The sport is also played in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Cuba.

Operated as a gaming enterprise called jai alai, it is seen in parts of the U.S. such as Florida, Connecticut, Nevada, and Rhode Island.

In Valencia, Valencian pilota is considered the national sport; it is also played in Belgium, northern Italy, Mexico, and Argentina.

Since its creation, the International Federation of Basque Pelota has standardised the different varieties into four modalities and fourteen disciplines, with fixed ball weights, rules and court sizes.

With the ball easily travelling at 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph), pelota can kill if safety equipment is not used properly or at all; while rare, occasional deaths do occur.

[citation needed] In the Basque Country the "pasaka [eu]" and "laxoa [eu]", local versions of the paume evolved to the peculiar style of the pilota: instead of playing face to face, with a net in the midfield, the Basques began to fling the ball against a wall.

[citation needed] According to the Basque pilota historian Chipitey Etcheto, the first recorded matches took place in Napoleonic times; it is believed that the game was close to currently rare speciality of "rebot [eu]".

The player "Gantxiki" is considered the original "father" of the chistera, the basket-shaped racquet that can propel the ball at high speeds, introduced around 1850.

[citation needed] The top champions of the end of the 19th century, such as "Chiquito de Cambo", were immensely popular and the best-paid sportsmen of their time.

Pelota is usually played in the Basque regions of south-western France and north-western Spain, where it originated.

There are also federations of Basque ball in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Sweden, the United States (including Puerto Rico), Uruguay and Venezuela.

The sport has been part of the Pan-American Games since 1995, but was dropped at the 1999, 2007 and 2015 editions due to its low popularity in Brazil and Canada.

The team to serve bounces the ball, then propels it towards the playing area of the narrow, front wall where it has to rebound between the low line demarcating the low off-area and the high line demarcating the high off-area.

This is wrapped in a latex wire (for Hand Pelota, Grand Chistera, Jai-Alai, and open-air Pala).

The core of the ball is different for individual age groups so that the weight limit is respected.

The basket (xistera in Basque and chistera in French) was introduced by Gantchiqui Dithurbide from Saint-Pée, France in 1860,[8] and its long version by Melchior Curuchage, from Buenos Aires in 1888.

The Basque Government claims it as "the fastest game on Earth", the record being 302 km/h or 187.65 mi/h (José Ramón Areitio at the Newport Jai Alai, Rhode Island, USA on 3 August 1979[8]).

Before being glued, the core is filled with a special gas which gives the ball firmness and bounce, and thus greater speed.

The Basque name joko garbi means "pure game", in opposition to the abuse of atxiki (unfair retention of the ball), typical of the late 19th century style of playing, dubbed joko zikin ("dirty game").

[9][12][13] Professional competitions and exhibitions in the Basque Country are organized by Asegarce and ASPE for the discipline of handball, Orriamendi for Remonte, Inpala for Pala Larga.

In the United States pelota was mainly a professional sport, strongly tied to betting and the pari-mutuel system.

In 1994, the production company Asegarce started painting the courts green so that the ball would be more visible on TV.

[14] Professional games are open to betting on the results, as usual in most traditional Basque competitions.