T
he world’s fastest sport is now being played in a new and electrifying head-to-head (H2H) format and only Rush Street Interactive‘s online sportsbooks are offering betting on it. Rush Street Interactive, a Chicago-based gaming, and betting company that operates the BetRivers, PlaySugarhouse, and RushBet sportsbook brands, has been named the exclusive Official Sports Betting Partner of Magic City Jai-Alai.
Magic City Jai-Alai, which has run over 4,000 matches since opening in 2018 under the regulatory oversight of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).
As part of this collaboration, BetRivers is now exclusively authorized to use Magic City Jai-Alai’s official league data and streaming feeds for bettors to watch and bet during live games in real-time.
With the recent launch of Jai-Alai betting on RSI’s BetRivers platform in Illinois and Iowa, bettors in those states became the first in the country to be able to legally wager online on the lightning-fast action, with other markets to be added in the future.
Richard Schwartz, CEO of RSI, said: “The league’s commitment to integrity and fair play impressed us from the outset. 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.
Schwartz, added: “RSI is excited to partner with Magic City Jai-Alai to pioneer this new fast-paced format of play for Jai-Alai, a sport which has long been a betting favorite and has a storied history in Florida dating back to the 1930s. As a result of these modern H2H matches transitioning away from the traditional parimutuel style of play into a brand new fixed-odds betting format where every action-packed point matters, customers can wager directly on the head-to-head matchups, set-by-set or even point-by-point just like in the popular betting sports of tennis and table tennis. 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.”
Scott Savin, Magic City’s COO, commented: “Working closely with the RSI team, we are excited to pioneer a new twist on an old favorite and offer fans exciting and different ways to engage with Jai-Alai while modernizing the sport to a whole new digital betting audience. From day one we’ve made it our mission to create an innovative and modern-looking league where the integrity of the game and its athletes have been our focus to earn and retain our bettors’ trust.”
With BetRivers offering new exposure to Jai-Alai via its sportsbooks in Illinois and Iowa and more states on the horizon, Savin says he expects the sport to see a “major resurgence.”
