Miami has been home to Jai-Alai in the USA for numerous of years.
Similar to horse racing, the Basque sport received wide scale popularity in the 1970s and 1980s in South Florida and the US Northeast (primarily Connecticut) as it became a betting sport, where people lined the stands and casinos to pick winners and earn money doing it.
However, unlike horse racing, Basque pelota became entrenched in nationalism, and when the Basque nationalists became very left wing, the Basque pelota players followed suit and striked. It soon became the longest strike in North American professional sports at over two years ending in 1991! This also followed prior changes in Floridian law that restricted sports gambling, and what followed the strike afterwards was another restriction, this time across the US. It did not become illegal in all instances, but these changes made sports gambling much more difficult.
In addition, many rumors surfaced of match fixing.
So, just like that, Basque pelota was reduced to just Miami and has been far inferior to almost all other sports.
In fact, only the Magic City Casino operates professional games.
But recently, Basque pelota has received a resurgent growth as the game has become mysterious to many young Americans who never were introduced to it.
Furthermore, Miami has become the place to be once again, and with the rising Hispanic population in the US, and Miami already being the Latin American capital, naturally, many more eyes are on Miami and Hispanic culture.
This has led to a re-investment into the sport in Miami by three-time NBA Champion, Udonis Haslem, and numerous other famous and successful people.
Udonis Haslem bought Reboot Renegades in the World Jai-Alai League of Miami.
This is a newly rebranded league as it previously was called Magic City Jai Alai, after the casino where the games are taking place.
It has been taken over by Magic City Casino Chief Operating Officer, Scott Savin, who searched for a gambling sport to revive the casino in 2018 after dog racing became targeted by animal rights activist.
He began searching for players but the best players in the Basque County of Spain and France would be too expensive, especially with their union to come over to the US.
However, another great idea struck. He used the family who owns the casino, the Hecht Family, to exercise their University of Miami connections. By doing so, a mass email campaign went out to all former Miami Hurricane athletes to come play Jai-Alai professionally, not with NBA or NFL salaries, but with salaries enough to support a family.
Thus, since 2018, Maimi Hurricane athletes are dominating the Jai-Alai circuit including former quarterbacks and other stars. At first, the play was bad, but now, many of the players are considered world class. There has even been a movie made after this phenomenon: Magic City Hustle.
Now, more players have come from all over the world including Mexico, the Philippines, and the Basque Country.
Over a six-month season, players on average now make between $45,000-$115,000 plus benefits and bonuses for doing well in the competition.
Furthermore, Magic City has changed the rules a little to make it less confusing, and has put players into teams.
Now you may be confused by the names of the sport because you keep seeing Basque pelota and then a strange term like Jai-Alai.
Basque pelota takes many forms, but in the US, the form most popular in the casinos and in attendance is Jai-Alai. This video does a good job explaining the different variants, while this other video is Jai-Alai specific.
If you watched these, you may notice how confusing Jai-Alai used to be and still is in some locations.
Hence the need to make it understandable to an average fan.
This is why Magic City Jai-Alai is rebranding to the World Jai Alai League (WJAL) and changing rules like the scoring system and the creation of teams so the league becomes easier to follow.
Furthermore, it has teamed up with online betting service BetRivers, as well as Samsung Plus, Triple-B TV, and ESPN3 for streaming.
And Jai-Alai TV and their app/website are good places to stream and get information. In addition, you can watch selected games on ESPN3 as alluded to in the previous paragraph and on its YouTube channel.
Check out the WJAL’s social media too.
The fall season just started and games are probably happening as you read this.
As more people look to invest into the sport, it may have a chance to reclaim its fame and prestige it once held in the Miami culture.
And who knows, if Udonis Haslem has invested, maybe other Miami stars will too like Lionel Messi, Dwayne Johnson, or someone else of immense following that could be the spark to once again get people into the arenas.
KTH 