Real Betis originally played in all blue jerseys and white shorts, for no other reason than the easy availability of such plain colours.

The club reached the Copa del Presidente de la República final for the first time on 21 June 1931, when it lost 3–1 to Athletic Bilbao in Madrid.

[9] Betis marked their 25th anniversary year by winning their first Segunda División title in 1932, finishing two points ahead of Real Oviedo,[10] thus becoming the first club from Andalusia to play in La Liga.

On 28 April 1935, under the guidance of Irish coach Patrick O'Connell, Betis won La Liga, to date their only top division title.

This was due to the dismantling of the championship-winning team because of the club's poor economic situation and the arrival of the Civil War, meaning that just 15 months after winning the league title only two players who won in 1935 were left: Peral and Saro.

[citation needed] When the side returned to the second level in 1954, it gained the distinction of being the only club in Spain to have won all three major divisions' titles.

In 1955, Manuel Ruiz Rodríguez stepped down from running the club believing he could not offer further economic growth, he was replaced by Betis most famous former president, Benito Villamarín.

Just one year after Villamarín's departure, the club would again be relegated to division two, then rising and falling almost consecutively until consolidating their place in the top level in 1974–75.

The following year, Betis returned to the top flight and ushered in a period of "good times" for the club, with the next three seasons seeing three top-six finishes, as well as UEFA Cup qualification in 1982 and 1984.

During the summer of 1982, the Benito Villamarín hosted two matches as part of the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and also witnessed the Spain national team's famous 12–1 hammering of Malta to qualify for UEFA Euro 1984.

In 1992, Betis found itself subject to new league rules and regulations due to its restructuring as an autonomous sporting group (SAD), requiring the club to come up with 1,200 million pesetas, roughly double that of all the first and second division teams, despite being in level two at the time.

In just three months, the fans raised 400 million pesetas with then vice-president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stepping in to provide an economic guarantee while himself becoming majority shareholder as the team narrowly avoided relegation.

For the next couple of seasons, Betis went through numerous managers, a relegation and a promotion, after which the team finished sixth in the league with Juande Ramos at the helm.

He led the team to eighth and ninth in the league and the third round of the 2002–03 UEFA Cup, being knocked out by Auxerre (1–2 on aggregate), during his two-year reign.

They also returned to the Vicente Calderón on 11 June 2005 for the Copa del Rey final, lifting the trophy for only the second time after an extra-time winner by youth graduate Dani in a 2–1 win against Osasuna.

The festivities included a special match against Milan, the reigning European Champions, on August 9, with the hosts winning 1–0 thanks to a Mark González penalty early in the second half.

[15] On 15 June 2009 over 65,000 Beticos, including icons such as Rafael Gordillo, Del Sol, Hipólito Rincón, Julio Cardeñosa and others, joined the protest march in Sevilla with the slogan "15-J Yo Voy Betis" to let the majority owner Ruiz de Lopera know that it was time to put his 54% share of the club on the market for someone, some entity or the Betis supporters to buy those shares and remove Lopera from the day-to-day operations of the club.

Despite the protests, no upper management changes were made during the season, which would ultimately see Betis fail to gain promotion back to the top level.

[16] Seville judge Mercedes Alaya was investigating links between Betis and other Ruiz de Lopera-owned businesses, leading to him being formally charged with fraud.

Left with nothing, despite putting down a €1 million deposit, Oliver hastily bought a nominal number of shares from a third party and was voted onto the board of directors by the existing members (all former cohorts of Lopera), allowing him to carry on running the club.

The 2018–19 campaign was very positive; the club reached the Copa del Rey semi-finals and topped their group in the Europa League, before eventually being knocked out by Stade Rennais in the round of 32.

They played for the first time in the Spanish top division during the 1934–35 season, with a 0–3 home defeat for Sevilla and a 2–2 draw at Betis, with the latter winning the national championship.

In later years, several matches were also marred by violence, including: a security guard attacked by a Sevilla fan with a crutch (that he did not require to walk), Betis goalkeeper Toni Prats being attacked and Sevilla manager Juande Ramos being struck by a bottle of water;[22] the latter incident led to the 2007 Copa del Rey match being suspended, being played out three weeks later in Getafe with no spectators.

From late 1911, the team had adopted the shirts of Celtic,[30] at that time vertical stripes of green and white, that were brought over from Glasgow by Manuel Asensio Ramos, who had studied in Scotland as a child.

[31] When the team became Real Betis Balompié in 1914, various kits were used, including: yellow and black stripes; green T-shirts and a reversion to the blue top and white shorts uniform.

By the end of the 1920s, Betis was once again sporting green and white stripes, around this time the Assembly of Ronda (1918) saw the Andalusian region formally adopt these colours, not being known how much the two are linked.