The
World Rugby Sevens Series, known officially as the
HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series from the 2015-16 season, and before that as the
HSBC Sevens World Series since 2010, through sponsorship from banking group
HSBC, is an annual series of international
rugby sevens tournaments run by
World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. The series, organised for the first time as the
World Sevens Series in the 1999-2000 season, was formed to develop an elite-level competition series between rugby nations and develop the sevens game into a viable commercial product for World Rugby.