A leisure vacation number one in sports betting! This is one of the unexpected consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Ping-pong is the new El Dorado for bookmakers and punters, failing to be able to bet on football, tennis or horse racing.
"Imagine that table tennis would be the most consumed product on a Saturday afternoon would have been foolish a few weeks ago," laughs Matt Fowler, director of the service responsible for ensuring compliance with betting regulations within from the international association for betting integrity (IBIA).
And table tennis - because yes, ping-pong has a sporting version - has seized the ball to find a new audience, with tournaments that continue to take place in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia . "It has carved out a good market share," said Keith O'Loughlin, senior manager of SG Digital, which provides content and commercial services for online betting sites. “All things considered, it replaces tennis. "
A tutorial to explain table tennis
"The most important bets in tennis are on" who will win the next point "and it is the same in table tennis. With the increase in live betting around the world, people want an immediate result, "he explains.
But it takes time to familiarize yourself with the kings and queens of the topspin, the equivalent of the tennis lift. The Italian betting company Snaitech thus "launched a daily" talk show "" on one of its online radios dedicated "to table tennis and the [soccer] championships of Nicaragua and Belarus", to help its customers " to follow these new markets ”, explains its CEO Fabio Schivaolin.
The American company DraftKings, for its part, "produced a tutorial to explain how table tennis works, because many tennis bettors have referred to it," said Jamie Shea, director of its sports data department.
Resumption of the Bundesliga and return to the shadows of table tennis players?
William Woodhams, CEO of the British bookmaker Fitzdares, however stresses to AFP that ping-pong and other niche markets "are far from compensating for the losses linked to mainstream sport", especially since the sums wagered are not not comparable. "You would not bet a large sum on teams of which you do not know a player," he explains.
The resumption of major competitions, with the return of the Bundesliga to Germany as early as next week, should also put an end to this transient flirtation of bettors with these less media sports or championships. "They will return to the shadows from which they emerged," predicts Jason Scott of the American company Roar Digital.
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