OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Hey all OOAK’ers,

As you know I am not much for spamming forums, additionally we have been busy, very busy
Since our last post here we have joint venture with a professional factory, this is an “ALL IN” moment for myself, Zeropong, and Gambler .
What we have now that we did not have a year ago:
On staff chemical engineer.
Latest rubber and sponge manufacturing equipment.
The newest and most modern blade manufacturing plant (as of 9/12/2017) in China.
An actual factory that has a direct finical interest in the success of Gambler brand.
We have totally discontinued OEM’ing any product (except textiles).
New rubbers:
005 Big Gun In
006 Burst In
007 Zero High Gravity In
008 GXS Out
009 GXM Out
010 GXL Long
011 X3 Diamond In
012 Vintage Out
013 Nine Ultra Tack In
014 Mech-Tek Predator

Outlaw Gold will be released at the US Open as a special send off, as we will discontinue this product after this limited production, improvements in sponge and rubber formulary make this rubber a Tenergy contender, X3Diamond will eventually take its place utilizing our mid hardness GearZ Big Pore sponge.

New Blades:
Fire Dragon series:
Touch
Hinoki
Fast
Vector series:
(to be in premiered Vegas)
Target
Hinoki
Speed

Our latest blade offerings are a different (higher) level of quality and consistency. I must admit it is fun working with a blade foundry that has no problem trying ANY kind of wood, making prototypes, all for the sake of trying something different.
Most important is the level at which our products are capable of playing at now. The performance and durability of our rubbers can match any level of play, previously admittedly we were restricted by our OEM process, lack of an engineer on staff, and general lack of enthusiasm/ability to strive for that last 20% of performance that tends to separate the men from the boys. Our previous OEM partners were not and are not capable of higher performance, nor should they be, the bulk of the market is recreational, spending money on high end R&D is not the way to keep the lights on.

Most of this stuff will be available for testing at the US Open… See ya in Vegas

Tom

Hi Tom, I found your post really interesting. What exactly does OEM mean in a table tennis context. Were some of your rubbers perhaps exactly the same as the of other brands but with you own label?

With your new line of rubbers are any of these tensor type rubbers or just variations of classics. Will they come in varying sponge thickness and hardness. What scale do you use for hardness? Euro or Chinese?

With your blades, the names suggest they are more offensive blades. Will you have any genuine Allround blades?

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

Original equipment manufacturer "OEMs are manufacturers who resell another company's product under their own name and branding". In table tennis terms if you contact ESN or DHS and request XX top sheet with XX sponge that is an "OEM".

The Target will defiantly be all to all+

Have you tried the Wing Wood IM8? that is a solid ALL blade, not much on the forums on Gambler stuff, we make a habit of NOT pumping the forums for business, but I would love to check you out a Demo in Vegas if you are coming.

Tom

Edit: I did not see the tensor comment:)

Tensor is a trade name by ESN, but we have not invested the time to dissect the German sponge yet, the large pore stuff we have plays closer to Japan style modern sponge

I like the passion here, but I will give some honest feedback. I hope it will be considered constructive.

My memory of the Gambler TT brand from when it was first introduced is this: inexpensive, beginner focussed, cartoony artwork, non-serious. The reviews were mostly saying that the rubbers were heavy and slow. If you want to step away from this image, you need to work to undo it.

I found the Gambler website. The newer branding looks much better. But the products need to be marketed. You need to push it on forums and get these rubbers into players' hands for review. I really haven't heard anything from Gambler for a very long time, which is a shame if you now have high performance rubbers.

Everyone claims to have a tenergy equivalent and you are competing against the likes of Big Dipper. There are other inexpensive, high-performance rubbers, such as Sanwei t88-I, 729 Battle II, DHS Neo series, Yinhe Apollo etc. Unless there are some great reviews and big discussions on forums, Gambler products will not be at the top of my list for products to try.

Hi,

Congratulations on the relaunch of your company and your new product line.

I would be interested in your company's new positioning, i.e.

1) Market segment that you are targeting.

2) Product and company differentiation.

3) Customer problems and demands that you are attempting to solve and fulfill.

I am trying to understand specifically what type of products I can expect from your company.

Thank you and good luck!

Thank you for the feedback, success at a higher level can only be measured by walking into a random club in any town USA(or wherever) and finding a few players with your stuff glued up. Gambler has always had this, we never went anywhere:) Now you walk into that "any town" club you are going to be more likely to see the Gambler products on the upper level players bats. No big marketing changes, no false claims of a "National version", just flat out better engineering.

Demo stuff in Vegas, stop by the Gambler Booth at the US Open!!


Tom

Perhaps I'll buy a few sheets and give them a review when they are released. I hope that 'superior engineering' doesn't end up being a false claim.

I've only ever seen one division 4 player use Gambler products. Perhaps Gambler isn't as prolific in Aus as it is in the US.

I don't believe Aus is much different from the U.S. I've belonged to several large clubs and I've seen Gambler on maybe a couple of club players (not high level by any means) and usually it is because they are Ejing. The popular rubbers are as you might expect Tenergy, DHS (boosted), Xiom, Stiga (boosted), etc.

Has anyone besides the OP seen anybody playing Gambler rubbers in their local clubs?

You see less because Gambler is pretty much only in the US. I had some blades by Gambler years ago before the move to US only.

They had good blades then, and I assume even better blades now.

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instagram: rokphishtt

When I was purchasing bats to stock at the club, I would occasionally get Gambler rubbers on an all-round blade. Price was the main driver as I saw them the same as any other Chinese rubber out there so why pay more for six shooter if you could get XP Pro for less.

Based in South Australia.

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Donic Waldner Senso V1,FH Baracuda Big Slam 2.0mm ,BH Victas Triple Regular 2.0mm

I’ll back Zeropong in their claims of better quality and performance. I’m currently using Burst/Zero rubber and Fire Hinoki blade. I’ve tried some of the older gambler rubber and it didn’t last very long. Some of the sheets would even bubble after a few weeks and even separate from the sponge on edges. This new product line is top quality and durable. My rubber is 2 months old and still performing well. I still generate just as much spin as the first day I got it. I’ve knocked the hell out of the table a few times and the blade is still good.

We have some good players using Gambler in our club(Triangle TTC). We have 4 players over 2000 and two of them are over2150. I’m a 2170 player and this new line holds up to high level standards. One of our 2400 coaches played a practice match with my racket. He killed a 2300 player with no warm up. He liked it and he’s Butterfly sponsored. One guy boosts his and it’s faster than his backup blade with Tenergy 64. My level actually went up when I switched from butterfly to Gambler. I have way more control and spin over T05.

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Gambler Fire Hinoki
Gambler Burst
Gambler Zero
USATT Rating 2174

Now that's a really good testimonial. I saw a youtube review of the zero rubber and it was quite positive. The summary was: not as fast as esn/japanese offerings, requires more lifting away from the table, but apparently lots of control and spin. It looked fast enough to me.

Once the tenergy replacement is released, I'll grab one along with a lightly tacky offering and see how it compares to big dipper / aurus.

One question though, what is the head size of the Gambler blades?

It should be noted that most the higher/better players are using the Thor's hammer version of sponge on the tacky and some are using it on the non tacky side.

Zero with Thor's is faster than most players will want, like Bryce speed kinda fast, the original red sponge is intentionally tame as is the blue diamond but to a lesser degree. Looking forward to the new NON tacky offerings with the GearZ sponge X3Diamond and the longer under pip version Mech-Tek, these are a bit more sane than the Thor's hammer version of Zero.

If you are a Tenergy user I would wait until the GearZ sponge rubbers come out, X3Diamond or the Mech-Tek.

Blade heads tend to be a bit on the large size for the Fire Dragons. I may scale it back a little on the next run, my original attitude was you can always take wood off, hard to add it back.

Head width: 151mm+-2
Head height: 161mm+-2

Hi All , I echo Looper1984. Gambler quality of rubber and equipment is inline with Butterfly and all the other high end equipment but at a more affordable price. I have played with Butterfly equipment for most of my TT playing days even as a young kid. The butterfly blades I have used are> Gergely original Tamaca 5000 ,Timo Boll spirit, Timo Boll ALC and Timo Boll W7. Rubbers Tenergy 05 ,64 and many other along the way. I have tried Gambler in the early days like Outlaw and did find that the rubber didn't last long and felt to slow / dead. Looking for a replacement for my expensive T05 , I have tried Burst and love it..... way more control than T05 but with plenty of power , speed and spin. Burst can be used at the table or mid distance it has all the gears , slow spin sloops at the table or power loops off , smashing , blocking and counter looping is easier to control than T05. I'm also currently using the Fire Dragon Hinoki FLC , the fire dragon is a stable solid feeling blade with speed, power and control..
My current level is over 2000 and have been taking matches off of 2100 level players since changing equipment due to the control and power of my current setup.

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Fire Dragon Hinoki FLC
Gambler Burst
Gambler Long pips