Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour

The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour was the worldwide professional beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, the sport's global governing body. The World Tour was introduced 1989 for men and in 1992 for women being and held yearly since then. In 2021 it was rebranded as the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.
Several tournaments were staged throughout the year. All athletes who competed in the qualifying and main draws of the tournaments earned points in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Rankings, and after the last stage the pair that accumulated the most points during the year was declared the champion of the World Tour. Winning the World Tour was considered to be one of the highest honours in international beach volleyball, being surpassed only by the World Championships, and the Beach Volleyball tournament at the Summer Olympic Games. The Tour was historically dominated by Brazilian teams.

History

The international professional tour was originally known as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Series, and began in 1989 for men and 1992 for women. It was rebranded as the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in 1997. The World Tour was previously accompanied by FIVB Challenger and Satellite events, which served as a developmental circuit for up-and-coming players. The FIVB handed over the organizing of Challenger and Satellite events to the continental confederations in 2009.
Tournaments in the World Tour were previously categorized as either Grand Slams, Majors or Opens. This was replaced by the star rating structure in 2017.
In October 2021, FIVB announced a rebranding of the series as the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour, starting with the 2022 edition.

Tournament categories

The star ranking tournament structure was introduced in 2017. World Tour tournaments were ranked from 1 to 5 stars, with 5-star tournaments offering the most prize money. The 2018 World Tour had 47 international tournaments with a total prize purse of over US$7 million. Competing in the World Tour as well as other FIVB-recognized tournaments such as the Summer Olympics allowed players to earn FIVB Ranking Points, with higher-star events being worth more points. The World Tour concluded with the World Tour Finals at the end of each season. A new tournament classification was introduced in 2022.

Event category	Prize money
World Tour Finals	US$800,000
World Championships	US$500,000
Elite 16	US$150,000
Challenger	US$75,000
Futures	US$5,000

FIVB World Tour Finals

The Tour Finals were the season-ending championships of the FIVB World Tour and featured only the top performing teams during the regular season. The tournament was first held in 2015.