Dominican Republic cockfights simulcast to Boston area bar

Other than baseball, the Dominican Baseball Guy would say that cockfighting is perhaps the second most popular spectator sport in the Dominican Republic. This is slowly changing, and the younger generations opt for basketball, and maybe soccer and volleyball, over cockfighting, but it is still a huge part of the traditional Dominican culture.

So, it is no surprise that Dominican Republic cockfights were being simulcasted to a bar in the Boston area. Like horse racing and dog fighting (ask Michael Vick), the whole point of watching cockfights is to bet on one of the birds.

And if there is anything that Dominicans love more than baseball and cockfighting it is betting on sports. In the Dominican Republic the betting parlors are ubiquitous. You can find one on almost any block. Walk in and you will find 20-30 men all staring at television screens, and zero women. The Dominican men bet on baseball, but also NBA basketball and even hockey, a game that has probably never even been played in the Dominican Republic.

Add to this background the fact that the Boston area has a large Dominican population, second only to New York in the size of the Dominican diaspora, and you have the right conditions to broadcast Dominican Republic cockfighting.

The Massachusetts state police completed a two month investigation and busted the bar owners, confiscating  cash and other assets, and taking the owners and some patrons into custody. There is no word on the ethnicity of any of the culprits, but the Dominican Baseball Guy would bet that at least some of them are Dominicans.

Typical Dominican Republic cockfighter