The corporate racket series · Launching summer 2027
Your company.
Five players.
One cup.
6 locations · 96 teams · 480 players · 1 cup in each
Tennis · Padel · Pickleball
The Business Cup is a racket series for company teams. It starts with tennis in 2027, with padel and pickleball to follow. Play the other businesses in your city for an afternoon, get coached by the professionals, and help put a racket in the hands of children who have never held one.
- Cambridge
- London
- Manchester
- Scotland
- Weybridge
- Portugal
How it works
A proper afternoon of tennis, whatever your standard
Players in a team
Two doubles pairs and a substitute from your company. Bring colleagues, or invite clients to make up the five.
Sections
Pro for regular club players. Social for occasional players and beginners. You choose when you enter.
Group fixtures for every team
Every team plays the other three in its group. The top two go through to the semi-finals and finals.
Companies per city
Eight teams in each section. Food and drinks together, prizegiving, and time to meet the other businesses.
What your entry includes
An hour of coaching before the day, and everything on it
- An hour of professional coaching for your team at the host club before the event, so your five arrive ready to play.
- An afternoon of tennis with coaches on court.
- A team shirt with your company logo for each player.
- A water bottle and a copy of Mike's book, RACER for Sport.
- Food, prizes and the prizegiving.
- A Tennis Explosion kit donated overseas in your team's name.
[Dates and host clubs to be announced.]
- 12:30Registration, coffee and team photos
- 12:50Welcome, briefing and warm-up with the coaches
- 13:15Group stage: six rounds, Pro and Social sections
- 15:50Semi-finals
- 16:20Pro and Social finals
- 16:50Prizegiving, then food and drinks at the club until 18:00
[Timings to confirm with Mike.]
The coaching behind it
Coached the RACER way
Every Business Cup is coached using RACER, the system Mike Lipschitz developed at Mike's Tennis Academy and now teaches to coaches through an online certification. It breaks every point into five steps, so a beginner and a county player can both improve in a single session.
Ready
Anticipate
Choose
Execute
Recover
Every host club receives two weeks' free access to the RACER programme for its coaches: five online modules with video, drills, ebooks and a certificate. See the RACER course.
Tournament rules
The rules in brief
Teams
Five players from one company or its invited guests, aged 18 or over: an A pair, a B pair and a substitute who can come in between fixtures.
Fixtures
Your A pair plays their A pair and your B pair plays their B pair, side by side. Each match is 25 minutes, with sudden-death deuce.
Winning
Win both matches and you win the fixture. Split them and the team with more points across both matches wins.
Sections
Pro and Social, two groups of four in each. The top two in each group go through to the semi-finals and finals.
Players call their own lines and the referee's decision is final. The full tournament rules, including scoring, tie-breaks and the wet weather plan, are sent to every team on entry. [Draft rules with Mike for sign-off.]
Our impact
Every team sends tennis somewhere new
Talent is everywhere; courts and coaches are not. For every team that enters, we send a Tennis Explosion pack to a school or community overseas: rackets, a net and six games that let children play on any flat ground. The next star might be holding a racket for the first time because of your team.
Ethiopia, South Africa, Nepal
The first destinations for Tennis Explosion packs, with a focus on women and girls in South Africa.
Finding talent
Tennis reaches places it has never been played. We follow the children who take to it and report back each year. [To agree with Mike.]
One kit for every team
Every team that enters donates a Tennis Explosion kit: 96 kits in the first year, each one a new place where children can play.
Sponsors
One title sponsor. A five-year journey.
We are looking for one national title sponsor to own The Business Cup from its first serve. The offer is reach into business communities across the UK, and an impact story with your name on it: tennis played in places it has never been played, and the chance to find a star.
Your name on the cup
"The Business Cup, presented by you" in every city: shirts, courts, trophies and every photo.
Your name on the impact
The Tennis Explosion programme carries your brand overseas, with numbers and stories for your community and ESG reporting.
A seat in every city
A team place and hospitality at each event, and a say in where the series goes next.
The plan, year by year
Launch in Cambridge, London, Manchester, Scotland, Weybridge and Portugal. First Tennis Explosion packs sent overseas.
Two more locations, including Malta. First national final for the winners. Padel edition.
Regional structure. Pickleball edition. Industry cups hosted by sponsors.
First international event. Finals weekend abroad.
City, region and country tiers in place. A second international market.
[Planning outline, to agree with Mike before publishing.]
City sponsors
Sponsor the Pro or Social section, the food, coffee or the trophy in your own city. Includes a team place and local press.
Our sponsors
Tennis clubs
Host The Business Cup
Each host club welcomes 16 company teams for an afternoon. Before the event, every team has an hour of coaching with a coach at the club, paid for from the team fee: 16 hours of paid coaching for the club's own coach. The club also receives two weeks' free access to Mike's RACER coaching programme, copies of his book, the food and drink trade on the day and its logo on our event material. Members can enter a team from their own business or come and watch. We run and insure the event.
[Free team place and Official Host Venue title: to decide with Mike.]
Host clubs 2027
Suppliers
Coffee carts, food trucks, barbecues and more
Every event needs good local food and drink. If you run a coffee cart, a food truck, a barbecue, a bar or an ice cream van near one of our locations, tell us what you do and where. We are also looking for equipment, kit, trophy and photography suppliers.
Who we are
Founded by a coach, delivered by an event team
Mike Lipschitz, founder
Mike founded Mike's Tennis Academy in Cambridge in 2000 and is still its head coach. He has trained thousands of students and more than 250 coaches. Raised in South Africa, he speaks five languages and holds qualifications in physical education, history, philosophy and sports psychology.
Mike created the RACER and SELF coaching systems and Tennis Explosion, and is the author of RACER for Sport: Five Steps to Sporting Success. He runs everything on court.
12 Degrees Event Management
A Cambridge event agency founded by Jen Townsend in 2006, delivering corporate events, conferences and team events in the UK and abroad.
12 Degrees runs entries, sponsorship, suppliers and the event day.
Register interest
Tell us you're in
No payment is needed now. We will send dates, venues and entry details for your city as soon as they are confirmed.
Thank you. You're on the list.
We will be in touch with dates and details for your city.