The eighth edition of Rugby World Cup Sevens will take place in Cape Town next year, in what will be the first time that a Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament takes place on the African continent.

The three-day tournament will see 24 national men’s teams and 16 national women’s teams compete to be crowned world champions of rugby sevens' flagship event.

The success and spectacle of the event was a major factor behind sevens’ inclusion in the Olympic Games programme, debuting in style at Rio 2016 and set to take centre stage again this year as part of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 is expected to build on the massively successful 2018 edition hosted in San Francisco, which attracted record attendance for a rugby event in the USA with a total attendance of more than 100,000 fans.

In addition, RWC Sevens 2018 attracted cumulative domestic and global broadcast audiences of more than 24 million and 31 million viewers respectively, which included a record-breaking live broadcast audience of 1.7 million on its final day. The tournament also leveraged 22.5 million social media video views on World Rugby channels over the course of the event.

World Rugby Chief Commercial Officer Tom Hill said: “We are delighted to be working with Megapro as we enter the market with an exciting portfolio of Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 partnership opportunities.

“Rugby World Cup Sevens is the pinnacle rugby sevens event for teams and fans alike, and with the latest Nielsen research indicating 82 per cent of the South African population interested in rugby we envisage delivering record broadcast viewership and digital engagement, well beyond RWC Sevens 2018 in San Francisco.

“Having played host to the thrilling HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series since its inception in 1999, South Africa has a rich rugby history and highly engaged fan base when it comes to rugby sevens and a proven track record in regularly selling out the event.”

Megapro, who specialise in the commercialisation of rights and sponsorship sales across a variety sports and entertainment properties within South Africa, have been at the forefront of the sports marketing industry in South Africa for the past 30 years.

“We are delighted with this exclusive appointment to work with esteemed global entity RWCL on an event of this magnitude,” said Lara Verbaan, Sponsorship and Strategy Manager from Megapro.

“We have been pivotal in the commercial success of various aspects of the game locally and look forward to drawing on this rich experience and our vast global network, which includes the quintessential on and off field experience of ex-Springboks Sevens player Steven Hunt (Megapro Sales Manager), to ensure the commercial success of this event.”