ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Greek basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were suspended by the government on Monday following on-court scuffles involving rival security teams.
The best-of-five series is at 1-1. The third game, scheduled for Wednesday, has been postponed.
The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country’s sports minister.
“(They) will be asked to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end. If not, this year’s championship will be definitively canceled,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency.” In online posts, the owners of Panathinaikos and Olympiakos ruled out attending a joint meeting with the sports minister, leaving the fate of the government ultimatum in doubt. The clubs based in the Athens area have a long and often violent rivalry spanning basketball, soccer and other sports. The latest unrest comes despite recent government efforts to curb sports-related violence, including surveillance systems at stadiums and mandatory ticketing linked to state ID cards.
Olympiakos and Panathinaikos competed in the EuroLeague Final Four in Abu Dhabi last month, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Fenerbahce defeated Monaco in the championship game.
Sunday’s game at Peace and Friendship Stadium was won by Olympiakos and marred by multiple incidents. Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos was escorted out at halftime following a heated exchange with referees. Coach Ergin Ataman was ejected in the fourth quarter after receiving a second technical foul. Television footage of the game showed security guards from both teams coming to blows as Giannakopoulos walked out in a heated atmosphere.
In a statement, Panathinaikos called the officiating “disgraceful” and biased.
Olympiakos co-chairman Giorgos Angelopoulos fired back, accusing Giannakopoulos of abusive behavior.
“The guy is toxic — he is the definition of violence,” Angelopoulos said. “He cannot continue to be present in Greek sports and act this way.
“No apology will be accepted,” he added. “Let Panathinaikos fans celebrate him as a tough guy. We don’t want people like that.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos reacts before the basketball league finals Game 2 between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos at Peace and Friendship Stadium, in Piraeus port, near Athens, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (InTime Sports via AP)
FILE - Panathinaikos's Alexandros Samodurov, right, tries to go past Olympiacos' Luca Vildoza during a Euroleague basketball match for the third place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, file)
Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos reacts before the basketball league finals Game 2 between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos at Peace and Friendship Stadium, in Piraeus port, near Athens, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (InTime Sports via AP)
SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--
Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/
Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.
This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.
Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.
“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”
The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:
“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”
About Availity
Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.
About Abridge
Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.
Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.
Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.
Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation
Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation
