Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League

During its first year, the league hosted teams from Luzon with future plans to expand to Visayas and Mindanao like the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association. It was planned that an expanded MPBL will have two divisions, North and South, where the best team from both divisions will face in a finals series similar to the format of the National Basketball Association in North America.[3] The league was planned to start as early as September 23, 2017 with at least six teams.[6] A pre-season tournament was held with the Bulacan Kuyas finishing as champions.[7]

The MPBL began its first season on January 25, 2018, and included ten teams, all based in Luzon.[8] Teams are required to have at least three homegrown players in their roster.[9] In the opening game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, the Parañaque Patriots secured a 70–60 victory over the Caloocan Supremos.[10] The playoffs only features eight teams due to its small size at the time, as the Batangas City Athletics were crowned as the league's inaugural champions when they defeated the Muntinlupa Cagers in the 2018 MPBL Finals.

In the 2018–19 season, the league expanded to 26 teams, adding 16 expansion teams to the league. After ten expansion teams from Luzon were admitted into the league, it closed its doors so that it could leave room for future Visayas and Mindanao teams.[11] The North and South Divisions were introduced and the playoff format was changed to accommodate 16 teams. The league also placed roster restrictions on teams, only allowing one Filipino-foreigner and up to five ex-professional players.[12] The San Juan Knights then became the 2019 champions, beating the Davao Occidental Tigers.

The 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.[13] In December 2019, Chooks-to-Go of Bounty Agro Ventures became the title sponsor of the league under a five-year deal.[14]

The 2019–20 season was postponed on March 12, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after the second game of the Divisional Finals. Nearly one year later, the league resumed play for the final games of the playoffs on March 10, 2021 through a bubble in Subic.[15] Davao Occidental beat San Juan in a rematch of last season's Finals to become the 2020 champions. Because of the long delay, the 2020–21 season was cancelled altogether.[16] In October 2021, Chooks-to-Go took over the operations of the league.[14]

On November 9, 2021, it was announced that the MPBL will 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).[4] The league's first professional event was the 2021 Invitational, which was the first preseason tournament under the Invitational label. During the Invitational, all roster restrictions were lifted.[17][18] The Basilan Jumbo Plastic became the Invitational champions and also won a prize pot of two million pesos.

This is followed by the 2022 season, which featured 22 of the 31 teams from the previous season. The season marked a new sponsorship with sports betting platform OKBet, making them the title sponsor.[19] On October 10, 2022, Kyt Jimenez of the Sarangani Marlins became the first player in league history to record a quadruple-double.[20] The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards went undefeated in the regular season and subsequently became the 2022 champions, winning against the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines.

The 2023 season features 29 teams, including two expansion teams and five returning teams.[21] The 2023 Preseason Invitational was held in General Santos featuring eight teams, among those teams is the first guest team in the league, General Santos-based Bulalakaw.[22] Zamboanga won the preseason tournament, beating Nueva Ecija. On June 3, 2023, Jeff Viernes of the Sarangani Marlins recorded the league's first 50-point game.[23]

On June 15, 2023, the Junior MPBL was unveiled by Pacquiao in a press conference. The youth-oriented league's inaugural season began on July 9, 2023 and features 22 teams, all competing in under-14, under-16, and under-18 divisions.[24] In the same press conference, Pacquiao also shared intent to create a volleyball counterpart similar to the MPBL that will cater to female players.[25] The league will be called the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) and is expected to start in October 2023 with at least eight teams, with the possibility of a men's division in 2024.[5] A press conference on the MPVA was held on September 15, 2023 in which Pacquiao stated that ten teams have committed to participating in the volleyball league's inaugural season. He also mentioned a plan for the MPVA to have its own junior's division.[26]

Active team Former team Future team Did not participate

Before the regular season begins, an invitational tournament is held as part of the preseason. The tournament is divided into two phases: the group stage and the playoff tournament. 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 playoff tournament, with cash prizes awaiting the top teams.

The season opens with the opening ceremonies, which typically includes various performances and a muse contest between various teams.

The regular season uses a single round-robin format, similar to the format of the PBA, where each team plays against all of the other teams once. The teams are divided into the North and South Divisions, although it doesn't have any impact on the regular season schedule and is only used for the purpose of playoff seeding. In each gameday, a series of games is played in a team's homecourt, but not all games feature the host team, making them neutral-site games. Two or three games are usually played in each gameday, with the final game often featuring the host team. Occasionally, the league schedules an Invasion series, where all games are played within a single area, either locally or internationally.

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:

• Executives' Game: an exhibition game where only league executives and team staff play.
• Three-Point Shootout: an event where players must shoot as many three-pointers as possible from five different points around the court.
• Slam Dunk Contest: an event where players show off their dunking skills to earn the highest score possible.

The league uses the standard FIBA rules for all games. Since 2022, teams are ranked by the number of wins, not winning percentage.

Since the 2018–19 season, top eight teams in each division advance to the playoffs and are seeded into a single-elimination bracket consisting of four rounds. Should there be any ties, the league uses the standard FIBA tiebreaker criteria:

1. Head-to-head record between tied teams
2. Head-to-head point differential between tied teams
3. Head-to-head points scored between tied teams
4. Overall point differential
5. Overall points scored

Once a team is eliminated from a tiebreaker, the criteria resets back to the first step for the remaining teams.

The first three rounds – First Round, Division Semifinals, and Division Finals – are played in a best-of-three series, while the fourth and final round – the National Finals – is played in a best-of-five series.

The league uses a different homecourt advantage system, specifically for the first two rounds. In the First Round, only the top four teams can host gamedays. In the Division Semifinals, only the top two remaining teams can host gamedays. The Division Finals and National Finals both use traditional 1-1-1 and 2-2-1 formats, respectively, to determine homecourt advantage.

Trophies are given out to the winning team of each Division Finals series and the National Finals, with the winning team of the National Finals also being declared as the season's champions. During the National Finals, the league also gives out its end-of-season awards to the best players in various categories, including the regular season Most Valuable Player. The best player of the National Finals also given the Finals Most Valuable Player after the conclusion of the series.

On January 11, 2018, it was announced that ABS-CBN and its sports division would be the first television broadcasters in the league.[43] These games were broadcast on ABS-CBN, S+A, Liga, and its various regional stations in the Philippines, while The Filipino Channel broadcast the games for international markets. In addition, Fox Sports Asia also held the broadcast rights for Monday games until the 2018–19 season.

For streaming, the league began broadcasting all games on its Facebook page starting in 2018. ABS-CBN's streaming service iWantTFC first held the streaming rights from 2019 until 2022.

The broadcast rights were left in jeopardy when ABS-CBN's franchise was expired on May 4, 2020, which led to the dissolution of its sports division on August 31, 2020. Despite that, the network continued to broadcast games through A2Z, formed through a partnership agreement with ZOE TV, when the 2020 playoffs resumed.

Due to the lack of ABS-CBN's franchise, the league had to award the broadcast rights to another network ahead of the then-upcoming 2022 season. Prior to that, IBC acquired the television broadcast rights for the 2021 Invitational, with TAP DMV's TAP Go acquiring the streaming rights.

In the 2022 season, Cignal TV took over as the league's main broadcast partner. One PH airs the last game of each game day, typically using a delayed telecast. One Sports+ also broadcasts a selection of preseason games. In the following season, Media Pilipinas TV (MPTV) began broadcasting games in April 2023.

The league also expanded its streaming portfolio during this time, as it began broadcasting on its respective Youtube and Kumu pages in 2022. To go alongside Cignal's television rights, Cignal Play began streaming all games. Bola.TV would later join in August 2023, which also allows its streamers to co-stream the main broadcast feed with their own commentary.