• The Bridgeport jai alai scandal seemed to validate these warnings, as did game-fixing scandals at the Milford and Hartford frontons. But we got over it.
• Jai alai started in the Basque region of Spain, and it involves a rock-hard ball called a “pelota” being hurled at speeds reaching almost 200 miles an hour off the tip of a wicker basket/stick.

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Search this site: Links. First it was the jai alai aficionados who cried foul after the sport was first banned in the Philippines in 1986 amid allegations of game-fixing. With the game gone, the building was foreseen to be the next casualty.

It’s one of the oldest games around and Jai Alai is hard to find anything that compares to it. It’s played inside a walled court so some may liken it to squash or even real tennis but there are many aspects of this sport that make it unique.

It’s very much a niche event in terms of betting opportunities but they do exist and with that in mind, it’s time to take a closer look at Jai Alai.

Aim of the Game

The walled court that hosts Jai Alai has walls on the front, back and left and the floor is also in play. It’s an extended court in comparison to squash but there are similarities. The aim is to hit the ball (known as the pelota) at the walls and to score points in the process.

Two or four players are involved and, instead of using a racquet to propel the ball, they have a curved wicker basket, known as the Cesta. It’s incredibly fast and Jai Alai has been recognised as the fastest sport in the world. Sadly there have been fatalities so it isn’t for the fainthearted but, while it remains a niche, it is very thrilling to watch.

Those are very basic rules and we’ll touch on some advanced options in a moment but for now, let’s move on and consider how this curious sport came about.

Origins

It’s believed that Jai Alai originally formed as a handball game – without the baskets – and that it has been played for centuries in the Basque area of Spain. The idea to place a basket on players’ hands is credited to an unnamed Basque farmer in the 1800s who reacted to a need for protection.

The original game of Jai Alai was fast paced and players took to wearing leather gloves to protect their hands. Our farmer built on this idea and constructed a basket – the first Cesta – to provide extra protection. It worked but it also made the game a whole lot faster and from there, the popularity spread.

Jai Alai (which translates as Merry Festival) has always been popular in parts of Spain and it developed and grew across many Latin American countries. The sport also began to attract interest in the Philippines and the United States and here’s where the history takes a whole new turm

Place Your Bets

In the modern day, it is possible to find sportsbooks that quote betting markets for Jai Alai but it’s fair to say that not every bookmaker embraces it. History shows that it wasn’t always like this and in fact, betting was something of a focal point when the sport crossed over to the Philippines and the US.

In Jai Alai, the court is known as the Fronton and the very first fronton in the US was set up in St Louis, Missouri in 1904. Its appearance coincided with the World’s Fair and it was, therefore, something of an exhibition piece but from that point, the game started to slowly develop.

The game started to pick up a bigger following in Florida where the first fronton was opened near Miami in 1924. In a short space of time, Jai Alai started to spread across the country although Florida remained as something of an epicentre. The sport had, by this time, emerged as a genuine alternative to horse racing, harness racing and greyhound racing as far as the gambling community were concerned.

As is the case today, gambling was accepted in some parts of the United States while in others, it was strictly prohibited. Underground operations began and this had a negative impact on the rise of the game in some areas.

Eventually, as race track betting began to become more widespread, the popularity of Jai Alai in America started to wane and we saw something of a downfall. In the 1980s, there was a steep decline and many of the Frontons in Florida started to close down.

Over in the Philippines, the situation was much the same with gambling on Jai Alai games becoming a focal point. In 1986, the sport was officially banned by the government and the main fronton was torn down. Problems had evolved but it was eventually brought back on a slightly smaller scale.

Jai Alai Today

If we look at Jai Alai in the modern day, it continues to exist on a sustained level in areas of Spain and Latin America. In those regions, betting on the sport was never really the main focus and so there hasn’t been the type of rollercoaster ride that we’ve seen in other parts of the world.

In the United States of America, it is starting to make a comeback and that seems to be, in part, due to the changes in attitude to sports betting across the country. With the PASPA ruling overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2018, a number of sports betting halls have been introduced at locations such as racetracks and casinos and some of these spots are offering hosting to Jai Alai.

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The sport continues to attract some attention in Florida and if there is a hub, this is where it can be found. New Frontons have emerged while others have stayed in place over the years and Jai Alai continues to have a small, but loyal following.

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While it’s numbers have definitely dropped – it’s said that some 50 spectators may be in attendance on a matchday as opposed to some 5,000 during its heyday, there is that pocket of popularity that suggests Jai Alai will continue to have a future of some kind.

Rules

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While we have taken a very basic look at how the game is played, there are some other points to Jai Alai that can be taken on board and they make it stand out from squash and other sports that we might have compared it to.

Firstly, there are those three walls – front, left and back – and if the ball falls outside of these confines, it is considered to be out of bounds. We’ve mentioned that singles matches may be prevalent but Jai Alai can also be played as ‘doubles’ with two players on the court on either side.

Players need to get to either seven or nine points in order to win and those points can be won in a number of ways. Lines are drawn on the court and the server will need to hit the front wall before the rebound lands inside the designated lines. Failure to return the ball will result in the loss of a point as will holding or juggling the ball inside the basket. Interfering with the opponent and hindering their chance of making a return will also forfeit the point. It’s quite a complex game and the points scoring system does take some getting used to but it does start to fall into place the more it’s played and watched. Now we understand a little more about Jai Alai, it’s time to make some bets where possible.

Betting on Jai Alai

If you are interested in Jai Alai and are looking to take a bet on this curious sport, there are options although these are quite limited. The trick is to find bookmakers that specializes in other niches such as Chess or Pesapallo and you should locate some markets.

Betting is often carried out on a Pari-Mutuel basis and there is a restricted amount of prop bets when compared to other sports. Naturally, those that do quote for straight markets will have a win for either player listed and there will be outright markets in relation to winning teams.

Place bets are also possible during a tournament and there is the obvious option to take doubles, trifectas plus other multiples and patents.

In a time when traditional sport is having to take a back seat, sports bettors are starting to cast a wider net and events such as Jai Alai are attracting more interest. It’s actually thrilling to watch and, as we have seen, it has a rich history so why not switch on and find out more about Jai Alai today.

About US

Welcome to Fort Pierce Jai-Alai’s new website. Several enhancements have been made to this site in an attempt to improve your ability to get the information you want quickly and easily. We appreciate your taking the time to visit our website and we hope that you will be able to join us for a performance of live Jai-Alai this season.

2004 marks the 30th Anniversary of live Jai-Alai in Fort Pierce. Initially conceived as a spring / summer retreat for the seasonal schedule in Miami, the Ft. Pierce Fronton grew into an important training ground for some of the sport’s top talent. It became a rite of passage in the old World Jai-Alai system to make a name for yourself at Ft. Pierce before moving on to the more competitive roster in Miami. This is still the case today and the four month live Jai-Alai season remains upbeat, fiercely competitive and a fun experience for all who attend.

Although our live Jai-Alai season runs January –through- April, our racebook operates year-round. We have full-card, simulcast wagering on Thoroughbred, Greyhound and Harness racing all year long. We also have daily simulcasts of the world’s best Jai-Alai action from both Dania and our sister facility – Miami Jai-Alai, which features the most competitive roster of Jai-Alai players, man-per-man in the world today.

It is our hope that you will find this website to be a useful tool, however please remember that no online experience can match the excitement of being at the fronton itself. On behalf of our players staff and management, thank you for your support and interest and we hope to see you at Jai-Alai soon !

Jai alai is a sport where a ball is bounced off a walled space. A hand-held device called cesta is used to accelerate the ball to a high speed. The speed record for a jai alai ball is 302 km/h. This speed was recorded set by José Ramón Areitio at the Newport Jai Alai in Rhode Island, USA.

Jai alai has its roots in a Basque ball game, which in turn is based on ball games played by the Greek and other ancient cultures in Southern Europe and around the Mediterranean. Today, Jai alai is chiefly played in former Spanish colonies in the Americas and South-Eastern Asia. Prior to the communist revolution in China, Jai alai was a popular gambling sport in both Shanghai and Tiajin, but when the communists came to power they banned the game. Another East Asian country where Jai alai has been banned is The Philippines, where the sports was outlawed in 1986 because of problems with game fixing. The law was changed in 2010 to allow Jai alai in the country again.

In the United States, Jai alai is chiefly played in Florida, a state with a large Hispanic population. There is currently six jai alai frontons in Florida; they are located in Miami, Orlando, Dania Beach, Reddick, Jasper, and Forth Pierce. The very first jai alai fronton in the United States wasn’t opened in Florida though; the first U.S. fronton was the one that opened in St. Louis, Missouri around the time of the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.

Spain has 10 frontons for professional play. Five of them are in Basque Country, two are located in Barcelona, and the remaining three in Madrid, Zaragoza and Palma de Mallorca, respectively.

In Mexico, there are two frontons in Mexico City, plus one in Acapulco and one in Tijuana.

Trivia

• In the U.S., a professional jai alai player will wear a jersey with one number on the front and another number on the back. The number on the back is the player’s permanent number. The number at the front is the players current playing position, so this number changes with every game. It’s a bit like the number worn by a racehorse; the horse is given a new number prior to each new race.
• In Basque, the game is often called zesta-punta, which means basket tip.
• In Spanish, the game is known as pelota vasca.
• The name jai alai was coined by Serafín Baroja (1840 – 1912) who first used it for the game of Basque pelota in 1875. Baroja was a Basque writer and mining engineer who wrote Basque poetry and lyrics. In Basque, jai alai means merry festival. When the game was introduced on Cuba at the turn of the century (1800/1900), the name jai alai was the one that caught on.
• During World War II, Ernest Hemingway suggested that jai alai players should be used to lob grenades down the hatches of German submarines.
• A traditional cesta, the 2.5 feet oblong curved wicker scoop strapped on the player’s right arm, is made from steamed chestnut wood and woven reeds. A leather glove is sewn to the outside to hold the player’s hand in place.
• A traditional jai alai ball is made from goatskin. The ball is called pelota, which simply means ball in Spanish. When rubber was introduced to Europe from South America, this new material was included in the pelota, permitting an even faster game than before. The faster balls hurt the players’ hands and they started wearing a leather glove (guante) on the right hand. It is from this guante that the cesta evolved.
• A contemporary pelota is still made from hardened goatskin, but with virgin rubber as well, and a few final turns of linen or nylon thread. The pelotas are made by hand and quite expensive. (Expect to pay $100 per ball in the U.S.) The goat skin cover must normally be replaced after just 15 minutes of play, since it wear out quickly due to the extreme forces it is subjected to.
• A jai alai pelota is both harder and heavier than a golf ball. It is roughly ¾ the size of a baseball. Since the cancha walls needs to be really durable, they are often made from granite, especially the front wall. For budget reasons, having a concrete back wall and side wall is quite common.
• The high speed makes the ball capable of causing serious injury. The audience is usually seated behind a chain-link fence to protect them. The players on the other hand have no such comprehensive protection, and injuries are not uncommon. In the United States, professional players will wear a helmet to protect the head. It wasn’t always so though; in 1968 a professional player ended up in a coma for 6 months after the pelota hit his unprotected head.
• Professional jai alai players (pelotaris) are traditionally known by a short nickname rather than their real name, e.g. Jabi, Borja, Padin, Pedro, Kompa, Larru, Hoey, Gino, Erik, Azpiri, Rocha, Ander, Rekalde, Aperri, Olabe, Kompa, Larru, Don, Elgueta, or Mouhica – all examples of successful pelotaris active in the USA.
• A jai alai player will usually wear a t-shirt, white pants, sneakers, a helmet and a red sash. The red sash is worn around the waist, and is called faja.
• The practice of using a woven basket-glove on the right hand was popularized by Gantchiqui Dithurbide from Saint-Pée, France in the 1860s. The long version known today was brought to mainstream attention by Melchior Curuchage from Buenos Aires, Argentina in the late 1880s.