Table Tennis

Table Tennis was invented in the 1880s in England and organized as a regulated sport in 1926 for its first World Championship. The addition of a World Cup in 1980 and becoming an Olympic sport in 1988 have helped its popularity to grow considerably in recent years. There is now an annual ITTF World Tour, formerly known as the Pro Tour, with around 15 tournaments held each year and a Grand Finals at the end. Recently a series of rule and format changes have made matches more appealing to television audiences. The increased exposure has brought demand for betting markets and the betting aspect of the sport is the topic of this article.

Where to Bet Table Tennis Online

The 2016 Summer Olympics which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are quite a while away at the time I’m writing this article. This is where the bulk of table tennis betting is done, and when the tournament rolls around you can expect most online bookmakers will have odds. Betting options for matches from the ITTF World Tour including the Grand Finals, the World Championships, World Team Championships, Men’s and Women’s World Cup / World Team Cup, China vs. World Challenge and other ITTF sanctioned tournaments, are fairly limited. The sites best for this are listed below.

Unfortunately, due to the table tennis betting market being so small, no US sportsbooks currently offer odds on table tennis competitions. The sites listed below are the current top 3 online sportsbooks that accept USA residents. These can be used for betting on the majority of highly followed sports such as football, basketball, golf, hockey and tennis.

Note: By far the best sites for betting on table tennis matches are Nordic Bet and ComeOn. They offer odds on far more competitions compared to other sites. For example, at the time of writing they are the only online betting sites that offers odds on the Challenger Series, the Swedish Pingisligan and on the French League Pro A.

Another important note is that you will not find many, if any, prematch odds for ITTF tournament matches. What you will find is live streams with a plethora of in-play betting opportunities. This allows you watch the matches right from your computer and bet on a variety of markets. I’ll cover these shortly but first let me mention pre-match betting.

Table Tennis Odds

If you’re looking to bet before a match begins you’ll need to turn to one of Nordic Bet, ComeOn or Paddy Power. These sites only offer betting odds on which player will win a match; there are no other markets covered.

ComeOn and Nordic Bet have a $200 maximum bet which is also a cumulative limit. Understand it is not possible to get down thousands of dollars on a table tennis match at online betting sites. Perhaps the most you’ll be able to get down is a $500 stake. This is $200 at ComeOn and max bets of $100-$200 each at the other sportsbooks that have table tennis odds. No matter what your bankroll size is, it is advised you check all the sites listed above prior to making table tennis bets. One final note is you won’t find too many overnight lines. For match betting Nordic Bet and Paddy Power have the earliest opening lines, while ComeOn and the other sites tend open the odds about 4 hours before the first match of the day.

Live In-Play Betting

Once matches start becomes the best site for wagering table tennis. Not only can you bet on match winner, with the odds shifting as the match progresses, but you can bet many additional markets. Some examples include game winner, point winner, and races to 3, 5, 7 and 9 points in a given game. You can also bet total points scored, whether points scored will be odds or even and so much more.

A small tip: If you have an account funded with at least $5.00, you can visit their site, log-in and from the top menu click “live streaming”. This will open their stream viewer interface which includes a schedule of upcoming streams. If you select table tennis from the menu you can filter it and get a list of all matches that will be streamed in the coming days. This comes in handy for knowing which matches to handicap in advanced.

Table Tennis Betting Strategy

As I mentioned earlier, it is not possible to bet a great deal of money online for this sport. This is actually good news for smaller limit players as professional punters have limited to no interest due to the smaller limits. If you’re looking for a little extra value towards making table tennis bets here are a few tips.

Tip #1 – Study Tendencies – Most of the competitions streamed involve the same players in each tournament. Get to know the top players and look for performance trends. Does the player stay focused and go for the kill at all stages of a match or when a game is in control do they maybe relax within a couple points of taking the game. Get to know also their opponent. Though a lopsided match does this opponent give a full effort until the very end? Knowing this information can help greatly with live in-play betting.

Tip #2 – Look for Value Outside of China – This is a sport largely dominated by Chinese players. Look especially for times you feel non-Asian players who are an underdog have a chance against a Chinese player. Understand that players like Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and Vladimir Samsonov are all well-known on the men’s side. On the women’s side however you can sometimes find good value on players like Viktoria Pavlovich, Elizabeta Samara and Kristin Silbereisen. While I wouldn’t suggest betting these players blindly understand most the wagers on table tennis are backing top rated Chinese players. If you spot times you think a European might have a chance, that player is often worth a punt.

Tip #3: Watch the Pinnacle Prices – Again, China is the most dominant nation in the sport. Pinnacle Sports is available in Chinese language and has Chinese banking options. Because Pinnacle moves the lines with every bet, a good strategy is to note their odds 4 hours before a match, 2 hours before, an hour before, and then come back and watch the odds update in the final minutes. You can find times where it is easy to suspect fans have kept betting the Chinese player blindly. In such spots where you notice a lot of line movement, betting the other side can be a great idea. Let me conclude by saying, the strategy suggested in tip #3 is not advised for major sports such as football betting. The reason it is more viable in table tennis betting is because this is a small market. Most of the bets are placed by fans and the limits are so low that sharp players don’t have a large interest. There is also not enough of a betting market for match fixing to be anything but an extremely minor concern. No matter if you follow our tips or use your own, we at Online Gambling hope you manage to a few winners!