Often referred to as the world’s fastest sport, jai-alai is a game you may not have heard of, but whose popularity was fueled by sports betting at casinos back in the 1980s and 1990s.
The sport has evolved in recent years, with a new head-to-head format becoming exceedingly popular.
The new format of the game caught the eye of Rush Street Interactive (RSI), which signed a partnership with Magic City Casino in Miami to become the official sports betting partner of Magic City Jai-Alai.
RSI’s sportsbook brands in Pennsylvania include BetRivers Sportsbook PA, PlaySugarhouse and RushBet.
The partnership will allow RSI to use Magic City Jai-Alai’s official league data and streaming feeds to fuel live sports wagering on the sport, whose popularity has certainly diminished since its heyday.
Magic City Jai-Alai is rejuvenating the sport
The sport of jai-alai was once very popular, with tens of thousands of live spectators and bettors watching the matches live and the atmosphere hitting the ceiling.
This has not been the case for some time, with many casinos throwing the sport out altogether. In 2018, Magic City Jai-Alai launched, with the intent to streamline the sport and bring its popularity back.
Since opening its doors, Magic City Jai-Alai has run more than 4,000 matches and taken a new approach to the sport with increased regulation, integrity checks and a commitment to training new generations of jai-alai players.
“The league’s commitment to integrity and fair play impressed us from the outset,” said Richard Schwartz, CEO of RSI. “At the end of the day, RSI wants to offer our players engaging and high integrity betting content and we’re thrilled that Magic City’s league is able to achieve both of these goals.”
Jai-alai betting was recently test launched on RSI’s BetRivers betting platform in Iowa and Illinois. The fast-paced action of the sport makes it extremely fun for live betting, and the operator looks set to expand the betting markets in every direction.
The big difference between the traditional jai-alai and what’s offered by Magic City Jai-Alai is the fact that new matches are played head-to-head, with just two players in the arena. That’s a departure from a pari-mutuel style of betting and toward more classic fixed odds betting.
Schwartz added: “Jai-alai is the fastest sport in the world, with ball speeds exceeding 150 mph, and with this new electrifying format, we are really excited to offer bettors a unique way to watch in real-time and bet in-play on a sport we know they will love.”
With jai-alai now available for online betting at BetRivers in Iowa and Illinois, and numerous other states likely to join the trend in the near future, the sport of jai-alai may be looking at a rebirth that many insiders have been looking forward to over the last several decades.
With a little luck, jai-alai players will be playing in front of thousands of fans once more, even if a good number of those fans will be sitting at home and following the action via their sports betting apps.
