Rush Street Interactive has partnered with Florida parimutuel venue Magic City in a deal that will take jai alai betting online for the first time. The first US National Jai-Alai Championship, pictured, took place at Magic City in April 2020. (Image: Aaron Gilbert/Brickell Magazine) The partnership will give the BetRivers online sportsbook exclusive rights to Magic City Jai-Alai’s official league data and streaming feeds, allowing customers to watch matches and bet in real time. Since Magic City launched the league in 2018 it has hosted more than 4,000 matches.
It’s hoped the deal will provide a much-needed shot in the arm for a sport that faces a crisis in the US.
Last week, The Casino @ Dania beach in Miami announced that it would discontinue jai alai after 69 years and was negotiating an early buyout of its players contracts, which were due to expire in May 2022.
That leaves just three remaining active professional jai alai frontons in the US, including Magic City. All venues are in Florida, where a recent change in the law has left the sport with an uncertain future. Cloudy Future
Until recently, the state’s pari-mutuel venues were required to offer a quota of either live horse racing, dog racing, or jai alai as a condition of their license to operate other games, such as poker and non-banked card games.
But a deal negotiated between the Seminole tribal casino operator and the Florida legislature in April has allowed the venues to “decouple” their main gaming operations from these attractions, which are expensive to run and often unprofitable.
But while others are abandoning the sport, Magic City is sticking by jai alai — and finding new ways to monetize it, as the Rush Street deal highlights. Last year, it held the inaugural US National Jai-Alai Championship, which brings together 100 of the world’s best players to compete for a $25,000 prize.
Magic City COO Scott Savin told VSiN earlier this month his company was also modifying the betting options, bringing them in line with modern tastes.
“We’re moving away from the old pari-mutuel style and now you can bet […]
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