Table Tennis Betting
When pro sports shut down during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, betting on table tennis was an unexpected success story in Colorado. The NHL and NBA were postponed. MLB delayed the start of its season. Soccer leagues across the globe were off. March Madness was canceled. Even golf and tennis were out. Bettors needed a new outlet.
In Colorado that ended up being table tennis, which saw its handle surge when legal Colorado online sportsbooks became available. More surprising, though, was that the craze continued even after the big sports returned. In October, the handle on table tennis in Colorado was bigger than hockey, soccer, MMA and golf. Even betting on tennis itself.
Maybe it was the quick 10-15 minute nature of table tennis matches. Maybe it was the frequency of games. But as it turned out, when there’s a table tennis match on the other side of the world at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, bettors in Colorado want in.
If you also want in on table tennis betting, here’s what you need to get started.
Top Online Sportsbooks for Table Tennis Betting
Get $200
How to bet on table tennis online in Colorado
If you’ve just found out about table tennis betting, it’s not hard to get your feet wet. If you already have a betting account, simply open up the sportsbook’s website and you’ll find the “Table Tennis” tab down the left-hand side. It’s important to note that not all sportsbooks in Colorado offer wagering on table tennis.
If you haven’t yet opened your sports betting account, click one of the links below to claim a Colorado sports betting bonus and get started. Once you’ve claimed your bonus, register an account. Enter your email and password and any other details needed to confirm your identity.
If you want to do most of your betting on your phone, download the sportsbook app directly from the sportsbook. You’ll find the button to download most Colorado sportsbook apps directly on the signup page. Once you’ve downloaded the app, open it and fund your account with any of the available payment methods.
Once your account is funded, the table tennis betting market awaits!
How table tennis betting works
Table tennis is not a mainstream sport, so the rules might not be as obvious to the average sports fan. However, betting on table tennis isn’t too hard to figure out. There’s a lot of similarities between betting on table tennis and betting on other mainstream sports.
These bets are easy to find. Table tennis matches are going on almost every day, all day long, meaning you can find activities anytime you want. Matches are also quick, meaning you can get paid in a quick 10-15 minutes.
Here are some of the more popular ways to bet on table tennis:
- Match lines: When betting on the match line, you are simply picking who you think will win the match. The winner of the match is the first player to win 3 of 5 games. Games are played to 11 points, but a player must win by at least two points. Lines are set based on the implied probability of each player winning. If a player is a -150 favorite, he has an implied winning percentage of 60%. To make a $100 profit betting on him, you must risk $150. Conversely, a +150 underdog has a 40% chance of winning the match. If you risked $100 on him to win, you would net a profit of $150.
- Game props: Game props are derivatives based on what occurs in a particular game of a match. Each match has 5 games. With a game prop, you can bet what you expect to happen in game 2 of the match rather than the whole match. You can bet and get results within 3 minutes by betting on a game prop.
You can bet who you think will win each game. If you bet a player to win game 2, then you can win your game prop even if they end up losing the match.
Also, you can bet on total points in each game. You can also bet the total amount of points each player scores in each game. If you think it’ll be a hard-fought back and forth game, you can bet the over for the total amount of points. If you think an underdog will keep the game close, you can bet on him to score over 5.5 points in the game.
You can bet on the exact score of a game. If you think a player will win the game 11-7, you can bet that exact score. Payouts are extremely good for this prop, but you have to be exactly right, with no margin of error.
Another game prop is betting which player you think will get to two wins first. If the player you bet on wins 2 of the first 3 games, you win your bet even if he loses the last two games and ends up losing the match.
- Point props: Point prop betting is betting with specific point goals in mind.
- Race to listed points: If you think a player gets to 5 points first, you can bet on him. If he gets to 5 points before his opponent, you win your bet no matter what happens for the rest of the game or match.
- Winner of specific point: One serve. If the player you bet on wins the point of that service, you win your bet. It’s lightning-quick and fun.
- Match props: Match props are bets that will be settled based on what happens in the whole match. Some examples of match props include:
- Total points: The total amount of points both players combine to score in the whole match. This requires handicapping how close each game will be and how many games will be played.
- Number of games: Betting on the number of games played. Will the match go the full 5 games? Or will one player sweep his opponent? If you bet the correct number of games, you’ll get paid out no matter who wins.
Top table tennis leagues to bet on
- Chinese Super League: The Chinese Super League is the best table tennis league in the world. China is the world powerhouse in terms of table tennis and all of their top domestic players compete in the Chinese Super League. In 2021, the competition begins in late July and continues through late September. In recent years, more foreign players are competing in the Chinese Super League, raising the already high quality of play.
- German Bundesliga: The German Bundesliga is also one of the top leagues in the world. Germans have acquitted themselves quite well in sports. Most top German players compete in the Bundesliga, and they’ve done a great job acquiring talent throughout the world. The season schedule begins in September and continues through March.
Betting on table tennis at the Olympics
Table tennis is a much-anticipated sport in the Summer Olympics for dozens of countries. The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in Paris, France.
Colorado sportsbooks will almost certainly allow betting on table tennis in these Olympics. The strategy for betting does not change as the games will occur as normal, just on a bigger stage.
Live table tennis betting
Has the match you want to bet on already started? No worries. You can live bet on table tennis even after the first serve. Simply open up your sportsbook app, head to the table tennis live betting section, and wait until lines appear. Once the lines are up, you can place your bets.
You can bet on which player will win the current game, who will score the next point, over/under total points in the game, and who will end up winning the match as a whole.
In live betting, the table tennis odds are adjusted for what has already occurred in the match. If the player who was favored to win before the game is losing at the time of your bet, he might now be an underdog. This is an opportunity to get the better player at better odds.
When live betting, make sure you have a sense of what is going on. Sometimes, players just don’t have their game. You don’t want to bet based solely on reputation when it’s obvious one player isn’t at the top of their game on that particular day.
Online sportsbook rules for table tennis in CO
Sportsbooks have rules for table tennis bets when events don’t go exactly as planned. In most scenarios, bets are canceled and refunded if a bet hasn’t already been decided.
If you bet a player to win a match and they’ve only won one game at the time of suspension, most sportsbooks will grade the wager as “no action” and refund your money.
However, if you bet that same player to win the first game of the match and they’ve already done that, your bet will be graded as a winner.
Similar rules apply to over/under. If you bet over 16 points in the second game of a match, and the game gets suspended with the score being 9-8, your bet will be graded as a winner. If you bet the under, your bet will be graded as a loser. If the score was only 3-2 at the time of suspension, your bet will be refunded as “no action.”
Why bet on table tennis?
Betting on table tennis has taken Colorado by storm over the past calendar year. A lot of bettors were introduced to the sport during the pandemic, and many have kept betting on the sport even after the return of other more traditional sports. The reasons to bet on table tennis include:
- Consistent action. Leagues are playing all over the world at all times of the day and throughout the calendar year. When other sports are in the off-season, there’s likely a table tennis match happening somewhere in the world. North American sports usually don’t get started until the late evening, but if you want to make a bet at 10:00 AM, there’s probably a table tennis game going on somewhere.
- Quick results. These matches are quick. Most matches take 10-15 minutes and you can have your bet graded without much of a time commitment. If you have a limited amount of time, spending 15 minutes watching a table tennis match is more efficient than other sports where games can take over 3 hours.
- Fun sport. We all grew up playing table tennis. We probably have access to a table in our basements or at a friend’s house. It’s a sport we all know and understand the (basic) rules of. There’s no time needed to learn the rules of the game.
Top table tennis betting tips & strategy
If you want to bet on table tennis and want to make a profit, here’s some tips to get started:
- Watch the matches you bet on. You will learn a lot more about the sport and the players playing the games if you watch what’s going on. There’s a big advantage to be gained between watching a player’s body language and technique rather than just following a score.
- Know what events you’re betting on. Similar to tennis and golf, there are major tournaments that happen in table tennis, and then there are smaller events. The top players may lack motivation in some of the smaller tournaments, while you know everyone will bring their best game in the major competitions. There’s nothing worse than betting on a player and then realizing they don’t care about winning.
- Bet on full matches instead of games. A player can lose one game and then end up winning the match 3 games to 1. You want to give yourself as much cushion as possible.
Table Tennis Betting FAQ
One fear of betting on table tennis in countries like Russia is match-fixing. Some of these tournaments are not sanctioned by the ITTF. These players are under less scrutiny than those playing in official sanctioned tournaments and leagues. If you are worried about match-fixing, maybe bet less than you would normally.
The ITTF is the governing body of table tennis and they investigate matches and make sure there is no match-fixing going on. Similar to leagues like the NFL and FIFA, this organization takes these allegations very seriously.
You can find results of table tennis matches on the website of the league or tournament you are betting on. Many sportsbooks also have a scoreboard with real-time score updates.
Victor Barna has won 5 World Championships, leading all men. Angelica Rozeanu-Adelstein has won 6 World Championships, leading all women. Wang Hao has 5 Olympic medals, leading all men. Wang Nan has 5 Olympic medals, leading all women.
Table tennis is simple to bet, but it might take a while to get familiar with the world’s players.