Stupa Sports partners with Table Tennis New Zealand on digital overhaul

For New Zealand table tennis players, the biggest change in the Stupa Sports deal is not the logo on the announcement. It is the promise of one system for entries, draws, live scoring, results, memberships and payments, replacing the patchwork that often slows club nights and tournament weekends.

Stupa Sports will become Table Tennis New Zealand’s official competition management partner under a multi-year agreement that puts its Competition Management Platform across the federation. The package includes eleven enterprise-grade modules covering tournament and league management, live scoring, real-time match data, membership and licensing tools, online entry and payments, role-based user management, payment processing, third-party integration and platform customisation. That mix matters because it targets the jobs that usually fall on volunteers and match-day organisers: building draws, tracking results, chasing fees and keeping everyone on the same page when a schedule changes.

Izania Downie, who joined TTNZ as chief executive in May 2024, called the partnership a landmark moment because it gives the sport a single integrated platform linking players, clubs, regional associations and the national body. Megha Gambhir, Stupa Sports co-founder and chief executive, said the company was focused on “building technology that works for sport at every level” and improving “fan and player engagement.” In practical terms, that should mean a cleaner path from a Tuesday-night club league to national competition, with less duplication of data and less dependence on separate tools for entries, fixtures and communication.

The scale is wider than most casual followers might realise. TTNZ says it supports 18 regional associations across New Zealand, and its 2025 calendar included 54 tournaments nationwide, 17 of them delivered by the national body. TTNZ also says more than 250,000 Kiwis play table tennis, which makes competition administration a daily issue for far more people than just elite players. The federation’s 2026 women and girls Have-A-Go weekend ran across 14 associations on 7 and 8 March 2026, showing how much of the sport already depends on coordinated national and regional delivery.

The partnership arrives after a steady modernization push inside TTNZ. Its 2024 annual report said the organisation reviewed its governance structure, strategic plan and constitution, introduced a new membership system and made key changes in personnel, roles and responsibilities. TTNZ also adopted a new ranking system in 2025 modelled after the International Table Tennis Federation system. Its 2025 to 2028 strategic plan sets a goal of becoming one of New Zealand’s top 10 community sports by participation and building an Olympic and Paralympic presence by 2032.

There is history behind the overhaul too. TTNZ says the first New Zealand Championships were held in Wellington in 1934, on four tables, and have been held every year since except from 1941 to 1944. Against that backdrop, a digital backbone may sound unglamorous, but for clubs, organisers and players it could change the part of the sport that is felt most often: how smoothly the competition actually runs.