The German Table Tennis Association and Dimitrij Ovtcharov are promoting the TT Cup. Amateur players compete in the tournaments around the clock – broadcast live and available from international betting providers. What’s behind it?
A sports center on the outskirts of Prague. From the outside, there is nothing to indicate that you are there in this inconspicuous building complex Hotspot for amateur table tennis and international sports betting. On this day, the first tournaments inside start at eight in the morning and don’t end until the early hours of the morning. Almost a 24-hour operation that is broadcast in free live streams on the Internet.
The TT Cup is a tournament series that probably receives little attention even among die-hard table tennis fans. The reason: Professionals are almost never at the table – they are almost always amateur players. The motto: quantity instead of class. This year alone there have been over 53,000 games, with by far most taking place in the Czech Republic and Poland. Spectators are not allowed in the hall. Even the participants are not allowed to watch other games, according to the tournament guidelines: a precautionary measure against betting fraud.
TT Cup games are offered by numerous international sports betting sites. You can bet live on who will win the next set or even point. Are amateur tournaments less about sport and more about producing content for the betting industry? The TT Cup emphasizes that the focus of the tournaments is on the global development of table tennis.
Betting on amateur sports banned in Germany
The TT Cup logo has been emblazoned on the jerseys of the German national table tennis team since the beginning of 2024. National player Dimtrij Ovtcharov brokered contact between the German Table Tennis Association (DTTB) and the TT Cup – the six-time Olympic medalist has been the brand ambassador for the tournament series since 2021. Ovtcharov left several written questions unanswered and declined an interview.
National player Dimitrij Ovtcharov has been the TT Cup brand ambassador since 2021.
A questionable partnership, because betting on amateur sports is prohibited in Germany – including the TT Cup. The legal ban is intended to protect amateur sports from manipulation. Because amateurs often earn little or no money from their sport, they are considered particularly vulnerable to offers from betting fraudsters. When monitoring its games, the TT Cup works with an alert system from the sports data company Sportradar, which registers suspicious betting.
Upon request, the TT Cup writes that they have “zero tolerance for integrity violations”. Players would be immediately disqualified if there were any abnormalities. A spokesman for the tournament series emphasizes: So far there have been no confirmed cases of match manipulation. The joint gaming authority of the states describes the risk of manipulation in table tennis as “significant”. The DTTB says the TT Cup will score “To our knowledge, sufficient precautions against betting manipulation”.
Controversial Sponsorship partnership
Former DTTB President Claudia Herweg criticizes the lack of sporting benefit of amateur series such as the TT Cup. While still under Herweg’s leadership, the DTTB rejected a sponsorship offer from the TT Cup. Sports betting on amateurs would not fit with the values of sport.
A few months after Herweg’s resignation from the presidency, the association apparently changed course. In February 2024, the DTTB announced the new partnership with the TT Cup. Until last summer, in addition to the men’s and women’s national teams, the youth teams also wore the TT Cup logo on their jerseys.
In 2023, TT Cup tournaments in Germany also took place in Bad Aibling, Upper Bavaria, for a few months – so far the only German venue for amateur tournaments in the series. Sportschau reporters spoke to several participants and received evidence of unusual gaming behavior. Upon request, the organizer in Bad Aibling will confirm in writing that a player was disqualified following a tip from the TT Cup. The TT Cup did not respond to written Sportschau questions about the disqualified player.
Amateur tournaments especially in Eastern Europe
Almost half of the games so far this year – almost 25,000 games – have been played in the Czech Republic. A similar number of games took place in Poland. Spain, Estonia and the USA as host countries follow at a considerable distance.
A permit to film at the tournaments on the outskirts of Prague was rejected by the TT Cup. In front of the sports center, tournament participants blocked reporters’ attempts to talk. A data analysis by the Sportschau shows: In the Czech Republic, a group of players in the TT Cup stands out. 13 players have played more than 1,600 games against each other in Prague since the beginning of the year – almost exclusively among themselves.
Ex-professional in Australia because of Table tennis betting sentenced
A case from Australia shows how real the risk of manipulation is in amateur table tennis. In 2023 the former table tennis professional became Adam Green convicted of large-scale betting fraud. Green had bet on over 1,100 manipulated amateur table tennis games and won a total of almost 300,000 euros. These included, among other things, amateur tournaments in Ukraine in 2020.
While professional tournaments had to be suspended due to the corona pandemic, amateur competitions continued as usual Win CupSetka Cup and the TT Cup in Eastern European countries. In 2020, several US states temporarily suspended betting on these tournament series due to reports of suspicious activity – there were no confirmed cases of manipulation at the time. Since then, TT Cup games have no longer been permitted for sports betting in New Jersey.
When asked again, the DTTB emphasizes its “Zero tolerance attitude towards match fixing” and points out that partnerships are regularly reviewed. The sponsorship contract between TT Cup and DTTB runs until 2026.