The 2026-2027 Citadele KMT will take place in three stages. In the first – the qualifying stage – three LKL clubs that do not participate in international tournaments, supported by “Betsson”, and one NKL team that accepted the LKL invitation will compete.
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This format was chosen to ensure a greater number of games for the three LKL clubs not participating in international club competitions and to give the NKL team the opportunity to test themselves against the strongest teams of the country’s basketball championship.
The qualifying stage will begin on October 6. Four teams will compete for the only ticket to the Citadele KMT quarterfinals: “Gargždai”, Kėdainiai “Nevėžis-Paskolų klubas”, “Tauragė” and the NKL team “Jurbarkas-Karys-Manvesta” that received and accepted the LKL invitation.
We remind you that this summer the Jurbarkas team was strengthened by three former LKL champions – Adas Juškevičius, Vytenis Lipkevičius, Vytenis Čižauskas.
In the qualifying stage, these four teams will compete in one group in a double round-robin system (home and away) and will play 6 games each. Only the team finishing 1st in the group will advance to the quarterfinals. The first stage will take place from October to December.
In the 2026-2027 season, seven LKL clubs supported by “Betsson” competing in international tournaments – Kaunas “Žalgiris” (EuroLeague), Vilnius “Rytas”, Utena “Juventus” (Champions League), Panevėžys “Lietkabelis”, Klaipėda “Neptūnas”, “Šiauliai” (Europe Cup) and “Jonava Hipocredit” (ENBL) – will join the Citadele KMT tournament battles from the quarterfinal stage.
The full schedule can be found here.
As announced earlier, Citadele KMT tournament broadcasts are moving to the LNK channel group, and the first stage will be broadcast live on the LNK.LT portal.
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There are also innovations in the quarterfinal stage that will raise intrigue from the very first round of the LKL championship supported by “Betsson”.
All eight quarterfinal teams will be ranked from 1 to 8 based on the results of the first round of the LKL championship supported by “Betsson” (which will end on November 8, 2026).
If the qualifying stage is won by an LKL club, its position in the overall 1–8 team ranking will also be determined based on the results of the first round of the LKL championship. If the ticket to the quarterfinals is won by the NKL representative “Jurbarkas-Karys-Manvesta”, it will automatically take 8th place.
The quarterfinal pairs will be formed on a sporting basis: 1st place will meet 8th, 2nd will meet 7th, 3rd will meet 6th, and 4th will meet 5th.
The quarterfinal battles will take place on January 2-3 and 9-10, 2027. As usual, the final four participants will be determined in a two-game series based on the total point difference scored and conceded, and the second game will be played on the court of the team that finished higher. The quarterfinals will be broadcast live on BTV television.
The Citadele KMT final four is scheduled for February 20-21, 2027. The decisive tournament battles will be shown on the LNK channel.
