The 2022 Magic City Jai-Alai pari-mutuel wagering (PMW) season starts on February 14th with an expanded roster. Manu (Ladutxe), Inaki (Goitia), Nicolas (Yeche), Goixerri, Aratz and Robin will be playing in the short-court Magic City Jai-Alai PMW games. Jairo has also been added to the MC roster but won’t be playing PMW games as he will be judging PMW games. Manny, aka Manuel, the top Calder player, will continue judging PMW games and both he and Jairo will be competing in the Battle Court H2H games this year.
The PMW games have no changes in number of games or bet types offered. There will be 3-categories of singles games this year; early (games 1,2), middle (games 3,4) and late (games 6,8). Vuelo is back and will be playing in early games. RonRon will still be sidelined at the start due to his back, but is expected to start playing in PMW games at the end of this month. Spinner is still recovering from his injury but could be back in May/June. Both Vuelo and RonRon will be judging Battle Court H2H games. Norge Alvarez (played at Calder) will continue judging both PMW and H2H at Magic City. He’s been judging since 2018. Doubles games will continue being games 5 and 7.
The scouting report on Magic City Jai-Alai has been 100% great news. Practices are high-energy and for the first time the Magic City players have picked-up where they left off the previous year. Nicolas has been standing out and Manu has been adjusting well to the smaller court. Both Stu and Andrew have used the same word in describing the practices at Magic City so far; FANTASTIC!
There are (4) name changes on the roster for previous Magic City players (now using their last name); Juice is now Joseph, Anderluck is now Correa, Tennessee is Roque and Cool Fitness is Williams. The one and only El Barba is still playing under the name El Barba. He had knee surgery over the break and is expected to be playing in PMW games next week in the first two singles games.
The highly popular $1 Pick 5 Jackpot wager called the Jai-5 is expected to be more difficult to hit this year with the addition of new players making singles games more competitive. A bettor can only win the Jai-5 jackpot if they have the only winning ticket correctly selecting all five winners of games 3-7. The minimum jackpot is $2,000 if you are the only winning ticket. Likewise, the Mighty Ocho, a $1 Pick 8 Jackpot wager for games 1-8 will also be more difficult to hit. Last year the first ever Mighty Ocho was won by a lucky bettor and they were paid the minimum $5,000 for that score. The largest Jai-5 in Magic City history was a whopping $27,348 last April to one lucky winner.
Be sure to watch Magic City PMW games the day after the Super Bowl, one week from Monday! Battle Court H2H makes its debut at 5-pm following the PMW performance Monday the 14th. The popular H2H handicapping contest will continue and start on February 20th. Stay tuned for blog posts on Magic City Battle Court H2H and World Super Court qualifying rounds!
Steve M.