Ukrainian table tennis betting actually gained some traction as sports around the world were shut down. But the sport's moment in the sun has apparently come to an end — at least in gambling crazed New Jersey.
New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement informed operators Thursday that they could no longer take betting on the sport, as the overseeing body could not be assured of the sport's integrity.
That's despite the fact that sources tell The Action Network that the Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Association (SWIBA) didn't find corruption across the sport in its investigation.
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In May, ESPN first reported a story of confusion over who exactly was organizing these matches, which resulted in Indiana instructing operators to pull down odds on table tennis.
The biggest players in New Jersey's market — FanDuel, DraftKings and PointsBet — all reported back to SWIMA that they didn't see any irregularities.
"DraftKings works closely with the industry to monitor available data for any irregular activity and where appropriate reports it promptly to regulators and sports integrity agencies like SWIMA and IBIA," a company spokesman said. "In regard to Ukrainian table tennis leagues, we fully cooperated with the investigation conducted by SWIMA and did not see any irregularity on our platform."
"There was talk of corrupt players, and in most situations, they would just pull those guys off, but, out of an abundance of caution I guess, they just figured they would pull the whole market down," a source said.
Another source said that Ukranian table tennis was not only a popular product, it was also a profitable one — at least at PointsBet.
