Real Betis

Real Betis Balompié, S. A. D., also known as Real Betis, is a multi-sport organisation based in the city of Seville, the capital of Andalusia, in Spain. It was founded on 12 September 1907 as Sevilla Balompié for the practice of football, and this is recorded as the founding date for the club itself. It was officially registered on 1 February 1908. It plays its home matches at the Estadio Benito Villamarín, with a capacity of 60,721 spectators.

It is one of the nine Spanish clubs that have won both the League and the Cup. In 1935 it became the fourth club in history to win the Primera División de España, in a decade in which its well-known motto "Viva el Betis manquepierda" (Long live Betis, even if it loses) became popular. It is also the first club to lift the Copa del Rey under that name in democracy, a title it won in 1977, 2005 and 2022. It has not always competed in the top national division. It is one of only two Spanish clubs that have been proclaimed champions of the Primera, Segunda and Tercera División, and despite this it ranks ninth in the all-time table of the Primera División, having played 59 seasons in the top flight of football in Spain.

Its record in national competitions has led it to play in international competitions on seventeen occasions: one in the UEFA Champions League, the highest club tournament in Europe, eleven in the UEFA Cup/Europa League, two in the Conference League (finishing runner-up in 2024-25), two in the now-defunct European Cup Winners' Cup and one in the now-defunct Fairs Cup; to this are added other participations in the also defunct Copa Ibérica. It is the ninth Spanish club that has competed most often in Europe and the twelfth that has played a final.

It has also completed the best campaign by an Andalusian team in the top division in number of points and goals scored (77 points and 81 goals, 1996-97 season; 79% of the total points obtained, 1934-35 season).

It was placed twentieth in the top 25 of the world club ranking compiled by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) in 1995, 1997 and 2005.

It has one of the most recognised fan bases in Spain. More than 3% of those interviewed in 2014 for the CIS acknowledged being a Betis supporter, which places it among the six teams with the most following in the country, tripling the number of supporters of Sevilla FC. Likewise, according to the CIS barometer, Betis is the second team of many Spaniards and ranks fifth in terms of sympathy felt towards a team other than their main one.

It has more than 500 supporters' clubs (peñas) spread around the world, making it the fourth Spanish club in this ranking. Betis is the team with the fourth-highest number of members in Spain, with a total of 85,708 members, of whom 53,161 have a seat in the stadium, which is the limit that Betis sets as a maximum (known as "numerus clausus"), and the remaining free seats are left for ticket sales and commitments. It plays the Seville derby against Sevilla Fútbol Club, with which it has maintained an enormous historic rivalry since its beginnings in the 1910s, as the two teams are from the same city.

Although it is mainly known for its men's football teams, it has women's categories and sports sections in futsal and basketball.