2020 Table Tennis Odds: Table Tennis Preview

The absence of team sports during the coronavirus pandemic has made it possible for certain lesser-known leagues to break through to mainstream audiences. Table tennis is one example of a sport filling the void in many Eastern European countries at the moment. Places like Russia, Ukraine and Czech Republic are hosting regional competitions throughout the quarantine, as social distancing measures can be adhered to during gameplay. Maybe China’s Fan Zhendong, the world’s No. 1 men’s table tennis player, will have greater competition by the time the pandemic is over.

Sports bettors who’ve never watched table tennis before are discovering how easy it is to transition from traditional sports leagues to less-traditional ones. And labelling it as less-traditional isn’t entirely fair, as it really depends on where you are in the world. Ping Pong is massive in China, and has been played there competitively for over 100 years. In 1988, table tennis received official recognition when it was added to the Summer Olympic Games, and it hasn’t skipped a beat since.

Anyone interested in adding table tennis to their betting portfolio will benefit from this comprehensive guide that goes over the various ways you can place ping pong bets in our sportsbook. We’ll cover the standard “straight bets,” including table tennis lines and totals, and discuss the Live Betting option that makes it possible to join the action while a game is in play.

How to Bet on Table Tennis

The biggest table tennis events in the world are backed by a governing body called the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), which was formed in 1926. The following six continental federations make up the global chapters of the ITTF: the Table Tennis Federation of India, Asian Table Tennis Union, European Table Tennis Union, Latin American Table Tennis Union, Northern American Table Tennis Union and Oceania Table Tennis Federation. These governing bodies sanction the World Table Tennis Championships (singles and doubles), the Men’s World Cup, Women’s World Cup, the table tennis competitions in the Summer Olympic Games and more. They’re also the ones responsible for ranking their athletes based on a point system. See here for current ITTF World Rankings.

Almost all ITTF competitions scheduled to take place in April and May were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The games that were still being played internationally during the pandemic were mostly regional competitions, such as Ukraine’s Setka Cup, the TT Cup and Russia’s Pro League. ITTF events are expected to pick back up in August, with the 2020 World Table Tennis Championships scheduled for September 27 to October 4 from Busan, Korea. But even with the ITTF tournaments on pause, there are still table tennis betting lines available in our sportsbook that include moneyline odds and totals.

Moneyline

Any time you want to bet on the winner of a table tennis match before it begins, you’ll be betting on the moneyline. Each side is assigned table tennis odds that reflect their probability of winning; one will be the favourite and have negative odds, and the other will be the underdog and have positive odds. In some cases, both sides will have negative odds, in which case the player with the lower negative number is the favourite.

Our sportsbook uses American odds by default, but you can switch to Decimal or Fractional odds by using the drop-down menu at the top-right. With American odds, negative odds show how much money you’d need to bet in order to win $100, while positive odds show how much money you’d win from a $100 bet. Of course, bets of different sizes are allowed. Let’s illustrate how moneyline betting works with an example from the Czech Republic Pro League:

Miroslav Cinibulk +125
Matous Klimenta —175

Klimenta is the favourite in this matchup, as indicated by the negative odds, so you’d win $100 off a $175 bet. As for the underdog, Cinibulk, a $100 bet would yield a $125 payout should the upset occur.

Total

Totals, also known as over/under betting, allows you to bet on the total number of points scored by both sides. A handicapper will release a number, and bettors simply choose to bet on the actual combined score going over or under the handicapper’s prediction. Payouts are determined by the odds listed in parentheses beside the total.

D. Prokopcov O 60.5 (—120)
Jakub Seibert U 60.5 (—120)

The total here is 60.5 points, with the O representing the “Over” and the U representing the “Under.” Both options have the same payout, as you can see by the matching —120 odds, paying $100 on a $120 bet.

Knowing a bit about the scoring format will help you make informed choices on your bet slip. Most table tennis matchups use a best-of-five format, and the first player to score 11 points wins the round—as long as they beat their opponent by at least two points. If the score is 11-10, the round continues until one of the players wins by two points. It’s always a good idea to double check the number of rounds included in a matchup before betting on totals, as some competitions, like Olympic Table Tennis, use a best-of-seven format.

Live Betting

Both of these straight bets are available while matches are in progress through our Live Betting portal. The top section of the Table Tennis page is usually dedicated to Live betting, but you can also find real-time matches through the “LIVE” button at the far left-side of our homepage. When you find a live match you’re interested in, select it and you’ll be brought to a page with pertinent betting details. A table will display the points scored per side for each round, and an H2H icon lists head-to-head information.

In addition to moneyline and totals, spread betting is also available for individual table tennis rounds when you bet live. The spread is a margin of victory (and loss) that must be covered in order for a bet to win. In the case of the favourite, they must win by a designated number of points. As for the underdog, they can lose by a maximum number of points and still pay bettors. We’ll go through an example to show how this works:

Igor Chernetsky —2.5 (—205)
Dmitrii Kim +2.5 (+150)

In this example, Chernetsky is a —2.5 favourite on the spread and will pay $100 on a $205 bet if he beats Kim by at least three points. If Kim wins outright, or loses by just two points, he will have covered the spread and bettors are paid $150 on a $100 bet. Keep in mind, a table tennis round is always won by at least two points, so you won’t find any one-point spreads on the table tennis Vegas odds board.

An additional betting option available for live table tennis betting are the props. These bets typically require little or no research, and are fun to toss on your bet slip. You can bet on completely random things, like the total number of points scored being an even or odd number, or you can try to accurately predict the exact number of rounds won by each side. As you’ll see when you get started, there are many interesting ways to fill up your bet slip—even during these trying times. Have fun, and we hope to see you at the pay window.