Beachvolleyball made by ACTS

The Beach Volleyball Major Series in the business of making beach volleyball big – on and off the sand – and that goal doesn’t just stop when the sun goes down. Together with our partner Red Bull, we blend world-class action from the stars of the game with unrivalled courtside entertainment and high-class VIP hospitality.

We’ve been bringing the beach to millions of fans around the globe since 2015, inside stadiums at iconic locations and through inventive digital channels. And the result? Goosebump moments that stay with our fans, guests and players forever. Our tournaments are strengthening the sport’s popularity beyond the Olympics.

How everything started

The 2018 season marked the fourth instalment of the Beach Volleyball Major Series, which has its roots deep in Austria, rising out of a joint venture between Red Bull and ACTS. Red Bull, established in the 1980s by Dietrich Mateschitz, is one of the world’s most famous brands, with its direct marketing focusing on sports and lifestyle, while the ACTS Group – an event marketing and communications agency – was founded in 1990 by another Austrian entrepreneur, Hannes Jagerhofer.

The two forces created the Beach Volleyball Major Series in 2015 with the aim of taking beach volleyball to the next level – and to achieve the vision of establishing the sport as a multimedia sport-entertainment event for athletes, fan and partners.

Getting the ball rolling

Together with title sponsor Swatch, in it's first year, 2015, athletes and fans got a first glimpse of what the series had to offer with tournaments in Poreč in Croatia, Gstaad in Switzerland and Stavanger in Norway before the first ever World Tour Finals in Fort Lauderdale, USA. The 2016 season packed an even bigger punch as four tournament stops - in Hamburg, Poreč, Gstaad and Klagenfurt, Austria - wowed passionate crowds before the World Tour Finals in Toronto in September saw the season end in style.

The series continued to go from strength to strength, and the 2017 season took in stops at four locations, in the United States – returning to Fort Lauderdale, the scene of the 2015 World Tour Finals – plus Poreč and Gstaad. After it’s success as a Major stop the previous season, Hamburg hosted the World Tour Finals. It didn’t disappoint, as capacity crowds roared on home favorites and Olympic Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst to victory, sparking wild scenes of celebration. The 2017 season also saw the Beach Majors Company responsible for the organization of the awe-inspiring World Championships, held in Vienna where almost 200,000 fans packed the Danube Island for 10 days of beach volleyball bliss.

In 2018, all existing tournament formats were again improved and Danube Island hosted a Vienna Major for the first time. The other two majors took place again in the USA and Switzerland, and Hamburg was selected as the venue for the prestigious finals for the second time. With such great success that in 2019 the World Championships moved into the Hanseatic city - with the Beach Majors Company as organizer and with tens of thousands of fans. The traditional stops in Gstaad and Vienna were once again part of the Beach Volleyball Major Series.

Staying on the ball

After a pandemic-related break in 2020, ACTS returned to the international sports stage with the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley Vienna 2021 presented by Swatch. The tournament, held at Heumarkt in the heart of Vienna, was a great success and proved that even amid the challenges of a global crisis, the organization of top-class sporting events is possible.

The A1 CEV BeachVolley Nations Cup was a new event highlight in 2022: the completely new tournament format, in which countries competed for the European title for the first time, guaranteed excitement and goosebumps. The following year, Europe's top players returned to Vienna to compete for the title at the A1 CEV European Beach Volleyball Championships. The tournament moved to the unique Danube Island and thrilled thousands of fans.

In 2024, Heumarkt once again turned into a cauldron of excitement for beach volleyball fans, as the A1 Beach Pro Vienna welcomed beach stars from around the world to the Austrian capital for the first time since 2019. The tournament was an Elite16 event, the highest-level format of the Beach Pro Tour, and served as a dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games in Paris. Results can be found here.