How to Build a Brand New Sport in Under a Decade

A hybrid of soccer, table tennis and volleyball, “Teqball” is barely a decade old. With many never having heard of it, however, the sport’s creators are growing it any way they can—including by trying to get it into the 2028 Olympics. So are their plans realistic or far-fetched? Can you just build any new game into a mainstream sport if you have the will and the money?

On this episode of the Bloomberg Originals series Next in Sports, we pull the curtain back on the concerted effort to have Teqball match and surpass the fast rise of other new sports. Using big name athletes and even financial help from the government of Hungary, the home of the sport’s creators, Teqball has grand ambitions. It’s founders call it the “fastest growing sport.”

But how does a sports startup afford to send tables that sell for thousands of dollars to college campuses and foreign sports clubs across the globe for free? Well, it helps to have the help of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, the financial backing of a Hungarian tycoon, as well as millions of dollars from European and Hungarian taxpayers. In Hungary, the government’s investment in what as recently as 2019 was a money-losing endeavor has raised questions about the use of taxpayer money.