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The National Badminton League (NBL) is a professional team badminton league in England. Organised by Badminton England, it was launched in October 2014 as the first ever national badminton league in the UK. Now in its third season (16-17) with seven franchise teams, the inaugural season launched with six teams. Team matches are 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 in the first two seasons. The 16-17 season will be broadcast on BT Sport.
Contents
History
Badminton England announced the creation of the NBL in April 2014. A player auction was held in Milton Keynes 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.
BT Sport became the official broadcaster of the AJ Bell NBL in the 16-17 season.
Format
The NBL consists of seven franchises. The teams will play each other once during the league season, either home or away. At the end of the regular season, the top two teams will face each other in the championship final to determine the winner of the NBL.
The match-night format sees 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 are 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 can 'double up' and play 2 events per match-night.
New coaching time-outs and a double points rally (PowerPlay) are new features of the NBL.
Teams
Seven franchises competed in the 2016–17 season, six of which are affiliated with local universities.