Nominated, Best Television/Digital Documentary, British Sports Journalism Awards
Sports betting has exploded across Africa. But are the betting companies playing it straight? Do the punters really understand the odds they’re up against? And who is getting rich from the thrill of the beautiful game?
BBC Africa Eye follows one young football fan on a journey across Uganda, to find out what happens when global companies target some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on the continent.
What people have been saying about the film:
A timely and utterly compelling examination, and an often damning indictment, of the relationship between gambling and sport.
Musa Okwonga, sports writer and broadcaster; author A Cultured Left Foot and Will You Manage?
An excellent documentary on football betting in Uganda – I can't recommend it highly enough. It features some incredibly moving stories about people with hardly anything to their name, squandering what they little they do have with major global betting firms.
Rob Davies, Guardian journalist
Shocking and compelling. A very human piece of film-making.
Tom Watt, actor, broadcaster and author, including of David Beckham’s biography My Side
An insightful and chilling piece that brings home how brutal the situation can be when global, multi billion gambling companies move into one of the poorest countries in the world, selling hope and dreams of a better life to some of its poorest people.
Professor Gerda Reith, author – Addictive Consumption: Capitalism, Modernity and Excess and The age of chance: gambling in Western culture
Another spot-on Africa Eye documentary on an issue that touches the lives of millions of Africans, often in destructive ways: betting on football via a multitude of giant, faceless multinational companies.
Max Bearak, Africa bureau chief, The Washington Post