Super League Basketball (SLB) have announced the official formats and schedules for the 2025/26 Men’s Cup and Trophy.

Newcastle Eagles can now confirm its tip-offs in both competitions as they look to retain the Trophy as 2025 winners.

Head coach Marc Steutel will be looking to bring the Cup back to Newcastle for his first time in charge. The club last won the Cup in 2021 in a final against London Lions played behind closed doors following the pandemic.


SLB TROPHY

This year’s SLB Trophy tips-off first with the league’s nine teams split into three geographical groups.

Group 1: Caledonia, Newcastle, Sheffield
Group 2: Manchester, Cheshire, Leicester
Group 3: Bristol, London, Surrey

In each group, the three teams play each other once with two games per team and one tip-off at home each either played across 7–9 November and 12–14 December 2025.


Newcastle Eagles tip-off away first over the border at Caledonia on Sunday 9 November and will welcome Sheffield to the Vertu Arena on Friday 12 December.

  • AWAY
    Sun 9
     
    Nov
    16:00

    Caledonia Gladiators - vs -Newcastle Eagles

    Playsport Arena
    Men's SLB Trophy
  • HOME
    Fri 12
     
    Dec
    19:30

    Newcastle Eagles - vs -B. Braun Sheffield Sharks

    Vertu Arena
    Men's SLB Trophy

Each group’s winners plus the best runner-up advance to the two-legged Semi-Finals played over the weekend 2–4 January 2026.

The Final returns to Utilita Arena Birmingham on Sunday 1 February 2026 as the SLB’s first showpiece occasion of the new season. Tickets are available now via the SLB website.

SLB CUP

The top seven teams from the 2024/25 Men’s Championship go straight into the Cup Quarter-Finals with the bottom two teams playing a single-leg Qualifying Game for the final spot.


As fifth place finishers last season Newcastle Eagles receive a bye into the Quarter-Finals, which will be drawn openly later this month and played over 23–25 January 2026, with a guaranteed home game for four of the teams.

The 2026 Cup Final will be staged at the AO Arena Manchester on Sunday 22 March 2026 and tickets are available now via the SLB website.

Super League Basketball Chief Operating Officer Andy Webb said: “The Trophy and Cup are cornerstones of our calendar, bringing intensity and drama from the very first tip-off.

“For players, they’re an opportunity to create lasting memories and chase silverware; for fans, they deliver the kind of one-off games that make basketball so special.

“Staging the finals in Birmingham and Manchester underlines our ambition to grow the game’s profile while giving supporters the chance to experience best-in-class basketball in best-in-class arenas.”