Table tennis betting reaches almost US$1 million per day in Colorado, compared to “crack”: report
Table tennis has become an unusually large part of Colorado’s sports betting market, with the state’s gambling regulator, the Colorado Division of Gaming, finding that bettors wagered US$346 million on the sport last fiscal year. This is equivalent to almost US$1 million every day.
According to CPR News, the popularity is partly driven by the sheer number of matches available to bet on through private Eastern European leagues.
Events are often played in nondescript locations and streamed online without commentary, providing Colorado sportsbooks with a near-continuous supply of matches.
The betting volume has raised concerns about gambling addiction and the integrity of some matches, with Declan Hill, a professor at the University of New Haven, saying, “This is outrageous. It’s crack cocaine pedaled as an innocuous, sweet sports gambling bet. What the bookmakers try to do is provide a twenty- four-seven, 365 days-a-year betting product that these poor addicts are going to throw their cash down on.”
Colorado lawmakers have responded to wider concerns about sports betting by passing a sports betting reform bill that limits bettors to six deposits per day and bans push notifications encouraging wagers or deposits.
Colorado also previously suspended the Ukrainian Table Tennis Federation and Setka Cup following reports of unusual betting patterns and match fixing. Both were reinstated last year following the address of integrity concerns.
Despite the issues, table tennis accounted for over 5% of Colorado’s US$6.5 billion in sports wagers last fiscal year. State regulators said markets are based on verifiable data integrity and fair play, while suspicious betting activity is monitored alongside sportsbooks and independent integrity providers.
Charlotte Capewell brings her passion for storytelling and expertise in writing, researching, and the gambling industry to every article she writes. Her specialties include the US gambling industry, regulator legislation, igaming, and more.
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The Backstory
Colorado’s betting boom created the conditions
Colorado’s table tennis surge did not emerge in isolation. It developed inside one of the more active online sports betting markets in the U.S., where legalization in May 2020 quickly produced a crowded field of mobile operators, expanding betting menus and a regulatory system under pressure to keep pace.
The state’s January figures showed how large the market has become. Colorado online sportsbooks generated $60.8 million in gross gaming revenue that month, with total net sports betting proceeds of $45.4 million, up more than 17.8% from January 2024. Since launch, the Colorado Division of Gaming has licensed 13 online sportsbooks and eight retail locations, creating broad access for consumers across the state. January sports betting taxes exceeded $4.4 million, underscoring why the market has become financially significant for both operators and public programs.
The same data also showed that wagering interest was no longer confined to the biggest U.S. sports. Professional basketball led January betting with $177.1 million online, followed by pro football at $118.1 million. But table tennis also ranked in the top five, alongside NCAA basketball and tennis, according to Colorado’s January online sports betting revenue report. That placement signaled that a niche sport had become a mainstream betting product, at least by volume, in a state where operators compete to keep customers engaged year-round.
Always-on markets changed the risk profile
Table tennis offers sportsbooks something major leagues cannot: high-frequency events across time zones, often with rapid results and little downtime between matches. That structure fits the online betting model, particularly for in-play wagers and repeat deposits. It also creates a regulatory challenge because betting volume can grow faster than public familiarity with the underlying competitions.
Colorado’s recent attention to table tennis reflects wider concerns about obscure or lightly followed events becoming vehicles for heavy betting. Unlike the NBA or NFL, smaller table tennis competitions may have fewer public markers of legitimacy for casual bettors. Events can be streamed online, sometimes without meaningful context, while odds are refreshed continuously. For sportsbook customers, the experience can feel closer to a constant betting feed than a conventional sporting event.
That dynamic has made integrity monitoring central to the debate. Colorado previously suspended betting tied to the Ukrainian Table Tennis Federation and Setka Cup after unusual betting patterns and match-fixing concerns, then later reinstated those markets after integrity issues were addressed. The episode illustrated the basic tension regulators face: niche markets can be lawful and popular, but they require credible data, monitoring and controls if they are to remain part of a regulated betting system.
Lawmakers moved from market growth to guardrails
As betting options expanded, Colorado policymakers shifted from enabling a legal market to managing its side effects. The clearest example is Senate Bill 26-131, a sports betting protections measure approved by lawmakers and sent to Gov. Jared Polis. The bill would bar credit card deposits for online wagering, restrict push notifications that encourage bets or deposits and prevent operators from allowing more than six deposits in a single day.
The proposal targets behaviors associated with gambling harm rather than specific sports. Frequent deposits, loss chasing and direct prompts from operators can affect bettors regardless of whether they are wagering on basketball, football or table tennis. But the concern is particularly relevant for high-frequency markets, where customers may cycle through bets and deposits quickly. A table tennis schedule that runs across many hours can amplify the same risks lawmakers are trying to reduce.
The bill also includes tighter advertising standards, including restrictions on targeting people under 21 and limits on ads placed where most of the audience is expected to be minors. The measure, available through the Colorado General Assembly as SB 26-131, reflects a broader political recalibration. Sports betting remains legal and economically important, but lawmakers are increasingly willing to limit operator practices that could encourage excessive play.
Enforcement has followed policy
Colorado’s regulatory posture has not been limited to legislation. The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission has also taken action when operators fail to meet responsible gaming rules. In one case, the commission issued a $20,000 penalty to Fanatics after the sportsbook sent promotional messages to a customer enrolled in the state’s self-exclusion program.
The breach involved a customer who had signed up for a five-year self-exclusion from Fanatics Sportsbook. Despite that status, a member of the operator’s VIP team sent promotional text messages in February. Fanatics later acknowledged the violations, agreed to pay the fine and was required to audit text-message marketing against self-exclusion lists covering January 2024 through March 2026. The company also had to strengthen regulatory risk and responsible gaming training for VIP staff.
The Fanatics self-exclusion case matters because it shows how Colorado is treating marketing conduct as part of consumer protection. If bettors are vulnerable, direct promotions can worsen harm. That concern overlaps with table tennis betting because the sport’s high-volume format can be especially attractive to customers who struggle with control. For regulators, the issue is not only whether the event is legitimate, but whether operators’ marketing, account systems and responsible gaming tools can contain risky behavior.
Education and integrity are becoming intertwined
Colorado has also leaned on partnerships to address gambling risk before it becomes an enforcement problem. The Colorado Division of Gaming arranged a collaboration between IC360 and the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado to provide gambling education to college-aged individuals across NCAA institutions, junior colleges and community colleges in the state. The program is intended to give young adults information about gambling harm, whether betting occurs online or in person.
The IC360 partnership with the Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado highlights a prevention strategy that runs parallel to regulation. Young adults are a priority audience because they are heavy users of mobile technology, frequent consumers of sports media and a key demographic for sportsbook marketing. Education programs cannot replace deposit limits or enforcement, but they can create a baseline of awareness about odds, risk and self-exclusion tools.
IC360’s role also points to the convergence of responsible gambling and sports integrity. The company works in compliance, education and monitoring, including systems designed to identify suspicious wagering. In emerging or niche sports, that function is especially important because the credibility of the betting product depends on both consumer safeguards and confidence that matches are not compromised.
Table tennis is moving toward formalized U.S. betting
The stakes extend beyond Eastern European table tennis streams. In the U.S., Major League Table Tennis has moved to build a regulated wagering framework through partnerships with IC360 and Alt Sports Data for the 2025-26 season. The league said the arrangement could support league-approved betting as early as 2026, with IC360 overseeing compliance and suspicious betting monitoring while Alt Sports Data provides official data and pricing services.
That Major League Table Tennis betting initiative represents a different model from the opaque, high-volume markets drawing scrutiny in Colorado. A domestic league using official data, player education and integrity oversight is seeking to make wagering part of its commercial strategy while addressing risks at the outset. The approach suggests that table tennis betting is not inherently outside the regulated market, but its structure and governance matter.
Colorado’s experience now functions as a warning and a test case. The state has shown that a legal betting market can generate substantial tax revenue and consumer activity, but also that niche sports can rapidly become large-scale wagering products. That growth forces regulators, lawmakers and operators to answer harder questions about friction, transparency and harm prevention. Table tennis may be the immediate focus, but the broader issue is how a mature sports betting market handles products designed to be available almost all the time.
