KBO League

What is the KBO League?

The KBO League is South Korea’s top professional baseball league, run by the Korea Baseball Organization, whose functions include administering the professional game and staging the regular season, the All-Star Game and the post-season. Its ten clubs — KIA Tigers, Samsung Lions, LG Twins, KT Wiz, Doosan Bears, SSG Landers, Lotte Giants, NC Dinos, Hanwha Eagles and Kiwoom Heroes — play a single-league season of 144 games each.^{[1] [2] [3]}

How does it work?

The post-season is a stepladder. The fourth- and fifth-placed clubs meet in a Wild Card round in which the fourth-placed side needs only one win; the winner plays third in a best-of-five semi-playoff, that winner plays second in a best-of-five playoff, and the pennant winner waits for the Korean Series, a best-of-seven with Games 1–2 and 6–7 at the pennant winner’s park. Clubs may sign three foreign players, no more than two of them pitchers, on one-year contracts under a combined USD 1m cap.^[3] [7]

Since when does it exist?

The league was founded in 1982. LG Twins’ 2025 title, 4–1 over Hanwha with Kim Hyun-soo as MVP, was the club’s fourth and its second in three years; KIA Tigers, KT Wiz, NC Dinos, Doosan Bears and SSG Landers — the former SK Wyverns, renamed in 2021 — have all won in the last decade.^[6]

Korean Series champions of the last ten seasons.

Why does it matter?

The KBO League drew a record of more than 12.3 million spectators in 2025, and 2026 ran ahead of that pace — a million fans in 55 games by 10 April and six million in 334 games by 18 June, both the fastest in the league’s history. Korea won the inaugural WBSC Premier12 in 2015 and was runner-up in 2019, and the KBO League is the top professional level of the sport in one of its strongest nations.^{[4] [5] [8]}