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Darragh McGee's ten-year investigation reveals how the gambling industry has infiltrated sports, from jersey sponsorships to in-game betting, and the devastating impact it has on individuals and society.
Declan Bogue FOR DARRAGH McGEE, the moment he realised that things had changed was on a trip back home to Donegal after completing his PhD in Canada.
He and a friend had headed into Letterkenny to watch a Manchester United game on the big screen. But during the game, Darragh noticed his companion was preoccupied by events happening on another, small television in the corner of the bar showing a different game. He asked what was up, and it turned out his friend had a juicy bet riding on the other match.
How Gambling Hijacked Sport
That's when it really clicked with McGee that betting and gambling had become more of an attraction for some than the game itself. It led to some intense reflection and observation. Every time he watched sports, he noticed the way gambling would dominate the advertising breaks, and, in time, the jersey sponsors of the teams. He spent 10 years researching and then writing 'Imitation Games - How Gambling Hijacked Sport.
' It is an exhaustive look at how light-touch government policy, some ingenious marketing and manipulation has led to gambling consuming modern sport, and the misery it has inflicted upon society while dressing up as a somewhat rakish hobby, nothing more than another branch of light entertainment. Gibraltar prison The book opens with the tale of James. A man trapped in his own prison of gambling, living in Gibraltar.
Just a few years earlier, James was a person of real promise, with a youth coaching business and a passion for sport. All of that went as his gambling habit grew. At one stage he went to Las Vegas and fed €4,000 into an Elton John-themed slot machine within hours, having to spend the next five days penniless. Darragh McGee, author.
James Grimes and Gibraltar Addiction
McGee details James' last days of his Gibraltar nightmare, sleeping in the business premises he had founded along with friends before stealing cash to keep his gambling habit up. Even when those around him found him in such reduced circumstances, he went home and kept gambling. He felt that suicide was the only way out. But James Grimes didn't do that.
Instead, James would later go on to get help and enter recovery. In time, he founded a walk, 'The Big Step' that would travel from Manchester City's stadium, past several other grounds in the north of England that had gambling companies as jersey sponsors, to raise awareness of gambling addiction. Not everyone was like James Grimes. Some ended up dying by suicide.
Gambling in Premier League Football
In the Gtech After the opening chapter, the action moves to a meeting between Brentford and Nottingham Forest on 20 January 2024 at the Gtech Community Stadium. As they emerge for the game, Brentford are wearing a jersey adorned with a gambling company sponsor. So too are Forest. All around pitch side LED advertising boards, Hollywood Bets moves into a message from Bet365, that then gives way for Betway.
A goal flies in after three minutes. After the obligatory 'limbs', a curiously modern phenomenon as hundreds of fans stare at their phones, all studying and adjusting their in-game bets. In a corporate box is Brentford's owner, Matthew Benham, a man who made his fortune as proprietor of SmartOdds. Ivan Toney, wearing a Brentford jersey with 'Hollywood Bets' across the chest.
Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Back on the pitch is Ivan Toney, who is making his first appearance in eight months after serving a ban for having placed 232 bets on games. 29 of them involved teams he was registered with. 15 backed himself to score. On the bench for Forest is Harry Toffolo. He is suspended after having been found placing 375 bets, including 15 against his own team.
A Generation Caught in Gambling
It is lurid imagery that McGee has pieced together to display that, no matter where you look when you watch a game of Premier League soccer, you are being assailed by gambling. The further you go into the book, to read of the manipulation, the tricks all accelerated through technological advances, you realise there is a generation who are falling into the trap. Advertisement Sobering You suspect it's not going to be a bestseller.
While McGee is aware of that, he didn't set out with that as a plan. It's a sobering read.
"The book was ten years in the making and about five years in the writing. My wife would say nearly a divorce in the writing as well," he says, half-jokingly.
Researching the Gambling Industry
"We have had two children over the course of the journey so it has been a hard slog. "But I was very clear that you only get one chance to write that book because the industry are at your door. "They talk about purpose in life and I had grown increasingly frustrated by what it takes to research sports gambling today.
" So much of the 'research' into gambling now is funded by the very industry it is meant to be researching. "I was horrified by the industry but also fascinated by it and I suppose that's where the intellect comes in," says McGee. "I found Paddy Power's marketing, for instance, fascinating. I wanted to understand.
Eventually, I would hear it from the horses' mouth. "
Gambling Addiction Sports Betting Darragh Mcgee Imitation Games Premier League