Just because this is a rare chance to share some jai alai knowledge, the sport is actually very hard to be good at in the “you’re good and win more often” sense because the way the ball bounces makes the outcomes more a matter of luck than skill. Yes, there is some skill involved, but the skill cap is relatively low beyond which being better at the game doesn’t help you win more because it can’t overcome the entropy introduced by the unpredictability of the ball. This is related to why it’s primarily a sport that, when played competitively, is primarily of interest for paramutual betting: it’s just a source of random noise you can use to try to exploit people’s misunderstandings of how paramutual betting works. It’s not interesting otherwise because in leagues skill doesn’t seem to help teams win consistently enough for there to be much point in playing.
Sources: I lived in Florida and knew people who knew way more about jai alai than me.
Just because this is a rare chance to share some jai alai knowledge, the sport is actually very hard to be good at in the “you’re good and win more often” sense because the way the ball bounces makes the outcomes more a matter of luck than skill. Yes, there is some skill involved, but the skill cap is relatively low beyond which being better at the game doesn’t help you win more because it can’t overcome the entropy introduced by the unpredictability of the ball. This is related to why it’s primarily a sport that, when played competitively, is primarily of interest for paramutual betting: it’s just a source of random noise you can use to try to exploit people’s misunderstandings of how paramutual betting works. It’s not interesting otherwise because in leagues skill doesn’t seem to help teams win consistently enough for there to be much point in playing.
Sources: I lived in Florida and knew people who knew way more about jai alai than me.
Huh, interesting. I should maybe edit this post with an alternate example, but I think the point more or less stands.
Agreed, I don’t think an edit is necessary.