Imitation Games
How Gambling Hijacked Sport
Darragh McGee
Having read it
★★★★★
An insightful, revealing and productively critical book that weaves an engrossingly factual narrative that really needs more exposure so that its principles and suggestions can be better seen, understood and then used to enact meaningful and long-term change for society.
It’s apparent that [Colin] Bland [current CEO at the charity, Sporting Chance] and [Shellie] Heather [current Sporting Chance’s COO] are concerned that the wellbeing of the modern athlete is not always the foremost consideration in an age when football clubs, PR agencies, agents and their entourage wade in on addiction cases. With vested interests at play, the danger is that the corporate business agenda reduces human beings to brand assets whose resale value must be protected. This creates a scenario where the primary objective is to refute accusations and minimise sentences – which Bland calls ‘stealing consequences’ – rather than to do what’s best for the health of the athlete and their long-term recovery.
A good passage
The Darwinian struggle for market share has moved us closer to a point where it becomes impossible to watch live sport and not be subjected to an incessant stream of gambling brands in recruitment mode, voraciously seeking out the new customers they need to power a business model that only profits when people lose. Winners, we now know, can be weeded out within a few shrewd bets by algorithms which profile, filter and retain the mugs left in the matrix.15
A second good passage
The candid reference to the ‘transfer’ of ‘image’ and ‘trust’ is highly revealing of why gambling brands are attracted to sponsorship deals with elite clubs. It is, of course, not unique to gambling. All big corporate industries invest in brand anchoring tactics on the common proviso that they yield something in return. That ‘something’ is generally not exclusively material. Rather, in mirroring the behavioural science of associative mimicry,6 the marketing mindset is one which actively quantifies the positive social value that is conferred upon companies that partner with cherished cultural institutions as a return on investment.7
As a strategic tactic, this ‘latch on and leverage’ model typically involves corporations exchanging or converting hard capital (money) into symbolic capital, which for gambling brands means two things: privileged access to a cherished mainstream cultural setting, and the social proofing or credibility transfer that their presence communicates to all in the sporting universe – especially fans.
A third good passage
What academics call the ‘halo effect’ helps to explain what happens when a life-affirming ritual like sport, which we entrust and endorse as a net positive contributor to societal wellbeing, agrees to partner with gambling brands domiciled far beyond the regulatory jurisdiction.39 This social proofing effect is strongest among young people, many of whom come to accept it by virtue of the ubiquitous presence and alignment of gambling with sport, especially one’s favourite football team. The concerning question is to what extent that not only legitimises gambling as acceptable but as essential and even safe too.
What’s more, it doesn’t stop with clubs. For a new generation, the emotional connection with the on-field stars is greater still – and the gambling industry know it.