Yandex and the VTB United League have signed a partnership agreement under which Kinopoisk will stream every game of the season.
Broadcasts of all VTB United League games and additional content will be available for Yandex Plus subscribers starting September 17, when the 2026 Super Cup kicks off, featuring the league’s top clubs.
Kinopoisk will become the main media platform for the VTB United League under the new partnership. The sports section of the online platform will offer all regular-season games, play-in games, playoff games, as well as the All-Star Game, the WINLINE Basket Cup, and the VTB United League Super Cup. Along with live broadcasts of Russian basketball, Kinopoisk will feature game recaps and highlights, as well as shows, analytical and entertainment shows about players, teams, and the league’s major events.
The agreement for online broadcasts of the VTB United League covers three seasons—more than 200 games and additional content will be available with a Yandex Plus subscription. New users will be able to sign up for a subscription with a free 30-day trial period.
The first broadcast under the new partnership will take place on September 17—the opening game of the sixth VTB United League Super Cup between UNICS and Zenit. In addition to these teams, CSKA, Lokomotiv-Kuban, Anadolu Efes from Türkiye, and Igokea from Bosnia and Herzegovina will compete in the Super Cup from September 17 to 20. The VTB United League regular season begins on September 25.
Artem Potapov, Head of Sports at Yandex’s Entertainment Services.
– Our partnership with the VTB United League won’t be limited to just broadcasting games; our approach is comprehensive—together, we’ll produce additional content centered on the games, the league, and its stars, create special projects, and expand our audience. Kinopoisk’s audience loves sports, and based on our league partnership with the KHL, we’ve seen how fans who sign up for Yandex Plus to watch a broadcast end up watching movies, listening to music, and reading books—and doing so more and more often. This direct partnership gives us the opportunity to build an ecosystem around basketball that will allow us to cover VTB United League games as often as possible and attract new basketball fans from among Yandex Plus’s 49-million-strong audience.
Ilona Korstin, CEO of the VTB United League.
– Our partnership with Yandex opens up new opportunities for the development of the VTB United League and the promotion of basketball. It’s important to us that fans will be able to watch all League-sanctioned games online on a single platform—Kinopoisk—and that clubs and players will have more opportunities to share their stories with a wider audience. Kinopoisk has a large audience and extensive experience working with sports content. Together, we want to bring basketball closer to viewers: introduce them to our stars, show the teams’ lives off the court, and reveal the stories behind the game results. We expect this partnership to allow us to offer more exciting content to our loyal fans and attract those who are just discovering basketball. The three-year term of the agreement gives us the opportunity to work consistently toward these goals.
Every month, Kinopoisk is visited by more than 60 million users, 18.8 million of whom watch the online movie theater via the Yandex Plus multi-subscription service. The platform also features content from partners who, as part of additional options, show movies and TV series on Kinopoisk or offer subscriptions to their services to Yandex Plus subscribers. Among Kinopoisk’s partners are the TV channels TNT, NTV, Pervy, MY, Match!, and the online movie theaters Kion, Ivi, Premier, Smotrim, Start, and Amediateka.
Sports on Kinopoisk is a section of the online movie theater where Yandex Plus subscribers can watch live broadcasts of soccer, hockey, combat sports, basketball, and other sports. In addition to live broadcasts, sports fans have access to game replays, highlights, and original show content from Kinopoisk, clubs, and leagues. More than 2.4 million Yandex Plus subscribers watch Sports on Kinopoisk every month, and on average, a user of the “Sports” section on Kinopoisk watches 5.7 live broadcasts per month. Kinopoisk is an official partner of the VTB United League, the KHL, the Zenit soccer club, and the Russian Football Union (RFU).
