on. The expanded league would have two divisions, North and South, where one team from both divisions face in a finals series similar to the format of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in North America. The league was planned to start as early as September 23, 2017 with at least six teams. A preseason tournament was held with the Bulacan Kuyas finishing as champions. Snow Badua was the league's inaugural commissioner, but he did not take on the role when the first season eventually began as six-time PBA champion Kenneth Duremdes succeeded Badua as league commissioner on November 22, 2017.

2018–2020: Amateur era

The MPBL began its inaugural season on January 25, 2018, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. The inaugural season featured ten teams, all based in Luzon, with the requirement of each team having three homegrown players. In the opening game, the Parañaque Patriots scored a 70–60 victory over the Caloocan Supremos. The playoffs only had eight teams due to the small size, concluding with the Batangas City Athletics winning the inaugural title in the 2018 finals against the Muntinlupa Cagers.

In the 2018–19 season, the league added sixteen expansion teams, bringing the total to 26 teams. Five of the sixteen expansions are based in Visayas and Mindanao, thus marking the league's national expansion. The North and South Divisions were introduced and the playoff pool doubled to sixteen teams, eight per division. The league also placed roster restrictions on teams, only allowing one Filipino-foreigner and up to five ex-professional players, intended to maintain parity and preserve the league's grassroots foundations. However, the classification of and restrictions on Filipino-foreigners was critized by fans, coaches, and players, particularly other Filipino-foreigners including Rob Reyes and Abu Tratter. The rule would later be relaxed in future seasons. The 2018–19 season also saw the inaugural edition of the MPBL All-Star Game, which was held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. The San Juan Knights won the title that season against the Davao Occidental Tigers in the 2019 national finals, which is to date, the only series to go the full length of five games.

The following 2019–20 season featured 31 teams participating in the league, the most the league had in its history, adding six expansion teams but also saw its first departing team, the Mandaluyong El Tigre. Roster restrictions were also relaxed, allowing more Filipino-foreigners and ex-professional players to play in the league. This season also saw the debut of the International Invasion series, which saw games being played in the United Arab Emirates and in Canada.

2020–2021: COVID-19 disruption

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the league suspended play on March 12, 2020. Nearly a year later, on March 6, 2021, the league announced the resumption of its playoffs. The remainder of the league's 2020 playoffs was held at a bubble at the Subic Bay Gymnasium. In a rematch of the 2019 national finals series, the Davao Occidental Tigers won the 2021 national finals against the San Juan Knights. Because of the restrictions imposed by the government due to the pandemic, the league's 2020–21 season would be cancelled. The league's fourth season would be postponed multiple times before it eventually began in 2022. In October 2021, Chooks-to-Go took over the league's basketball operations.

The continued suspension of league play led to some teams taking part in tournaments of the newly-established FilBasket in an effort to remain competitive. This trend of teams competing in other regional leagues during the off-season continued into later seasons with the Pilipinas Super League (PSL).

2021–present: Professional era

On November 9, 2021, it was announced that the MPBL would turn into a professional league. A month later, on December 9, 2021, the MPBL was granted professional status by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB). This also allowed the league to feature collegiate players on team rosters, as long as the player himself has a Special Guest License. The league's first professional event was the 2021 Invitational, during which all roster restrictions were lifted. The preseason tournament would later be developed with the MPBL Preseason Invitational in future seasons as a smaller pocket tournament.

As the league continued its recovery from the pandemic, it finally started its fourth season, the 2022 season, after multiple postponements and over a year after last season's conclusion. It only featured 22 teams, the smallest the league has gotten since its inaugural season. The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards became the first team to achieve a regular season sweep and subsequently won the 2022 national finals against the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines. The succeeding 2023 season featured 29 teams, which included the additions of the Negros Muscovados and Quezon Huskers. The season also marked the beginning of a trend where PBA prospects, such as Justine Baltazar, CJ Cansino, and Adrian Nocum would first play in the MPBL before eventually declaring for the draft. Similarly, PBA veterans such as the likes of Marc Pingris, Jayjay Helterbrand, and Arwind Santos also began playing in the regional league during the latter part of their playing careers. The season culminated with the homegrown-laden Pampanga Giant Lanterns sweeping the Bacoor City Strikers in the 2023 national finals.

The 2024 season also featured 29 teams and marked the start of the league's Northern Luzon expansion. The ex-professional player limit was removed, allowing teams to sign any number of professional players onto their rosters. In April 2024, the league began exploring the possibility of joining the East Asia Super League. However, this was later refuted by EASL CEO Henry Kerins in October that year, stating that "there were no exploratory talks" while also sharing his respect for the league. The season culminated with the first back-to-back championship after Pampanga defeated the Quezon Huskers in three games in the 2024 MPBL finals, which also featured the league's first international games in five years.

The 2025 season features 30 teams and will see the introduction of the league's play-in tournament, a series of games to be held after the regular season and before the playoffs to determine which teams take up the final playoff spots similar to its NBA counterpart. The Northern Luzon expansion continued with the addition of the Ilagan Isabela Cowboys.

Further developments

Following the success of the MPBL, Pacquiao has made further developments in grassroots-based sports. On June 15, 2023, the Junior MPBL was unveiled in a press conference. The youth-oriented league's inaugural season began on July 9, 2023, with teams competing in 14-under, 16-under, and 18-under divisions. The junior league features a 21-under division, billed as the "Junior MPBL D-League". In the same press conference, Pacquiao also shared intent to create a volleyball counterpart similar to the MPBL that will cater to female players. That league would be known as the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) and began on October 22, 2023, with eight teams. On October 27, 2024, it was reported that a direct women's counterpart, the Women's Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League is in development. UST Growling Tigers coach Haydee Ong was set to be the first commissioner of the women's league.

On November 7, 2023, the league launched its social arm, the ''MPBL Kalinga'', with the goal of providing medical assistance to MPBL players, former and current, as well as league officials and staff. In October 2024, a party-list sharing the same acronym, the ''Maharlikang Pilipino sa Bagong Lipunan'' party-list, was created in an effort to extend their grassroots program into other sports.

Title sponsorship deals

In December 2019, Chooks-to-Go of Bounty Agro Ventures became the league's first title sponsor. The deal was initially set to last for five years (until December 2024), but only lasted until the 2021 Invitational. Sports betting platform OKBet, succeeded Chooks-to-Go as the league's new title sponsor in 2022 and continued into 2023. In 2025, the league signed a new title sponsorship deal with gambling company 1xbet, which lasts until 2026.

Game-fixing issue

The league has been noted for its game-fixing problem, which has been one of its long-standing issues. The league began cracking down on game-fixing ahead of the 2019–20 season, a season that went on to have multiple such cases. Ahead of the 2024 season, the league banned 47 players and officials who were allegedly involved in such acts. The league has also told team owners to exclude any players and coaches who are suspected to be involved in this issue.

Teams

The league began with 10 teams in 2018 and, as of 2025, consists of 30 active teams. Teams are divided into two geographic divisions: the North and South Division. The Ilagan Isabela Cowboys are the newest expansion team, having joined the league that year.

In the maps below, blue pegs indicate North Division teams while red pegs indicate South Division teams. Yellow pegs indicate expansion and returning teams.

Former teams

; Notes

Teams per region

The table below shows how the league is spread across all regions in the country, sorted from north to south. Metro Manila has the most active teams out of any region with ten followed by Calabarzon with five and Central Luzon with four. Soccsksargen is the only other region that has multiple representing teams with two. In terms of island groups, most of the teams are based in Luzon, which has 23 teams, while Mindanao has five teams and Visayas has two teams.

As of 2025, thirteen of the country's eighteen regions are currently being represented. Two others, Bicol Region and Western Visayas, previously had teams represent their respective regions. The only regions that haven't had a representing team at any point are Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, and Caraga.

; Notes

Roster regulations

There is no draft held during the off-season, instead teams acquire their players through the signing of contracts. Teams must have a minimum of 15 players in their roster, with the maximum being 22. In each game, however, teams can only field a 15-man roster into the court. All local players are eligible, although teams can also sign up to two Filipino-foreigners. The league currently doesn't allow imports.

Being based in the grassroots level, each team is required to have at least three homegrown players who come from the team's home locality. Since 2022, with the transition to professional status, the league has also allowed collegiate players to join as long as the player is granted a Special Guest License from the Games and Amusement Board. Since June 1, 2024, the NCAA no longer allows SGLs to play professionally. The league also had an ex-professional player limit, where teams were allowed to sign limited number of players with prior professional experience. This was replaced with an ex-PBA player limit in 2022, and in 2024 the limit was scrapped in its entirety. The league schedules a window during the middle of the season where teams can propose trades, all to be approved by the commissioner's office.

Season format

Preseason

Before the regular season begins, an invitational tournament is usually held as part of the preseason. The tournament is divided into two phases: the group stage and the playoffs. In the group stage, the participating teams are divided into multiple groups, where each team will play against their group opponents once. The top two teams of each group advance to a single-elimination playoffs.

Regular season

The regular season utilizes a single round-robin tournament format, where each team plays against all of the other teams once, regardless of division alignment. The league uses FIBA rules for all of its games. The league uses the number of wins as its first metric for determining rankings and any ties are broken using the quotient system.

Two or three games are scheduled each day to be played in a single venue, thus a majority of the league's games are considered neutral-site games. The home team typically plays in the final game, although in some occasions, it may also be a neutral-site game. Should any games be postponed or suspended, most commonly due to natural disasters like typhoons, the games would be moved towards the end of the regular season schedule. The affected games will only be played or resumed if there are any playoff implications for any of the teams involved.

Similar to the PBA, league also schedules series of out-of-town games throughout the regular season, known as Invasion series, where consecutive gamedays take place in areas far from the Greater Manila Area, such as Visayas and Mindanao. Invasion series also cover the league's international games.

All-Star Game

Near the end of the regular season, the league holds its seasonal All-Star Game. Two teams representing the North and South Divisions are composed of fifteen players from each division, all of whom are declared as the season's all-stars. Alongside the All-Star Game are the various festivities held at the same day, including the Executives' Game, Three-Point Shootout, and Slam Dunk Contest.

Play-in tournament

Beginning with the 2025 season, the league will feature a play-in tournament to be contested by teams ranked seventh through tenth in their respective divisions. The seventh and eighth-placed teams play to determine the seventh seed in the playoffs. The ninth and tenth-placed teams play to face the winner of the seventh place game for the last seed.

Playoffs

Since the 2018–19 season, sixteen teams advance to the playoffs, eight per division. These include the top six teams from each division as well as two qualifying teams from the play-in tournament.

In the first round or the division quarterfinals, the first seed matches with the eighth seed, the second with the seventh, the third with the sixth, and the fourth with the fifth. The division semifinals will then have the winner of the 1–8 series match with the winner of the 4–5 series, and the winner of the 2–7 series with the winner of the 3–6 series. The winners of both series then meet in the division finals. The champions of each division will then meet in the final round, dubbed as the MPBL finals or the MPBL national finals, where the two teams play in one final series to determine the series champion.

The first two rounds, the division quarterfinals and semifinals, are best-of-three series while the last two rounds, the division finals and national finals, are best-of-five series.

Homecourt advantage

During the first two rounds of the playoffs, two games from within the same division are played in the same gameday at the same venue. Because of this, a different system is used to determine homecourt advantage for those two rounds, shown in the table below. Both the division finals and national finals use a traditional 2–2–1 format, where the higher-seeded team hosts games 1, 2, and 5.

;Notes
* If one or two series feature a game 3, the highest-seeded remaining team hosts the games.
* If more than two series feature a game 3, the two highest-seeded remaining teams host the games.

Awards

A majority of the league's awards are given out during the national finals, such as the Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Two awards, the Finals MVP and Coach of the Year, are given out after the finals.

Championships

As of 2024, five teams have won the championship, with the Pampanga Giant Lanterns being the only team to win two titles. Three teams have made two appearances in the national finals thus far.

Junior MPBL

Media coverage

Throughout the history of the MPBL, it has had multiple networks acquire the league's television and streaming broadcast rights. Regardless of platform, the league has always used a centralized broadcast feed, meaning that the same feed shared across all platforms in which it is broadcast. It also employs its own broadcast team of commentators, analysts, and courtside reporters.

ABS-CBN became the league's first television partner beginning with the 2018 season, and aired the games on television via the main channel, S+A, Liga, its various regional stations in regional markets, and The Filipino Channel in international markets. The network's iWantTFC streaming service aired the games worldwide. Additionally, Fox Sports Asia, held the television rights for Monday games throughout the 2018–19 season. The shutdown of ABS-CBN broadcasting during the 2019–20 season suspension meant that the network's final MPBL broadcasts came during the 2021 national finals, which were aired on the A2Z channel.

While the league was finding a new broadcast partner for the 2022 season, the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) held the television rights for the 2021 Invitational. TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation (TAP DMV) held the streaming rights, streaming all games via its TAP Go service.

The league eventually found its successor to ABS-CBN in 2022 with Cignal TV becoming the league's new television partner. The primetime game was broadcast on One PH while Media Pilipinas TV (MPTV), a channel dedicated to programming of the ''Maharlika Pilipinas'' leagues, aired all games beginning in 2023. The network's Pilipinas Live service held the streaming rights since its launch in 2023. Cignal's television and streaming rights lasted until 2024, with its final broadcasts being during the 2024 national finals.

Succeeding Cignal is the league's current television partner, Solar Entertainment Corporation, which will air a selection of Monday, Thursday, and Saturday games on its Solar Sports channel beginning in 2025.

Commissioners

See also

* Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association
* Women's Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League
* List of MPBL champions
* List of MPBL records
* List of MPBL awards
* List of MPBL seasons
* List of MPBL rivalries

References

External links

Genius Sports
– scores and statistics

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