East Asia Super League (EASL) was founded in 2016 as Asia League, with an eye on the potential for a "champions league"-style competition featuring the best club basketball teams in Asia. Asia League held four preseason tournaments in Macao between 2017 and 2019, featuring teams from the CBA (China), B.LEAGUE (Japan), KBL (Korea), and PBA (Philippines).

The first event was The Super 8, featuring eight teams, in September 2017. In 2018, the format expanded to 12 teams, as The Terrific 12. The 12-team format was continued in 2019, when the event secured a worldwide television and streaming viewership of more than 117 million.

The company adopted the East Asia Super League (EASL) branding in 2019. In August 2020, it reached a 10-year exclusive agreement with FIBA, basketball's world governing body, to run a new regional championship in East Asia and the Philippines.