Imitation Games

A pioneering, eye-opening investigation into the world of online gambling, its explosive growth and the transformational impact it is having on sport, tech, individuals and society. A little flutter. No harm. All part of the game. Get closer to the action. A friendly, familiar voice, inviting you to join the real fans and get involved. It has never been easier to place a bet. Wall to wall adverts on repeat surround every sporting event. The smartphone in your pocket all you need to unlock a dizzying array of bets on almost any aspect of any sport. Since its origins as a provincial cottage industry almost twenty-five years ago, UK online gambling has become a globe-straddling behemoth worth more than £10 billion a year. It can sometimes feel as if the point of sport is to bet on it. But it didn’t have to be this way. In Imitation Games, Darragh McGee travels the world to tell the incredible story of the individuals and companies who brought this brave new world of betting into being (and got very rich doing so). He also traces the devastation and destruction that gambling leaves behind it. The inadequate safeguards and the broken lives that show that when the fun stops, it stops hard. And proffers a series of solutions for how we can create a different future.