World Table Tennis (ITTF)

In 1926, The ITTF was founded by William Henry Lawes of Wymondham, the nine founding members being Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and Wales. The first international tournament was held in January 1926 in Berlin while the first World Table Tennis Championships was held in December 1926 in London.[5] It was the only event for over 50 years that was run and managed commercially by the ITTF.

In 1980, the ITTF World Cups was introduced followed by the ITTF World Tour in 1996. Up till 2000, commercial rights for these events were passed on to the local organising committees (LOC) but a different approach was taken to centralise rights through the creation of TMS. TMS was tasked to manage these rights on behalf of ITTF up till 2017 when ITTF decided to buy back the rights to be taken in house.

In 2018, professional consultants Deloitte and Withers were engaged to assist with remodelling the way that the ITTF does business.[6] Through full models and financial understanding of our events and other worldwide properties, ITTF sought to understand the untapped commercial potential of Table Tennis. One key finding led to the idea of separation between the management of the professional and institutional structures of table tennis.

On 30 May 2019, ITTF announced the idea of World Table Tennis (WTT).[7] WTT was to become the brand new commercial vehicle to drive success in the revolution and professionalisation of table tennis. To manage the set up of WTT, the ITTF executive committee appointed a selection panel. The appointed selection panel included ITTF President Thomas Weikert, ITTF Deputy President Khalil Al-Mohannadi, ITTF Executive Vice President for Finance Petra Sorling, ITTF CEO Steve Dainton, and ITTF Marketing Director Matthew Pound.[6][8]

WTT also announced the hire of Philippe Le Floc’h, former Chief Commercial Officer at FIFA and marketing director at UEFA, as Senior Commercial Strategy Consultant, in line with WTT's aim to commercialise the sport.[9][8] Shortly after, Stephen Duckitt, who has 15 years of sports management experience, primarily with WTA and ATP, was announced as WTT Event Strategy Director.[6]

Next to join was Melissa Soobratty. Announced on 4 December 2020, the former vice president, Media at Football Marketing Asia joined as WTT Senior Media Director to oversee all areas related to content, to further professionalise the organisation's expanding media operations.[10]

On 29 June 2020, WTT announced that current China Table Tennis Association President, Liu Guoliang accepted the role as Chair of the WTT Council. The WTT Council is tasked to ensure the healthy development of WTT and be at the helm of the future development of table tennis.[14][15]

The WTT Council will consist of key stakeholders in the global game, including but not limited to; players both past and present, crucial contributors to international table tennis, event hosts and ITTF personnel. The WTT Council serves to represent the views of all key table tennis stakeholders worldwide.[14]

Additional members of the WTT Council have not been announced yet.[14]

WTT Macao was announced on 11 September 2020 to be held between 25 and 29 November 2020.[16] The debut event was a promotional showcase featuring 16 of the world's best male and 16 of the world's best female paddlers. The event implemented a brand new format with innovative scoring methods. It also featured a prize purse of US$800,000 with players paid a minimum of US$15,000, earning more prize money per match they win.[17][18]

Past winners

Year	Men's singles	Women's singles	Mixed doubles
2020	Ma Long	Sun Yingsha	Not held
2021[19]	Wang Chuqin	Wang Manyu	Xu Xin Liu Shiwen
2022	Wang Chuqin	Sun Yingsha	Not held
2023	Wang Chuqin	Wang Manyu	Not held