ITTF Partners With Tom and Jerry to Bring Animated Flair to Macao 2026

The ITTF Men's & Women's World Cup Macao 2026 will open March 30 in Macao, China, with an activation no table tennis event has previously mounted: arenas overhauled as a "Stage of Animation," with Tom and Jerry chase sequences embedded in venue branding, broadcast graphics and immersive fan experiences throughout the seven-day event ending April 5.

The International Table Tennis Federation confirmed the partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery's Tom and Jerry franchise on March 27, launching it under the title "Chasing the Table Tennis." The creative rationale is deliberately on-the-nose: table tennis's split-second rallies and cat-and-mouse rally construction map naturally onto the cartoon's frenetic pursuit format, and the ITTF has built the entire campaign around that parallel, framing the enterprise around "competition and friendship."

The on-site experience will go well beyond a licensing logo. Macao venues will carry bespoke stadium visuals and immersive graphics built directly from Tom and Jerry chase sequences, while broadcast assets including animated overlays and themed on-screen graphics will deliver the same aesthetic to streaming and television audiences. A detail that signals the ITTF's commitment to the concept: the activation is confirmed to continue across ITTF events in China throughout 2026, making Macao the launch platform rather than a one-off experiment.

Tony Qiu, SVP at Warner Bros. Discovery and Managing Director for Greater China & APAC Experiences, described the collaboration as an innovative bridge between classic entertainment and modern sport, adding that the enduring global appeal of Tom and Jerry will help bring new experiences to families and fans. ITTF President Petra Sörling said the initiative goes beyond centenary celebration, framing it as a vehicle to expand the sport's reach and inspire the next generation of players and supporters worldwide.

The centenary framing is doing real strategic work here. The ITTF's 100th-anniversary season provides both the narrative permission and the commercial occasion to reach outside table tennis's existing base, and Tom and Jerry's cross-generational recognition across Asian markets, particularly China, makes it a credible fit. An entertainment-sport crossover that might have felt like a category mismatch in a different context becomes legible as part of a federation-wide push to position the sport as spectacle, not just competition, across live attendance and broadcast in the region's largest table tennis market.

With the "Chasing the Table Tennis" rollout stretching through the Chinese event calendar for the rest of 2026, the World Cup in Macao is opening week for something the ITTF is treating as a season-long argument: that a sport defined by speed and precision can find new audiences without changing a single rule.