Thus, the League Council approved the extension of competition format and increasing the number of participants up to 16 teams. It is planned that at the preliminary stage the participants will be divided into two groups and will conduct a 2-round tournament. The group winners will go directly to the «Final four», and the remaining two tickets to a decisive round will be played in the playoffs (in 1/8 and 1/4 finals up to two victories ) between the teams which take 2-4-th places in their groups.

«Spartak» and «Lokomotiv-Kuban» — are one of the leading clubs of Russia, which successfully participate in the Russian championship and in international arena (last week both teams got into the Final Four of the Challenge Cup of FIBA).

«Nymburk» – is the Czech leading basketball club (permanent national champion for the past seven years) and regular participant of the Euro Cup tournaments. This season the team also takes part in the Adriatic League as well.

«Astana», unlike other newcomers of VTB United League is not so widely known among the fans and professionals. However, the strongest club of Kazakhstan in the new season substantially increased the budget and invited a famous local basketball player, the Olympic champion of Seoul-88 Valery Tikhonenko as the General Director.

BC «Lokomotiv Kuban» (Krasnodar)

Founded in: 2003 (Lokomotiv Rostov)
Colors: red, green, white
Home Arena: «Basket-hall» (7.500 spectators)
Achievements: Finalist of FIBA Cup (2005)
President: Vladimir Vorobyev
General Director: Andrey Vedishchev
Head Coach: Kestutis Kemzura

The comment of the General Director of the club Andrey Vedishchev:
— We are pleased to join the VTB United League. This is a very prestigious and evolving tournament. This season there were six teams from Euroleague participating in the League and it says about the high level of the League itself. Geography of the competition is also great — there are no analogues of VTB United League on the post-soviet region.

BC «Spartak» (St. Petersburg)

Founded in: 1935
Colors: white, red
Home Arena: SC «Yubileiny» (7.500 spectators)
Achievements: USSR Champion 1975. CIS Champion 1992. Winner of USSR Cup 1978, 1987. Winner of Cup Winners' Cup 1973, 1975. Silver medalist of USSR Champion 1970, 1971, 1972. 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1991. Silver medalist of Russian Championship 1993. Bronze medalist of USSR Champion 1969, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1987. Winner of Cup of Russia 2011.
President: Igor Lipsky
Head Coach: Zvi Sherf

The comment of the president of the club Igor Lipsky:
— We are pleased to join the VTB United League. I am very glad that the Board of the League today voted unanimously to join «Spartak» in the 16 participating teams of the championship. The League has a lot of advantages and one of them — it's free television broadcasts of matches.

BC «Nymburk» (Czech Republic)

Founded in: 1929
Colors: white, red
Home Arena: «CEZ Arena» (11.000 spectators)
Achievements: Champion of Czech Republic — 2004 -2010. Winner of Cup of Czech Republic -2005, 2007-2011.
President: Miroslav Jansta
Head Coach: Ronen Ginzburg
Sports Director: Jiri Zídek

The comment of the Sports Director of club Jiri Zídek:
— We are extremely happy to be joining the VTB United League. Our club has slowly built a good position among quality European teams in the region through our participation in Eurocup and in case of last year, also the Adriatic league. We enjoyed and benefited from participating in Adriatic league last season but the expenses associated with our start were too high. VTB United League with 5 Euroleague teams, provides arguably even better sports quality and very importantly covers vast majority of clubs expenses. Its difficult to translate this into exact position in classification in VTB United League at the end of next years season but for sure we will do our best to reach the play-offs.

BC «Astana» (Kazakhstan)

Founded in: 2001
Colors: yellow, black
Home Arena: SC «Bicycle Track» (9. 270 spectators)
Achievements: Champion of Kazakhstan -2005-2010. Winner of Cup of Kazakhstan 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010.
General Director: Valery Tikhonenko

The comment of the General Director of the club Valery Tikhonenko:
— The fact that «Astana» joined the VTB United League — is a huge step forward for all Kazakhstan basketball. And we will do everything to look worthily against other teams of the League and successfully represent our country on international arena. Russia and Kazakhstan have always been friendly countries and participation of «Astana» in VTB United League — is a perfect example of our good relationship.