How to bet on table tennis
Table tennis is on the betting board around the clock, and that is the first thing to understand about it. Most of those matches are small events with little money and little attention, played so the books have something to offer at every hour. The big tournaments are a real sport worth betting. The filler is a different thing, and it is where most of the trouble is.
Why it is always on
Look at a sportsbook's table tennis menu at three in the morning and you will find matches. Books want something to take bets on when the major sports are asleep, and table tennis is cheap to stage, quick to finish and easy to stream. So a lot of the matches on the board come from small events run largely for betting, with modest prize money and players most bettors have never heard of.
That is not a reason to stay away from the sport. It is a reason to know which kind of match you are looking at. A match at a major international tournament has top players, prize money and people paying attention. A match at three in the morning between two names you can't find anything about has none of those, and the price on it is mostly the book's guess.
How a match price is built
A table tennis match is a set of games. Each game goes to 11 points, and at 10 all a player has to win by two. A match is usually best of five games, sometimes best of seven at the bigger events.
The arithmetic works the same way it does in tennis. Say a player wins any one game against this opponent 55 percent of the time (treating each game as separate, which is close enough). Over a best of five she wins the match 59.3 percent of the time, and over a best of seven, 60.8 percent. If she wins 60 percent of games, those become 68.3 and 71.0 percent.
| Wins a game | Best of five | Fair price | Best of seven | Fair price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55% | 59.3% | -146 | 60.8% | -155 |
| 60% | 68.3% | -215 | 71.0% | -245 |
The longer the match, the more the better player wins. That is why I'd be careful with an underdog in a best of seven: she has to stay good for longer. The tennis page goes further into the math of sets and short favorites, and all of it applies here.
The integrity problem
I'd be doing you no favors if I left this out. The small, low-profile events are exactly the kind of competition where match-fixing is easiest. The players earn little, the matches draw little attention, the result of one game is easy to influence, and there are bets on it at books all over the world. Integrity bodies across sport have warned about low-tier events for years, and table tennis has had its share of cases.
You can't see a fix from the outside, and I wouldn't try. What you can do is notice the signs that you are betting into one: a price that moves sharply for no reason you can find, a book that suddenly takes the match off the board, or limits that are tiny on a match nobody is watching. When that happens, someone knows something, and it isn't you.
My rule is simple. I'd bet the events that have something at stake: the major tours and championships, with known players and real prize money. I'd leave the filler alone, however convenient the hour. If the book won't take more than a small bet on a match, that tells you how much it trusts its own price.
Betting apps and live play
Most of the searches for table tennis betting are about apps, because that is where the sport gets bet: on a phone, live, often during a quiet hour. Points come fast, games are short, and a live price moves after nearly every rally. That makes it feel like a game you can play along with.
It is also one of the easiest ways to lose money quickly. The feed on your phone is usually behind the book's data, so by the time you see a run of points, the price has already moved. And the speed means many small bets in a short time, which is how a bankroll goes without anyone deciding to lose it. The live betting page explains the delay.
Which apps offer table tennis, and whether they can take your bet, depends on where you live. Table tennis betting sites covers the markets.
If you want to bet it
Pick one or two competitions with known players and learn them. Follow the players' form and styles, the way you would in tennis, because some styles beat others whatever the rankings say. Keep each bet small, 1 or 2 percent of your bankroll, and set a limit on how many bets you make in a session, because this sport will let you make a hundred in an evening.
A match at a real tournament is a bet on table tennis. A match at three in the morning between strangers is a bet on something else.