The league's rounds of matches are staged in a series of locations across Europe in which multiple nations gather to play, having spread as west as Dublin, Ireland[5] and as east as Baku, Azerbaijan.

Unsatisfied with the status quo, representatives of six European beach soccer promoter entities met with the Graham family and Gabby Roe of BSC at Le Méridien hotel in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to discuss how to collectively grow the European game, namely Natalie Aubery (Monaco), Joël Cantona (France), Alex Colombo (Italy), Nicola Owen (Germany), Eric Steffan (Portugal), and Joan Cusco and Santi Soler (Spain).

Consequently, BSC proceeded to launch the first European Pro Beach Soccer League season (EPBSL) in 1998, moulded and structured as such.

[3][10] In the inaugural season of 1998, seven countries took part, mostly from Western and Southern Europe – France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Switzerland and Portugal.

[11] The league events travelled across Europe, with multiple countries hosting rounds of fixtures called stages (see defunct formats for more), concluding in Monte Carlo, which saw Germany crowned champions – their only title to date.

During this time, Prince Albert of Monaco became Honorary President of the EPBSL and Monte Carlo was chosen to host the final stage each year including a gala event.

[11] Spain went on to win the 1999 and 2000 editions, the latter famed for its conclusion with the title decided in the very last match of the season with the narrow 6–5 Spanish defeat of arch-rivals Portugal.

Much of the success of the league's early years is attributed to the recognisable retired association footballers who made the transition to the sand, attracting fans to attend and watch matches on TV.

These included Eric Cantona, Michel, Claudio Gentile, Uli Stielike, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Emilio Butragueño and Andreas Brehme to name a few.

[11] Meanwhile, dedicated beach soccer players, without the footballing fame of these stars also made a name for themselves, most notably the young duo of Spain's Amarelle and Portugal's Madjer.

The league also doubled as the qualification route for European nations to the upcoming edition of the Beach Soccer World Championships.

[17] Personnel-wise, European teams were quickly transitioning away from being composed of retired star footballers to comprising predominately younger players attempting a career in the new sport.

[18] Commercially, the league enjoyed some of its greatest success at this time; BSWW secured "vastly expanded television coverage" of the EBSL from such networks as Sky Sports (UK), RAI (Italy), SIC (Portugal) and NRK (Norway) and "unprecedented demand from promoters" to host league events.

[19][20] Major sponsorship deals were also struck with McDonald's, Coca-Cola and MasterCard; in 2004, the competition was renamed to the shortened Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), and the latter became lead sponsors.

[21][22] The top teams at the end of the Division A regular season then proceeded to the Superfinal to contest the league title as usual.

[23] (see defunct formats for more) Having switched from Monte Carlo to Marseille in 2005, BSWW made the French city the Superfinal's permanent new home for 2006 and 2007.

[24] The EBSL continued to double as the World Cup qualification route for European nations into the FIFA era.

These years saw the Iberian nations return to the summit; Spain won their fifth title in 2006 and Portugal their second in 2007, narrowly denying France their own second crown by a single goal in the final.

During this period Portugal have continued to be a dominant side, becoming only the second team after Spain (1999–2001) to win three titles in a row (2019–2022), to move clear as the record-holding champions, now with eight.

[34] On the other hand, this era has seen the demise of nations like France, who saw relegation to Division B in 2010[37] and again 2012,[38] meanwhile Spain have only made two finals during these ten years, despite their five previous titles.

[40] And in 2022, longstanding and major league members, Russia and Belarus, were excluded from the competition in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[41][42][43][44] In 2009, BSWW overhauled the existing league structure and introduced a new format that remains in use, featuring a system of promotion and relegation between two divisions of teams.

Minor amendments to the format were made in 2013 that focused on increasing the size of Division A and the number of teams advancing to the post-season events.

The post-season event for Division B nations is called the Promotion Final, staged in parallel with the Superfinal during same dates and in the same location.

The top seven ranking nations with the most points in the Division B league table at the end of the regular season proceed to the Promotion Final.

National teams such as Croatia, Malta[51] and Slovenia[52] have expressed interest in joining the league in the past, but have so far not participated.

The Superfinal is the post-season event in which the nations with the most points at the end of the regular season qualify to play in, with the winner becoming league champions.

Of the eight winners of the EBSL, Switzerland appeared in most Superfinals before finally winning the title, claiming the crown at their ninth attempt.