Two organisations run professional table tennis. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the world governing body: it writes the rules, owns the world rankings and stages the World Championships and World Cups. World Table Tennis (WTT) is the company the ITTF set up in 2019 to run the sport's commercial business and its professional circuit of tournaments. The ITTF created WTT and remains its majority owner, so in the end the federation is in charge.
The ITTF: the governing body
The ITTF was founded in 1926, and the first World Championships were played in London that December. It is the federation the International Olympic Committee recognises for table tennis, and its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Its members are national associations, one for each country or territory, and there are 227 of them. They vote at the ITTF's annual general meeting, which approves changes to the rules and elects the leadership. Petra Sörling of Sweden is the president. She was first elected in 2021 and re-elected in Doha in May 2025, by 104 votes to 102, for a four-year term.
The ITTF's rulebook is its Statutes, published every year. Chapter 1 is the federation's constitution, chapter 2 is the Laws of Table Tennis, which cover everything from the size of the table to what makes a serve legal, and chapter 3 is the regulations for international competitions.
WTT: the business that runs the tour
In 2019 the ITTF moved its commercial and events business into a new company, World Table Tennis. The ITTF describes WTT as a vehicle to capture the commercial value of the sport, through television and streaming rights, sponsorship and hosting fees, and reinvest it. The first WTT event was held in Macao in November 2020, and since 2021 WTT has run the main professional circuit.
WTT is based in Singapore. Its council has been chaired since 2020 by Liu Guoliang, the president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association and a former Olympic champion. Its chief executive is Steve Dainton.
WTT operates under licence from the ITTF and is part of the ITTF group. The federation has sold minority stakes to outside investors, and the group's accounts are covered in Eleven's analysis of WTT's finances.
Which events belong to whom
The simplest test is the name on the event.
WTT events have WTT in the title. At the top are four Grand Smashes, held in 2026 in Singapore, the United States, Sweden and China. Below them come WTT Champions events for the world's leading players, then Star Contenders, Contenders and Feeder events further down. The season ends with the WTT Finals, which in 2026 are in Hong Kong. Our guide to the WTT events explains each level.
ITTF events carry the ITTF name. They include the World Championships (singles in some years, teams in others; the 2026 team finals were in London, in the ITTF's centenary year), the Singles World Cup, the Mixed Team World Cup, the world youth and masters championships and para table tennis events. Table tennis at the Olympics and Paralympics is also played under ITTF rules, with qualification set by the ITTF.
Who does the rankings
The world rankings are the ITTF Table Tennis World Ranking. Players earn points at WTT events, the World Championships, the World Cups, the Olympics and continental championships. From 2026 the ranking is published on Mondays. You can see the current lists on our rankings page, and our guide to how the world rankings work explains the points.
Continents and countries
Between the ITTF and the national associations sit five continental federations: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Europe's is the European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), which runs the European Championships and the European club competitions.
Each national association runs the sport at home, from local leagues to national teams. In England that is Table Tennis England, and England sends its own teams to the World Championships. At the Olympics, though, there is no England team: players from the home nations compete together for Great Britain.
Why it matters to a fan
Knowing who runs what explains much of what you will read. When players complain about the tournament calendar or compulsory entries, the argument is usually with WTT, which in February 2025 dropped its rule that leading players had to enter every Grand Smash. When the rules of the game change, that is the ITTF.
Your next steps
Read our guide to the WTT events to see how the circuit fits together, then find the next tournament on our events calendar.