Listen to a sample
Imitation Games
- Author
- Darragh McGee
- Narrator
- Darragh McGee
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 28 May 2026
- Run Time
- 11 hours 18 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
Not available in your country
We don't have the rights to sell this audiobook where you are. If it's already in your library you can still listen to it in My Books.
What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
A cheeky flutter. All part of the game. Get closer to the action. A friendly, familiar voice, inviting you to join the real fans and get involved. What harm could it do…
It has never been easier to stake a bet. Wall to wall adverts have hijacked every sporting event – the mobile slot machine in your pocket all you need to enter an immersive world in which gambling is faceless and frictionless, available 24/7, on almost any aspect of any sport.
Since its origins as a provincial cottage industry almost twenty-five years ago, 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.
How did we get here? How did a new wave of gambling brands hijack sport on a global scale? In Imitation Games, Darragh McGee travels the world to tell the incredible story of the digital brands who unleashed this new world of gambling onto a new generation of fans (and got very rich doing so).
At the same time, he traces the harm and human cost that gambling leaves behind, and shows how we can create a different future for sport and society. Because when the fun stops, it stops hard.
'Meticulous and devastating... Read this book to learn the truth about the game you love'
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland
'At last we have a book that explains how we let this happen, what the real costs of the industry are, and what sport might do about it'
David Goldblatt, author of The Game of our Lives
'McGee takes readers on a gripping journey'
Natasha Schüll, author of Addiction by Design
© Darragh McGee 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
Critics Review
-
In meticulous and devastating detail, Darragh McGee reveals how football sold its fans to the gambling giants. Read this book to learn the truth about the game you love
Oliver Bullough, author of Everybody Loves Our Dollars
-
As the number of gambling related suicides, bankruptcies and family break-ups mount we at last have a book that explains how we let this happen, what the real costs of the industry are, and what sport might do about it
David Goldblatt, author of The Age of Football and The Game of our Lives
-
A masterful, multi-layered account. McGee takes readers on a gripping journey through the dark machinery of modern sports betting—from punts and push notifications to data tracking, debt, and addiction, revealing how an industry built on predation has weaponized technology to exploit human vulnerability
Natasha Schüll, author of Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas
-
A gripping, must-read account that is as lyrically written as it is forensically researched
Rob Davies, author of Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered Britain
See more reviews See fewer reviews
-
A forensic analysis of how gambling risks consuming football whole. Imitation Games lays bare the changes that have been unfurling before your eyes. A must read for any sports fan seeking to understand how we got here
Aaron Rogan, author of Punters: How Paddy Power Bet Billions and Changed the Gambling World Forever
-
Imitation Games is a detailed, authoritative and damning analysis of the rise of the sports betting industry in the UK since the early 2000s, and the impacts now seen on public health. It also lays bare how this business model continues to echo around the world, from sub-Saharan Africa, to Canada and the US – Darragh McGee’s book demands a global audience.
Dr. Luke Clark, Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada
-
Imitation Games is a victory for clear, driven, and socially-motivated writing. The story is statured with vivid scenes, crisp dialogue and unmatched research. All by a dashing academic who sure knows how to get out of his lecture hall and bring his readers the real world!
Declan Hill, author of The Fix: Soccer and Organized Crime and The Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing
-
This is a brilliant, deeply disturbing book. Carefully researched, engagingly written, it’s part social and economic history of the exponential growth of global sports betting, with closely drawn sketches of the remarkable entrepreneurs who saw the possibilities, turned the industry from horse-racing to football, and pioneered the advertising and digital technologies of continuous betting. It’s also a searing indictment of the hijacking of sports, transforming ‘the beautiful game’ into the compulsion of endless betting, deliberately addicting players, managers and fans alike, with devastating financial and family loss, including suicide. McGee’s harshest words are for the sports bodies and governments who willfully ignored the abundant evidence of gambling-related harm, blinded by the large sums of money paid by the industry. It’s an urgent read for anyone who loves sports.
Bruce Kidd, Professor Emeritus of Sports Policy University of Toronto
-
[A] much-needed investigation into the way in which gambling has 'hijacked' sport, penned by a global health sociologist and leading expert in the field
iPaper
-
[An] impressive study of how our national sport, seduced by profit, surrendered to the gambling industry
Spectator
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Darragh McGee
- Narrator
- Darragh McGee
- Duration
- 11 hours 18 minutes
- Release Date
- 28 May 2026
- ISBN
- 9781529925326
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- History: specific events and topics, History of sport, Internet gambling, Health, illness or addiction: social aspects, Coping with / advice about addiction
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.A cheeky flutter. All part of the game. Get closer to the action. A friendly, familiar voice, inviting you to join the real fans and get involved. What harm could it do…It has never been easier to stake a bet. Wall to wall adverts have hijacked every sporting event – the mobile slot machine in your pocket all you need to enter an immersive world in which gambling is faceless and frictionless, available 24/7, on almost any aspect of any sport.Since its origins as a provincial cottage industry almost twenty-five years ago, 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.How did we get here? How did a new wave of gambling brands hijack sport on a global scale? In Imitation Games, Darragh McGee travels the world to tell the incredible story of the digital brands who unleashed this new world of gambling onto a new generation of fans (and got very rich doing so).At the same time, he traces the harm and human cost that gambling leaves behind, and shows how we can create a different future for sport and society. Because when the fun stops, it stops hard.'Meticulous and devastating... Read this book to learn the truth about the game you love'Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland'At last we have a book that explains how we let this happen, what the real costs of the industry are, and what sport might do about it'David Goldblatt, author of The Game of our Lives'McGee takes readers on a gripping journey'Natasha Schüll, author of Addiction by Design© Darragh McGee 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
About xigxag
xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.
There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.
Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.
Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.