Table Tennis England, the sport's governing body in England, gives every player who competes at its ranked events a points total. Win and it goes up; lose and it goes down. How far it moves depends on two things: the gap between your rating and your opponent's, and how important the event is. Beat someone rated well above you and you gain a lot; lose to someone rated well below you and you lose a lot. The lists are updated every month.
The ranking scheme
The official name is the Table Tennis England Ranking Scheme. The current version dates from the 2014-15 season, and since July 2026 it has been run on CloudAthlete's system, with the lists on Table Tennis England's new hub. The season runs from 1 August to 31 July, and each ranking period is a calendar month.
Table Tennis England describes it as a head-to-head system based on Elo, the method chess uses. Your rating is a prediction: two players with the same rating each have an even chance of winning, and when the gap is 100 points the lower-rated player wins roughly one match in four.
How points move after a match
Each result is either expected (the higher-rated player wins) or unexpected (an upset). Expected results move few points; upsets move many. Every event also has a weighting, from 0.75 for a one-star tournament to 3.0 for the Olympics and World Championships, which multiplies the points at stake.
Table Tennis England's own example is a player on 1472 meeting one on 1247 at an event weighted 1.5, a gap of 225. If the favourite wins, they gain five points and the loser drops two. If the lower-rated player wins, they gain 33 and the favourite loses 18. Once the gap reaches 400 points, an expected result barely moves anything; at an event weighted 1.0 the winner gains a single point and the loser nothing.
Some weightings for 2026-27: the English Senior National Championships are 2.25; senior four-star tournaments 2.0; two-star tournaments 1.5; County Championships 1.5 in the Premier division and 1.25 below it; and the British Clubs Leagues between 1.0 and 1.75 depending on the division. At events weighted 1.5 or more with at least 16 players, you can also earn bonus points in the later rounds.
Getting your first rating
You need at least four matches against rated players within one ranking period, and at least one win. Your starting figure is worked out from the players you beat. One win gives you that opponent's rating minus 100; two wins give you the middle of their two ratings; three wins give you the middle of the three plus 100. With four or more wins it is based on the highest-rated player you beat: minus 100 if you lost some matches, plus 100 if you won them all.
No one can start below 100 points or fall below 100. From 2026-27, any entrant at a ranked event who does not yet have a ranking is given 100 starter points automatically.
Ratings and rankings
The two words mean different lists. The ratings list includes everyone who competes in Table Tennis England events, whatever their nationality. The rankings list includes only players with English nationality on their profile and a Compete or Compete Plus membership. For 2026-27 Compete costs £26 for adults and covers local leagues and one-star tournaments; Compete Plus, at £49, is needed for two-star events and above and the British Clubs Leagues. Our guide to how table tennis is run in England explains the membership types.
Rankings are split into men's and women's lists, and into cadet (under-15), junior (under-19), senior and veteran (over-40) groups, with ages taken on 31 December. Men's and women's points are not comparable. The lists are used for invitations to national events, and referees use them to seed and band tournament draws.
What about my local league?
Weekly local league matches are not among the events that count towards the national lists. Many leagues run their own rankings instead, through TT Leagues or TT365, which most leagues use for fixtures and results. They work on similar principles but are separate: a league's list includes only that league's matches. Our guide to finding a club and joining a league explains how to get into a team.
Inactivity and the end of the season
If you stop playing, a number appears next to your name for each month you miss. After six inactive months you are left off the published list but keep your points; after 12 you lose your rating. At the end of each season every total is cut by 10%, which brings players closer together without changing the order.
Finding your number
The current lists are on Table Tennis England's rankings site, rankings.ttehub.com, and the federation's player rankings page links to it along with an archive of lists back to 2014. Table Tennis England has said a fuller version with player profiles and match history is coming.
Your next steps
Enter a one-star or two-star tournament near you to get your first rating, and read how team matches work before your first British Clubs League weekend. To see how the professionals' version works, read how the world rankings work.