The calendar, which also hadn't been updated throughout April, is now gone, and the league's formerly active social media accounts stopped posting in March. Prior to the pandemic, the calendar, rankings, stats and results were updated regularly on Liga Pro's official site. Sportsbooks are offering at least 100 table tennis matches labeled as Moscow Liga Pro or Russia Liga Pro to bettors every day, but the league's website hasn't been updated in weeks. Table tennis's top governing bodies say they're not sanctioning the events.Ĭonsider Liga Pro, a Russia-based organization that holds events for a variety of sports, including basketball, esports and table tennis. Event organizers, participants, oddsmakers and sportsbooks are reluctant to talk about any of it in detail. Official information is hard to come by: If bettors want to verify results on an official league site, learn who's running the matches or even know where the games are taking place, they're mostly out of luck. And in at least one state, sportsbook operators have filed incomplete or incorrect information with regulators as they sought permission to allow bets on the action. sportsbooks on these matches - hundreds of thousands of dollars in betting handle daily - yet the matches are shrouded in such secrecy, their legitimacy is in question. The action is fast-paced, and competitors range in age from early 20s to mid-60s. There are hundreds of matches like this one being streamed daily, in tournaments called Setka Cup, Win Cup and Moscow Liga Pro. There are no announcers the only sounds are the occasional reactions from the players or the scorekeeper, and the pitter-patter of paddles hitting the ball. The camera angle is tight, almost as though it's shot from an iPhone perched in a corner of the bare-bones room that has blue tarps for walls.

On a Monday in May, when bettors typically would be targeting the NBA playoffs or an MLB matinee, the wagering world is instead fixated on an internet stream of a table tennis match between two Russians in an undisclosed location in Eastern Europe. Gambling on table tennis is blowing up - but are the matches legit? Paula Lavigne and David Purdum and Gueorgui Milkov You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser

Girl that was a table tennis pro