Douglas won his 34th Golden Cesta Award of his career by winning the most singles games for the first 5-performances at Magic City Jai-Alai in 2022. Those wins came in the pelota games, formerly referred to as the pari-mutuel wagering games. Douglas had won this award the final week of 2021 action by winning 50% of his singles games then and picked up where he left off by winning 50% of his ten singles games to start the 2022 meet, and this feat was accomplished against even tougher competition from some Dania players that joined the Magic City roster. Douglas has more than double the amount of Golden Cesta Awards than any other player. RonRon has second most awards with 16.
Ikeda got off to a great start by winning four of his 10-singles pelota games for 40% wins and an amazing 80% ITM (in the money). Three other players were tied with 3-wins each; Carballo, Goixerri and Tennessee. The best ITM for the week was Ikeda with 80% while Douglas and Goixerri were tied for second best ITM with 70% each. Nine players of the 23-players starting the meet have yet to score their first win.
The first doubles tourney for 2022 has been dominated by the Ikeda-Bradley team who have surged to a huge early lead by winning five of their eight games with two second places (62.5% wins, 87.5% ITM). The second place team of Anderluck-Benny has two wins while three other teams have one win each. Six of the eleven starting teams are winless and one team has yet to record an ITM finish. The 12th team of Vuelo-RonRon will join this first tourney when RonRon returns soon.
The Magic City pelota game roster is 26-players, however three of them are currently sidelined for medical reasons. El Barba had a knee procedure during break and should be back soon and RonRon (back issues) should also be returning soon. Spinner had a serious injury last year and is expected back this summer.
The pelota game betting handle remains well above the 2021 meet at this point. Trifecta wagers are the most popular by far, as usual for Jai-Alai games, and the trifecta pool average in 2022 is running 53% higher than the last month of the 2021 season and 35% higher than the average trifecta pool for all of 2021. Average trifecta prices for 2022 are also starting out big with the $1.00 trifecta averaging $280.50 over the first 40-games compared to $221.50 for all of 2021, thus a 27% increase.
Be sure to watch and support the Magic City pelota games every Sunday through Tuesday at 1:30-pm EST. Sign up to wager with watchandwager.com to place wagers on pelota games or with mywinners.com for CT residents. Some state restrictions on wagering apply. Watch and wager live in the Jai-Alai fronton area only for Sunday’s games. You can also watch and wager on Magic City pelota games at this List of Other Sites shown on SayHiLi.com.
Steve M.