FORT WORTH, Texas — No one would ever play soccer on a pool table. That’s a bit far-fetched. But soccer on a ping pong table, yeah, that’s a thing.
It’s called Teqball, a sport that was created in Hungary in 2014. Using a teqball (very similar to a soccer ball, only lighter), competitors play on what looks like a curved ping pong table.
“Everywhere we go, we get people stopping and asking, ‘What is this?,’” said professional Teqer Zachary Kiser.
“They think your ping pong table’s a little damaged and we’ll just be like, ‘oh, we left it out in the sun a little too long. It melted,’” joked Miguel Martinez-Viera, another professional Teqer.
Fort Worth is one of the first cities to install public Teqball tables. The city installed two, one at Trinity Park and one at Marine Park.
“We think Fort Worth very well could become the Teqball capital of the United States,” said Fort Worth Chief of Strategy and Innovation Carlo Capua.
Capua says Teqball is becoming so popular Fort Worth wants to get ahead of the curve. He says there’s a substantial soccer population in the area and, oftentimes, those players can’t find a large field where they can play. Teqball allows them to play a similar game in a far smaller space.
The rules for Teqball are pretty similar to soccer.
“You can use any part of your body that you can use in soccer,” said Kiser.
“Essentially, everything except your hands and arms,” added Martinez-Viera.
Kiser and Martinez-Viera travel around Dallas-Fort Worth promoting the sport. Their "teqtruck" is filled with portable tables that can be pulled out to play the game anywhere.
Teqball has become one of the fastest growing sports and by 2028, the hope is that it will become an Olympic sport.
“It will be the quickest sport to go from creation to the Olympics,” said Kiser.