The countdown to this year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 has begun. It’s great for anyone who can watch the games live – this year the championship is hosted by China. But not everyone is that lucky. Fortunately, streaming is easy, and anyone can catch the events live right from their couch at home. Here are all the important and interesting details for FIBA 2019.



The games kick off on August 31 and end on September 15, during which 92 games will be played. The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers ended just two months ago, and the participating teams have been chosen. Now it’s time to look forward to the upcoming tournament and all of the exciting new changes implemented this year.



FIBA 2019 stands out from all the previous 18 editions of the tournament in a couple of ways. There’s plenty to discuss so just scroll through and see what’s happening this year.



The New Competition System



FIBA announced a new competition and calendar system, which kicked off right after the qualifying rounds started in November 2018. This new system is meant to bring clarity to the structure of competitions and shine brighter limelight on the sport globally.



Among other changes, national teams will now be competing year-round with a more straightforward qualification system that fans could more easily follow. These changes won’t directly affect the FIBA Basketball World Cup this year, however.



The New All-Gold Cup



Well, it’s not 100% made out of gold, but most of it is. This official new cup was unveiled at the official draw ceremony for the qualifiers. In light of the new competition system, all of FIBA’s Continental Cups have also undergone a redesign.



The new FIBA trophy stands at an immense 60 centimeters tall and is now one of the world’s tallest sports trophies. It features a golden hoop with the words “Federation International de Basketball Amateur,” which is FIBA’s original name.



There’s even a new ball this year. Kiyofumi Tamiaki, President and CEO of Molten Corporation, said: “The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 will be the perfect stage for the debut of our next generation basketball. We are pleased to provide a much-improved game ball for the most important international basketball event in the world. The new official game ball features unique technologies while maintaining its traditional and authentic look.”



Who’s Playing?



FIBA 2019 marks some special new appearances at the games. Both the Czech Republic and Montenegro will be taking part independently for the first time. The Polish team is also returning for the first time since 1967.



Some significant changes have been made in the line-up as well. This year marks a new age for the competition, with 32 participating teams instead of the usual 24. The qualifying teams have been divided into groups and are now set to start playing come August.



The teams have been paired up in 8 groups as follows:



Group A > China, Poland, Venezuela, Ivory Coast

Group B > Russia, Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria

Group C > Iran, Spain, Tunisia, Puerto Rico

Group D > Philippines, Angola, Italy, Serbia

Group E > Turkey, Japan, United States, Czech Republic

Group F > Brazil, Greece, Montenegro, New Zealand

Group G > Germany, France, Dominican Republic, Jordan

Group H > Senegal, Australia, Lithuania, Canada



Where and When to Catch FIBA 2019 Action



The FIBA 2019 Basketball World Cup will be streaming live straight from the eight hosting Chinese cities during the tournament. As always, networks in the countries that do broadcast the tournament have signed partnerships with FIBA to air the games.



There are also some streaming sites that will be airing the matches live, including Hulu Live TV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV NOW.



Pro tip:



Those who opt to stream the games might want to look into buying a VPN – nordvpn.com. There’s been a growing trend of ISPs throttling their users’ bandwidth, causing slow internet connections. This usually happens with certain online actions, like streaming, regardless of the streaming service used.



So investing in a VPN during this time is a smart idea, as the software hides online activities from ISPs. Which means they can’t see that you are streaming something and so won’t throttle the network speed.



Make sure to catch all the highlights of this year’s FIBA 2019. Only eight teams will make it straight to the 2020 Olympics, so it’s going to be a fight worth seeing.

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