Imitation Games: How Gambling Hijacked Sport Author: Darragh McGee ISBN-13: 978-1-847-92932-7Publisher: The Bodley HeadGuideline Price: £ 22New technology has made betting on soccer a more corrosive pursuit. This is laid bare in the story of “Alice”, a season-ticket holder at Leicester City. On matchdays, Alice enjoyed making her regular £1 bet at the local bookmakers before completing her journey to the stadium. But when the bookies was permanently shuttered, she joined the legions of fans who use apps to replicate the experience. Before the season had ended – it was, in fact, the year Leicester miraculously won the Premier League title – Alice found herself in the grip of a horrible addiction.This case study is told in Imitation Games: How Gambling Hijacked Sport, Darragh McGee’s authoritative probe on how gambling has infected soccer’s soul. No aspect of the industry goes unscrutinised by the Donegal writer: the failures in regulation, the ghastly practices of betting companies, the lives left shattered. It adds up to a journalistic achievement that sits alongside Miguel Delaney’s States of Play as recent books that chart the corruption of a game once thought to be sacrosanct.At its core, Imitation Games is about how gambling on soccer has become as frictionless a pathway to addiction as the casino. Algorithm-driven apps are designed to hook users in; chasing losses is just a button-push away. Betting firms are happy to pay lip service to user safety, but like a Las Vegas casino floor, every trick is used to stop people from stopping.This is a saga with plenty of villains, from New Labour-era deregulation, to Sky interweaving its sport channels with its betting company. Consider that ITV’s coverage of the 2018 World Cup included 90 minutes of betting ads – the equivalent of one complete match.The absurdity of the situation was laid bare when Brentford striker Ivan Toney became one of a long line of footballers to reveal they had a gambling problem. Yet, as McGee points out, Toney had been required to wear a kit that advertised a betting company. He played on pitches surrounded by advertisements for such firms; the Player of the Month trophies he received even bore the logo of Sky Bet. For succumbing to his addiction – an independent panel examined hundreds of bets – Toney received an eight-month ban from the sport. With gambling allowed to permeate every layer of the player’s profession, it’s impossible not to conclude that the regulatory bodies failed him.Dean Van Nguyen is an author and critic