The Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) is preparing for the playoffs in its seventh season, with this year’s single-elimination format set to tip off Thursday, August 14, in a Play-In round doubleheader at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET.
The Niagara River Lions (14-10), who finished first overall in the Eastern Conference standings and are defending CEBL Champions, earned an automatic bye to Championship Weekend from August 22 to August 24 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Eastern Conference Playoffs, presented by LOTTO MAX, and the Western Conference Playoffs, presented by Kal Tire, feature four rounds: the Play-Ins, the Conference Semifinals, the Conference Finals, and the CEBL Championship Final.
On Thursday, the Eastern Conference Play-In game features the Montréal Alliance visiting the Scarborough Shooting Stars at 7 p.m. ET at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. Immediately afterward, the Western Conference Play-In tips off at 9:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. MT) at Calgary’s WinSport Event Centre, where the Surge will entertain the Edmonton Stingers.
The Ottawa BlackJacks and Vancouver Bandits will host their respective Conference Semifinal games on Sunday, August 16, taking on the winners of the Play-In matchups. The BlackJacks’ game will be held at Centre Slush Puppie in Gatineau, QC, while the Bandits will host at Langley Events Centre.
Winners of the Conference semifinals will advance to 2025 Championship Weekend (CW25), where the River Lions and the host team, the Winnipeg Sea Bears, await their Conference Finals opponents. The four-team CW25, hosted this year at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg features a Conference Finals doubleheader on Friday, August 22, followed by the CEBL Championship Final on Sunday, August 24.
Despite being the beasts of the East, Niagara enters the postseason losers of five straight games.
Vancouver (19-5) was best in the West. In fact, all three playoff teams from the Western Conference had better regular season records than the River Lions.
Ticket information for all CEBL games, including single-game tickets for 2025, can be found by visiting cebl.ca/tickets. Ticket and event information for 2025 Championship Weekend in Winnipeg is available at cebl.ca/cw25/tickets.
For full details on the CEBL playoff format, visit cebl.ca/playoffs.
The CEBL’s full 2025 playoff schedule is as follows:
*Winnipeg will be the lower seed due to finishing beneath Vancouver, Calgary & Edmonton in the 2025 CEBL standings.
All 2025 CEBL playoff games will be televised live on TSN in Canada and NLSE in the United States, and available to stream on CEBL+ powered By Tonybet, and TSN+. All CW25 games will also be televised in French on RDS.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
