Baloncesto Sevilla · History

From the 1989-90 season, Seville had a team in Spain's top basketball division, the Liga ACB: Club Baloncesto Sevilla. Founded in 1987, the club played for decades as Caja San Fernando and Cajasol. It was later owned by Real Betis Balompié and renamed Real Betis Baloncesto. It reached two ACB league finals, one Copa del Rey final and one EuroCup final, and played its home games at the Palacio Municipal de los Deportes de San Pablo.

Foundation and promotion

The club was founded in 1987 and did not start in the lower divisions. It bought Dribling Madrid's place in Primera B with the backing of the Seville provincial council and of the savings bank Caja San Fernando, which gave the team its name for twenty years. Promotion took a single season. In 1988-89, under coach José Alberto Pesquera, the team won the final play-off rounds against Lagisa Gijón and Syrius Patronato de Mallorca to reach the ACB. Pesquera stayed in charge, with some breaks, until 1995 and coached the team through its first years in the top flight.

The finals of the 1990s

Aleksandar Petrović took over in 1995. In his first season he led the team to the 1995-96 ACB league final, which Caja San Fernando lost to FC Barcelona. Javier Imbroda, coach from 1998 to 2001, did the same in 1998-99: another league final and another defeat to Barcelona. That season the team also reached the Copa del Rey final, played in Valencia on 1 February 1999, and lost 70-61 to TAU Cerámica. Andre Turner, Mikel Smith and Chuck Kornegay played for the club in those years. So did Raúl Pérez, who played for the club from 1989 to 1997 and from 2002 to 2006. On 25 September 2008 the club retired his number 9, the only number it has retired.

The Cajasol years and a European final

The team was renamed Cajasol in 2007. Joan Plaza, coach from 2009 to 2012, took it to the 2011 EuroCup Final Four in Treviso. On 16 April 2011 Cajasol beat Benetton 75-63 in the semi-final. The next day it lost the final 92-77 to UNICS Kazan. In 2009-10 Dusko Savanovic recorded the club's highest efficiency rating in 20 minutes, 40. Aíto García Reneses coached the team from 2012 to 2014, when the club gave playing time to young players. Czech guard Tomáš Satoranský left for FC Barcelona in July 2014. Latvian forward Kristaps Porziņģis left Seville in 2015, when the New York Knicks took him with the fourth pick in the NBA draft. In summer 2014 CaixaBank sold the club for one euro to the fund Jefferson Capital, and the team played two seasons as Baloncesto Sevilla.

The Betis era

In July 2016 the club was bought by Energía Plus, a company linked to the president of Real Betis. In December of that year Energía Plus sold its shares to Real Betis Balompié. Playing as Real Betis Energía Plus, the team finished last in the ACB in 2017-18 and was relegated to LEB Oro, the second tier. Under Curro Segura it came straight back up in 2018-19, winning the LEB Oro league and the Copa Princesa. On 15 December 2018 the company was renamed Real Betis Baloncesto S.A.D., and from 2019 to 2022 the team competed as Coosur Real Betis. Luis Casimiro, who had coached the team in 2015-16, returned in 2021. In 2022-23 the team finished 17th and went down to LEB Oro again. On 4 October 2023 the Mexican group Conglomerado Xoy bought the club.

The final promotion

Coached by Gonzalo García de Vitoria, the team beat Fuenlabrada in the LEB Oro play-off final in June 2025 to win promotion to the ACB on the court. That summer it took back the name Baloncesto Sevilla. On 24 July 2025, however, the ACB General Assembly voted unanimously to refuse its entry into the 2025-26 league. It found that the club had not handed over all the documents the auditor requested and had not paid the entry fee on time. The place went to Club Deportivo Granada por el Baloncesto, which had finished 17th in 2024-25. The club asked for an injunction, but a court in Barcelona turned it down, and the club then went into liquidation.

Honours

The club never won an ACB title. It finished as runner-up in the league in 1995-96 and 1998-99, in the Copa del Rey in 1999 and in the EuroCup in 2011. It won the LEB Oro league and the Copa Princesa in 2018-19, and seven Andalusian Cups, in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2019 and 2022.