What Is Teqball & Is It Coming to Your Sportsbook?

We are seeing interesting movements in online sportsbooks as of late. While we have written that some bookmakers have gone all in on embracing niche options, others seem to be removing them. We have seen multiple high-profile sites narrow their wagering sports range in recent times, and we can only assume they are doing this on account of the low betting volume these choices are seeing. For sure, lesser-known competitions offer a higher risk of manipulation and are more vulnerable to suspicious betting activity, which is why many operators like to avoid them. Software suppliers may also waste significant resources on creating odds on markets that see little activity. Thus, they carry with them operational efficiency problems.

However, we keep seeing new sports pop up now and again at various gambling sites. Teqball is an under-the-radar pick that we have seen show up at 1xBet, 22Bet, and NetBet.

What is teqball, you ask? It is like a cross between table tennis and football, a ball sport inspired by sepak takraw, which is also called kick volleyball or foot volleyball. That is a contest type that got standardized in Malaysia in the 1960s, and teqball has some similarities in terms that it is also a foot-kick game, but it gets played using a ping pong-style table that is curved.

Teqball first got played in Hungary in 2014, and two years later, it got officially presented by former footie phenom Ronaldinho, one of football’s most skilled players ever, who is a teqball ambassador. In 2018, the Olympic Committee of Asia recognized it as an official sport, with some even calling it the world’s fastest-recognized one. In late 2020, its main association, the International Teqball Federation, or FITEQ, got granted membership into the GAISF, or the Global Association of International Sports Federations.

Today, as noted above, we can begin seeing teqball events getting featured at top sportsbooks for wagering fun, and below, we give you a brief rundown of this sport and everything you need to know about it, presented as concisely as possible.

How Does One Play Teqball?

The rules of the sport have gotten outlined by the International Teqball Federation as such. Teqball gets played in a singles or doubles competition, with a match determined by a best-of-three-sets format. The sets in this game last until a competitor/side scores a dozen points, and players/teams have two attempts to execute a serve, which alternates every four points.

Know that in teqball, consecutive touches with the same body part are prohibited when striking, and what is also not allowed is returning the ball with the same body part twice in a row. Players/teams can use up to three touches with any body part, excluding hands and arms, and any contact with the table is forbidden. If the ball hits its edge, the rally gets replayed.

The official Teqball court measures should be at least twelve meters wide and sixteen meters long. The table, famously characterized by its curved design, is three meters long and 1.7 meters wide. The ball used is spherical customarily constructed from leather with a latex bladder with a butyl valve. It adheres to size-five football standards but maintains a lower pressure.

The teqball table design is licensed by Teqball Holding SARL. The term teqball is also a registered trademark under the ownership of this same entity.

Top Teqball Competitions

If you go onto the FITEQ website, you will see that various countries around the globe have held their national series. Romania, Denmark, the US, Uruguay, Colombia, Slovakia, Germany, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Tunisia, Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, and Brazil are only a few nations that have held world qualifier events or national series.

The African Beach Games are notable happenings in the sport, as they include teqball. The same holds for the Asian ones and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. In 2024, the Asian Teqball Tour began underway, and the European Championship also got up and running in 2022.

Of course, the granddaddy event of them all in this sport is the Teqball World Championship, which initially got held in 2017 in Hungary and has taken place every year since, not counting 2020, for obvious reasons. It features male and female singles and doubles competitions, with Hungary, the inventors of this sport, collecting the most medals so far, with Thailand standing in second place, followed by Romania.

For the most part, we can only say we have seen online sportsbooks offer odds on Teqball World Championship matches. Yet, it is worth pointing out that the sport has various Challenger Leagues, University-based contests, and Youth Cups. But, of course, these are unlikely to get presented anywhere for legal wagering.

People interested in the sport would be wise to check out TEQ TV on YouTube, as it offers entire live streams of Teqball events from around the globe and posts highlight videos as well, which is always nice.

What Kind of Teqball Bets Are Available?

The usual ones. You can wager on the match winner, but also on specific rally outcomes, such as the number of touches or rally duration. Similar to tennis, set betting should too be on the table (pun intended), meaning wagering on specific set outcomes, such as the winner or exact score.

Outright tournament winners also get usually provided for the World Championships in all five categories (mixed doubles included) at sites that include this event, which should also have over/under betting. Handicap wagering may get offered, but we are not very confident that any platform would list player props any time soon, because of the limited amount of information regarding competitors. But we are sure that there should be no issue in anyone combining multiple teqball bets into one wager for higher payouts.

Naturally, even if someone stumbles upon teqball markets, expectations should not be set high, as the sport’s niche status will result in it having fewer betting markets compared to mainstream sports by a large margin, at most sites.

Will Teqball Be Widely Available Soon?

Doubtful, but expect it to see it at more and more Internet bookmakers, as it does seem to be getting some momentum as evident by the decent YouTube numbers this sport is generating.

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