Gamblers are betting on table tennis in lockdown

GamBlers have turned to table tennis and online casino games during the lockdown, according to William Hill.

The bookmaker said sports betting has held up better than expected as punters ‘continued to place bets on alternative products such as table tennis and emerging market football’.

The firm was yesterday offering odds on table tennis matches in the moscow liga Pro and the setka Cup played in Ukraine.

Boris Johnson has been a long time fan of the game, and as mayor of london in 2008 claimed ‘ping pong’ was invented on the dinner tables of england and was known as ‘whiff-whaff’.

William Hill said punters have also been wagering on football in countries such as Belarus, the only european nation not to cancel matches.

Despite almost all global sports being cancelled, online sports betting only fell by a fifth between march 11 and april 28, while revenue from gaming has increased by 6pc. Overall revenue fell by 57pc, with takings at its shuttered 1,568 shops falling 85pc over the six-week period.

William Hill has cut costs down to £15m per month by scrapping the dividend, cutting marketing, and cancelling pay rises and bonus. It has also saved in excess of £5m from furloughing staff and from the 12-month business rates holiday.

The company also recorded revenue growth of 30pc in the Us in the 10 weeks to march 10, compared to a 5pc fall overall that was driven by the £2 maximum stakes on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals which came into force in the UK last year.

earlier this week the Gambling Commission ordered firms to put stringent measures in place to protect vulnerable players during lockdown, including interacting with those who play for longer than an hour.

Data from the pollsters youGov found that close to twothirds of the most at-risk gamblers increased the time or money they spend on gambling in the lockdown.