THE LAGOS SPORTS UNIVERSE

With a resume that spans over three decades of activity, João Lagos Sports is one of the most experienced and respected entities that promote events in the world of sports and other activities – and its extensive track record speaks for itself.

It all began in 1974 when João Lagos – three times national tennis champion – decided to start with the João Lagos Tennis School. Then came Sotenis, addressed to the organization of tennis events, and the tennis ball quickly turned into a snowball: never stopped rolling and increase until the formation of the present João Lagos Sports, which has a portfolio of prestigious events including tennis, cycling, motorsports, sailing, golf, surfing and many other sports, from fencing to racing, riding not forgetting football.

Currently, João Lagos Sports is the national and absolute reference in organizing, promoting and developing sports events with high feedback – the so-called 'Premium Events' –, all of them subject to rigorous criteria that make them among the largest events held in Portugal comprising the blend of the best in the world. Such criteria include: inclusion in a professional and international circuit with assignment of points for official rankings, distribution of considerable prize-moneys, regular character (played annually on the same dates) in official calendars, great media coverage, prestige and international dissemination of a positive image of the country and the sponsors involved; large membership of the local public and on television.

EVENTS RESUME

TENNIS
In tennis, the great challenge of João Lagos Sports was organizing the Tennis Masters Cup Lisbon 2000, which brought together the top eight in the ATP World Tour hierarchy at the Atlantic Pavilion: it was the biggest sporting event in terms of media coverage on a global scale ever held in Portugal, besides the Euro 2004. In addition to the Masters Cup, Estoril Open was held for the first time in 1990 and remains as an event of compelling social and sporting life and one of the few mixed tennis tournaments on the planet to gather on the same venue both professional circuits (ATP and WTA Tour). The resume of the company also includes hundreds of Challenger and Future tournaments, Satelite Circuit, ITF events for veterans and as well the National Tennis Circuit, along with many events held in Brazil.

CYCLING
Being one of the most widely cherished sports in Portugal, thanks to a huge power of adhesion by the media and the population itself, cycling is another major João Lagos Sports area of business – which secured the rights to organize some of the most important events on the national calendar, with a clear evidence on its main competition: The Cycling Tour of Portugal.

SAILING
With a great tradition in Portugal, sailing also became part of the portfolio of João Lagos Sports - which organizes the Portuguese stage of the traditional Med Cup circuit in the TP 52 sailing class. In 2010, the announcement of one stop over of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 in Lisbon, has again put João Lagos Sports as the main promoter of sports events in Portugal, responsible for taking the name of the country to the four corners of the world.

ALL-ROAD
The conquest of the departure of the famous Dakar to Lisbon was one of the great achievements of João Lagos Sports, since the Portuguese partnership gave a new elan to the test, which became known as the Rally Dakar, with steps taken to enforce on European soil (Alentejo and Algarve) for the first time before the transfer to Africa. In parallel with the partnership, João Lagos Sports also created the Lagos Team to implement the careers of driver Carlos Sousa and bikers Hélder Rodrigues and Ruben Faria.

GOLF
In golf, João Lagos Sports took over as the largest promoter of professional circuit between 1990 and early this decade by organizing various competitions included in the official calendar of the European Tour and distributed by two countries/continents: in Portugal, the Madeira Island Open, the Algarve Open de Portugal, Estoril Open and the Tour Championship; and in South America, the Brazil Open. From a social point of view, the company also organized circuits such as the Peugeot Challenge Cup, the circuit Natural Gas/Economic and BMW Golf Cup.

SURF & BEACH GAMES
João Lagos Sports organized on the beach of Cabedelo in Figueira da Foz, the WCT Figueira Pro – one of the three biggest events of the surfing world with the participation of the best male and female surfers on the planet. Another breakthrough was the realization of the Beach Games, a series of activities organized by the sea in several stages scattered throughout the Portuguese coast; sports such as surfing, beach-volley, beach-rugby and bodyboard gave rise to the competitiveness of the participants, with the inclusion of some evidence official international schedules and allocation of prize money, but the Beach Games also offered a set of parallel activities such as clinics, sports training, aerobics classes, beauty contests and lots of fun.

WATER MOTORSPORTS
João Lagos Sports brought to Lisbon one of the greatest tests of motorboats in the world: the Tagus River was the scene of two editions of the Lisbon Grand Prix, integrated into the schedule of Class 1 Offshore, the most important World Powerboat Championship. Maximum category of Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM), the Class 1 Offshore is considered the 'Queen of the Seas' for its pomp, glamour and technology – standing for power boating as Formula 1 for cars and gathering among the participants names of the international jet-set.

OTHERS
João Lagos Sports also has been involved in programming proof fencing, amateur football, rugby (European Sevens) and filled the Atlantic Pavilion with the Grande Gala Equestre – events that have joined an eclectic curriculum which also contained evidence horse riding, beach volley, street basketball, superbikes, funboard, sailing, video games, judo national championships and the most diverse college sports.