Q&A: Guido Betti, Alex Inglot on Volleyball World’s New Beach Concept

Guido Betti was a professional volleyball player in Italy for 11 years and has now been involved with the sport for almost three decades.

Since 2007, he has shaped the future of volleyball, both at an international federation (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) and at a commercial level with Volleyball World, a dedicated commercial entity designed to modernize, increase the visibility and boost the revenue of the sport worldwide as a result of a partnership between FIVB and private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in 2021.

Now serving as chief business officer since 2021, Betti is launching the FIVB Beach World Series, which will replace the Beach Pro Tour as its premier beach volleyball competition. The 10-stop series is scheduled to begin in Dubai in November 2026, with more host cities due to be announced soon. The Dubai stop is the result of a five-year partnership between Volleyball World and the Dubai Sports Council to promote high-end sporting experiences.

We caught up with Betti, alongside Alex Inglot, director beach products at Volleyball World and an experienced industry figure in the esports and tennis segments, to discuss the new beach volleyball concept and how they are building new fan bases, audiences and markets to make volleyball more sustainable and successful.

SportsTravel: How are you trying to be disruptive with your new beach volleyball concept, and why is it important to break away from the status quo?

Betti: We have a big team in Lausanne working on the new beach volleyball concept. Alex is the beach volleyball director who will be responsible for bringing it to life and managing the host cities and the FIVB Volleyball World Championship (to be renamed FIVB Volleyball World Cup in 2027). We have a big team working behind this idea and vision.

As a sport, we are already a poster child of the Olympic Games because the beach volleyball events in the last three Games have always been at fantastic locations. It gives us fantastic memories, and it is something people don’t want to miss — we were also at the most Instagrammable location in Paris. But now, we want to take the next step to create a lifestyle that people can enjoy together. That is the lifestyle we want.

We think the beach vibe that we have built through the sport is an enabler to open the minds of people to experience more and listen more. The experience will be unique because we are merging the vibe of the beach with the soul of the city, and this merger will create a unique experiential journey for everyone. Our goal is to create a series with 10 stops starting in the Southern Hemisphere in November (2026) and finishing in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of August (2027), so we can catch the sun and bring this emotion and joy everywhere.

The key element is that the 10 events will be 10 different episodes for cities, almost like a Netflix series, but with beach volleyball at its core. Each host city will have its own interpretation and the 10 unique stories will bring people to promote the city and the message we are conveying to everyone around the world. It’s not just about being a poster child for the Olympic Games, but also why I should live there, go on holiday or think about my life there?

Inglot: The concept is launching in November with our first event in Dubai, and there will then be one on a monthly cadence. We want to showcase different regions, cities, their interpretations and flavor.

One interesting thing is that beach volleyball is disruptive, colorful and musical in its own DNA. If you think of the 1996 Olympic Summer Games, players would play in neon, and it was one of the first sports to have music playing incessantly. We now have the opportunity to “reown” our DNA and redefine it into embracing modern festival and music experiences.

SportsTravel: You want it to be a cultural series rather than a traditional circuit — how does music feed into that? And how does that shift the narrative around beach volleyball?

Betti: Music is already an important element of beach volleyball because we can enhance the experience of people within the arena through music. However, we don’t just want to drive the emotion of people within the arena, but also outside of the arena, during and after the match. This is about the cities and exploring what is sensorial and experiential.

SportsTravel: How do you formulate your host city strategy?

Betti: First of all, Volleyball World manages both indoor and beach volleyball, which are two different products and quite different audiences.

Indoor has a massive number of fans and people who play, and it went to Olympic Games in 1964 with great success. Beach volleyball went to the Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta, so it is quite young as a sport. It does not have the same level of followers, but it does have a great perception.

If you think of indoor, it is more about the city receiving a major event with a specific team, but when you think of beach volleyball, it’s really about entering the heart of a city and sharing all the different aspects of the city and what it can be about. We can be on the beach itself, in a square, on a cricket field — we can be anywhere. The city wants to showcase the best of itself, and this makes beach volleyball unique with the integration in a city.

SportsTravel: What’s your roadmap for future host cities? And how do you build more of a lasting legacy for host cities, players, fans and communities?

Betti: For the city, the goal is to become the most disruptive way to make the city better known around the world because we’re going to stress the essence of each location. The experience we want to deliver is really deep for the city. In terms of the journey, we don’t want to tell the city, “this is it, and we have a great event, do it,” it is the opposite. We go to the cities and say, “this is beach volleyball, this is how we can go and do it together. You need to work with us and shape this journey with us.” It’s not about us obliging them to do things, but how we can deliver it together.

This is how we feel we’re different from everyone else. Think about a city, your brand and what you want people to know about you. I don’t know if the cities are ready for that, but this is what we want to communicate.

SportsTravel: This feeds back to the partnership between FIVB and CVC Partners in 2021. How do you see that progressing five years later as you look to commercialize and professionalize the sport?

Betti: It has been a great journey because there is a natural dichotomy between a private equity firm and an international federation. The fact that the two can sit at a table to work together is a major success because we can push each other to think differently and be more effective. The result is that dynamism allowed us to grow and evolve to the next step.

The improvement we are getting is not only financial, but we are also getting strong financial people from different fields, like Alex, Rob Waddelow (CFO, appointed in April 2026) and Lauren O’Connor (communications specialist). We never had some of these people because we were very sports-focused, but now we are bringing expertise in-house, and this can benefit the whole sport.

SportsTravel: As well as a new CFO, you have a relatively new CEO in Ugo Valensi (appointed in August 2025). What can we glean from this appointment?

Betti: This is part of the journey of continuing to evolve. It was necessary because Ugo is bringing the experience of someone who was already working in sport (including high-level roles at Wimbledon, SPORTFIVE, International Tennis Integrity Agency, and more), and he has been a great team builder in his career. He officially came in last August, and I’m very happy with the relationship. It has given us a great injection of energy and vision.

Inglot: Ugo can find people in different spaces to bring a variety of skillsets and experiences to the Volleyball World team. That experience is unparalleled, and it’s good that we can test ourselves with different ideas. With my background, too, there is a lot of cross-pollination of ideas, and we bring them in on an agency level when we need them.

I played volleyball in my 20s before moving into tennis, data and esports. I knew Ugo from my tennis days, so I jumped at the opportunity to reconnect with my first love. We are confident and passionate, and this beach volleyball concept was a natural thing for us to do.