The history of ping pong, also known as table tennis, dates back to the Victorian era in England. Table tennis began when some upper-class Victorians, who were looking for an indoor equivalent of lawn tennis, invented the game on their dinner tables. By the 1880s table tennis had become a popular after-dinner pastime among the affluent, the first multi-player game to become popular in Britain since billiards centuries earlier. Later, the game became more and more popular among people of all classes in England and spread to much of the rest of the world. Originally, the paddles were crafted from cigar box lids and the ball was a champagne cork. In 1901, English sports equipment manufacturer, E.C. Goode, invented the modern version of the paddle by adding a sheet of pimpled rubber to both sides of a wooden bat. By 1921 the popularity of the game saw the introduction of standardized rules. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was formed in 1926 and the first official table tennis World Championship was held in England in 1927. Table Tennis has come along way since becoming popular in the Victorian era. Today, table tennis is an Olympic sport and has grown in popularity in many parts of the world. Professional table tennis tournaments are held around the world and are hugely popular with both spectators and players alike.