Major League Table Tennis has secured$ 5. 5 million corporate funding from more than 20 business leaders, including Philadelphia 76ers co-owner David Blitzer and the team’s president of sports activities Daryl Morey. The cash infusion may help MLTT include teams in new markets to increase its regional footprint and provide resources to help grow table tennis at a local level. It will also help the league to spy and signal talent from around the globe, including signing more Olympians. “ Table tennis is one of the most exciting sports to watch, as anyone who’s seen it in the Olympics knows, ” said Morey in a press release. “MLTT’s modern approach is sure to enhance the game to new levels, and I’m excited to be part of this trip. ” “People in the know know that table tennis is this wildly popular game worldwide, ” said MLTT creator and director Flint Lane in a telephone meeting. “There is a question of why that has not happened in the U. S. Honestly, I asked that to myself little less than two years ago when I was thinking about doing this, and there’s no reason why pro board golf can’t work in America. There are professional table tennis tournaments in lots of other places, but actually, no one has ever tried it here, and that ’s just a convergence of lots of different activities. ” MLTT has eight teams representing diverse U. S. industry, with a rotating group of four groups competing against one another in a weekend set of games. One of those team, the Florida Crocs, has Basketball Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili as a member of its rights group. Dima Ovtcharov, a previous world No. 1 table tennis player who has won six Olympian awards, is part of the rights group of the Princeton Revolution. Lane, a technology investor and table tennis beginner, launched Major League Desk Tennis in 2023, a month after selling his firm payments firm Billtrust to private equity firm EQT. While his chief business officer Jordan Schlachter is more connected to the sports world than Lane, the founder knew that both Morey and Blitzer were avid fans of table tennis, and he further leaned on his software background to connect with venture capitalists for this investment round. Lane believes that the biggest hurdle into making table tennis a staple sport in America is the simple lack of awareness that it ’s a seriously competitive endeavor outside of the Olympic cycle. He said that someone of Morey’s stature, with his social media following, can help educate the country on the sport. Yet Lane does n’t want future investors to just bring their funding. “ I think we’ll attract more and more names, but we don’t just want the names, ” he said. “We want them to be able to open doors for us. ” The league just opened its second season in September, with competitions in several team markets. In its first season, the league reported that it had more than one-million highlight streams from more than 100 countries. MLTT recently announced separate partnerships with Leaf Trading Cards and table tennis equipment maker Paddle Palace. It also has Manscaped and Flywire as sponsors.