LOVB Pro (pronounced "love" and commonly referred to as League One Volleyball) is a women's professional

indoor volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

league in the United States. The league is owned by League One Volleyball (LOVB), a volleyball body founded in 2020. Its first season began in January 2025.

History

League One Volleyball (LOVB) was founded in 2020 by Katlyn Gao, Peter Hirschmann, and Olympian

Kevin Wong Kevin Kahn Wong (born September 12, 1972, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is a retired American professional beach volleyball player. He currently lives in Hawaii and runs a volleyball training program for youth. Personal life Wong graduated from the ...

as a network of youth volleyball clubs across the United States with the intent of eventually creating and sustaining a professional league. , LOVB's youth business includes 60 club locations in 24 states, with over 14,000 youth athletes and 3,000 coaches. These clubs provide volleyball coaching and preparation for team competition for youth ages 12-18 interested in playing travel volleyball. On October 19, 2021, LOVB formally announced the creation of its professional league, branded as LOVB Pro. On March 9, 2023, LOVB announced its first professional cities as

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, and

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. Upon announcement, each team also announced their first player or players (all of whom have won Olympic medals), dubbed their "founding athletes"; Atlanta announced

Fabiana Claudino Fabiana Marcelino Claudino (born 24 January 1985) is a Brazilian volleyball player who made her debut for the Brazilian national team against Croatia. She captained Brazil to the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. Personal life Claudino was bor ...

and Kelsey Robinson-Cook, and Houston announced

Micha Hancock Micha Danielle Hancock ( ; born November 10, 1992) is an American indoor volleyball player for the United States women's national volleyball team. Hancock played setter for the Penn State women's volleyball team, and won back-to-back national ...

and Jordan Thompson. On April 27, a team was added in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

, with founding athlete Lauren Carlini. On June 5, the fourth city was announced as

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

, led by founding athletes

Jordyn Poulter Jordyn Ashley Poulter ( ; born July 31, 1997) is an American volleyball player. As a member of the United States women's national volleyball team, she has earned several international titles, including the program's first-ever Olympic gold meda ...

and Haleigh Washington. On August 16,

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

was announced as the fifth host city with founding athletes

Jordan Larson Jordan Quinn Larson (born October 16, 1986) is an American professional volleyball player who plays as an outside hitter for the United States women's national volleyball team. A four-time Olympian, Larson earned the USA its first-ever gold in ...

and Justine Wong-Orantes. In December, the league announced it would be building a dedicated training facility for LOVB Madison and area LOVB youth squads in the Madison suburb of Sun Prairie. A week later, the league announced its final city as

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, with founding athlete

Carli Lloyd Carli Anne Hollins (; born July 16, 1982) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player. She is a two-time Olympic Games, Olympic gold medalist (2008 and 2012), two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion (2015 and 2019) ...

Inaugural season

Team venues and schedules for the 2025 season were announced on July 18. The 2025 season features four matches per week; a single head-to-head match and a homestand-style "Weekend with LOVB", where one team will host two others for three total matches. An in-season tournament, the LOVB Classic, will be held alongside the Triple Crown NIT youth invitational in February in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, with the finals held in April.

Teams

LOVB teams do not have traditional team names, and instead compete as "LOVB" followed by the city name.

Sponsorship and funding

On September 28, 2022, LOVB raised $16.75 million in a Series A funding round, headlined by

Billie Jean King Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...

and

Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant (born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Durant has won two List of NBA champions, NBA champ ...

. A year later, LOVB raised $35 million in a

Series B round A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the p ...

that included investments from

Lindsey Vonn Lindsey Caroline Vonn ( ; born October 18, 1984) is an American FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer. She won four World Cup overall championships – third amongst female skiers to Annemarie Moser-Pröll and Mika ...

Jayson Tatum Jayson Christopher Tatum Sr. ( ; born March 3, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a McDonald's All-American in high school in Missouri and played coll ...

, and

Candace Parker Candace Nicole Parker (born April 19, 1986), nicknamed "Ace", is an American former professional basketball player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, she was selected as the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA dr ...

. On June 17, 2024, LOVB and

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

signed an apparel partnership that would make Adidas the uniform supplier of LOVB Pro. Two days later, LOVB announced a partnership with

Spanx Spanx, LLC is a United States shapewear company, founded by Sara Blakely in Atlanta, Georgia in 2000. The company offers innerwear and outerwear, including activewear, apparel, denim, shapewear, swimwear, intimates, leggings, and hosiery. As o ...

, the apparel brand's first sports partnership, to provide apparel and support league initiatives for LOVB's youth and professional circuits.

Broadcasting

On May 9, 2024, LOVB and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

announced an international media rights agreement that would see 10 matches broadcast on ESPN networks and an additional 18 streamed on

ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...

in the United States for the 2025 season. Alongside ESPN, Women's Sports Network, a free ad-supported streaming network, will air sixteen matches, most of which will be Saturday doubleheaders. The streaming service

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

will also globally air sixteen matches. In Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Central America, Spanish speaking South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacfific Islands, ESPN networks will air twenty-eight matches. In South East Asia,

SPOTV SPOTV is a South Korean pay television network, which features sports programming and some sports-related talk shows. Founded in 2010, the network is the fourth Pay television, premium sports network in South Korea following by KBS N, KBS N S ...

will air all 60 matches.

References

External links

* {{Authority control

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

2021 establishments in the United States Women's volleyball leagues Women's volleyball in the United States Volleyball leagues in the United States Professional sports leagues in the United States