On 1 January 2022, Totalizator Sportowy will become a partner of the Polish Basketball Association and the titular partner of 3×3 basketball – a new, spectacular Olympic discipline. Announced on October 25, the partnership will provide support to the senior and youth men’s and women’s 3×3 teams. “The goal is a medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris,” says Olgierd Cieślik, CEO of Totalizator Sportowy.
The contract is signed for three years until the Olympic Games in Paris. Totalizator Sportowy will also get involved in LOTTO 3×3 QUEST league games to be launched in the 2022/23 season. Their goal will be to determine the best team in Poland. The company will also sponsor the Polish Youth 3×3 Championships.
“We are getting involved in a new, dynamic discipline, i.e., 3×3 basketball, where three-person teams compete, and together with our partner, the Polish Basketball Association, we are preparing a major project aimed primarily at supporting players in their international performances but also at popularizing the discipline in Poland,” said Olgierd Cieślik, Chairman of Totalizator Sportowy’s Management Board.
The agreement between Totalizator Sportowy and the Polish Basketball Association was signed in Praga’s Koneser Centre where an exhibition devoted to the NBA basketball league is located. The contract provides for Totalizator Sportowy, the owner of the LOTTO brand, to support senior and youth Polish 3×3 teams that will compete in, among other things, FIBA 3×3 World Tour Masters and FIBA 3×3 Challenger tournaments.
“The discipline is developing phenomenally in Poland. This variation of basketball evokes a lot of positive emotions. The game is played with music, outdoors, there are a lot of streetball elements. FIBA itself (International Basketball Federation) says that this is the sport, which went from the backyard to the Olympic Games” – emphasized Radosław Piesiewicz, President of the Polish Basketball Association.
Our 3×3 national team has already achieved great successes: it won a bronze medal at the World Championships, a bronze medal at the European Championships and appeared, as one of 8 qualified teams, at the Tokyo Olympics, during which the discipline joined the ranks of Olympic sports.
Przemysław Zamojski, formerly a classical basketball player who joined the Polish 3×3 national team in 2019, spoke about the challenges of creating a national 3×3 team.
“There are only three players on the field. We have to be well in tune and physically prepared: the intensity is much higher and the pace is dizzying: the time to play the action is only 12 seconds, in 10 minutes you have to score 15 to 21 points,” he said.
According to Piotr Renkiel, the coach of the national 3×3 team, the discipline requires properly adjusted training.
“We train all the time; we have a special program to prepare us for the first tournaments at the end of February 2022 and the World Cup. Our workouts last between 45 minutes and an hour but are very intense. By comparison, basketball practice lasts two or even three hours,” he explained.
Radosław Piesiewicz indicated that for Polish Basketball Association the most important task is to create a strong Polish team in 3×3 basketball, which recognition in Poland will also translate into the popularization of the sport among young people.
He also announced that from next season 2022/23 LOTTO Liga 3×3 tournament games are planned, in which 16 clubs of the Polish Basketball League will participate. The clubs will be split into North and South groups and will play in separate tournaments. Each club will field a team of 4 players (3 on the field, 1 substitute), in which there will be at least 3 Poles.
In the autumn of 2022, the 4 best clubs from the North and South will each be selected to play in the final matches in the spring of 2023, broadcast on Polsat sports channels.
Totalizator Sportowy has supported Polish basketball for many years under the LOTTO brand. The company has cooperated with the Polish national team and has been the Main Partner of the Polish Basketball League as well as the Main Partner of the Suzuki Cup of Poland Men Final Tournament (which also included the LOTTO Dunk Competition) and the Suzuki Super Cup of Poland. TS was also a Title Partner of the LOTTO 3×3 QUEST tournaments.