Russian Table Tennis Betting No Joke During This Time of Pandemic

William Hill sportsbook director Nick Bogdanovich said the UFC handle at William Hill topped what was wagered on Russian table tennis over last weekend, but not by a large margin. 

“It’s the wildest stuff I’ve ever seen,” Bogdanovich said of the recent table-tennis betting surge. “Everything is crazy. It’s just the world we live in now.” 

The sport has been so popular that BetOnline's own Dave Mason has pleaded with the networks to begin televising matches.

Dear @espn or @FS1,

Can one of you start televising Russian Table Tennis please?

We get great ping pong action on a daily basis.

Broadcast it and people will watch - I promise.

Thanks in advance,

Dave

— Dave Mason (@DaveMasonBOL) May 22, 2020

Overall, folks are hungry to bet just about anything that goes up on the board.

With the German Bundesliga resuming last weekend, betting volumes increased 428% compared to the previous round of fixtures before coronavirus, according to Smarkets. 

DraftKings reported record betting during the NFL Draft last month—13x the volume from last year.

According to Mason, last weekend's Darlington 400 was the single most wagered on NASCAR event in his company's 21-year history.  This is saying a lot considering the Darlington 400 is viewed as more of an obscure race when compared to the likes of an Indianapolis 500 or Daytona 500, both of which tend to attract a decent amount of betting activity annually. 

- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com