But behind parts of that industry lies a much darker story.

In this episode, you can hear investigative journalist Lindsey Kennedy expose how illegal online gambling networks in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines have developed into sprawling criminal empires built on human trafficking, forced labour, torture, corruption, and organised crime.

Thousands of people from around the world are lured by fake job offers and end up trapped in compounds where online gambling and scam operations thrive.

As these compounds expand, they have even become entangled in armed conflict – turning parts of the global betting industry into something far more dangerous than a question of gambling regulation.

The episode also connects the story to international sport.

According to Kennedy, companies linked to these criminal networks have been able to sponsor major European football clubs, using sport to clean their image, build legitimacy, and move closer to the mainstream.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Speaker: Lindsey Kennedy, investigative journalist and research director at the Eyewitness Project

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Voices by rexlambo

At the time, world football was still shaking from one of the biggest corruption scandals in sports history. Senior FIFA officials had been arrested, investigators were uncovering bribery and money laundering schemes, and journalists and whistleblowers had exposed a system built on loyalty, money, and power.

In this episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg looks back at Gianni Infantino’s first decade as FIFA president and asks a simple question:

What kind of FIFA did he actually build?

The episode traces FIFA’s journey from the corruption scandal of 2015 into the Infantino era - looking at reform promises, politics, weakened independent scrutiny, and FIFA’s growing proximity to political power.

It also explores Infantino’s relationships with Vladimir Putin, Qatar’s leadership, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Donald Trump - and asks what these relationships reveal about FIFA’s direction under his presidency.

Along the way, the episode revisits the role of investigative journalists, whistleblowers, and reform figures who challenged FIFA’s culture of impunity, including Andrew Jennings.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley & Cold Case by Riverside

For decades, Trump has used boxing, professional wrestling, golf, mixed martial arts, and football to build his brand, cultivate power, and place himself at the centre of the spectacle.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has attended major sporting events, signed executive orders on sport, created White House task forces for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and surrounded himself with a network of sports executives, athletes, influencers, and political operators.

Karim Zidan explains how sport has become part of Trump’s political infrastructure - a space where strength, masculinity, nationalism, loyalty, grievance, and entertainment are turned into political power.

The conversation looks at Trump’s relationship with combat sports, from boxing and professional wrestling to the UFC; the role of figures such as Dana White, Joe Rogan, Casey Wasserman, and others.

Karim Zidan is an investigative journalist who writes about the intersection of sport, politics, power, authoritarianism, and human rights. He is also the author of the forthcoming book The Ultimate Strongmen, which examines how mixed martial arts has become a powerful tool for political agendas, propaganda, and control.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Guest: Karim Zidan, investigative journalist and author

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Lost in the ocean by limujii & Cold Case by Riverside

In this episode, urban anthropologist Monika Streule takes us to Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, where 2026 World Cup-related projects, infrastructure upgrades, and urban development are colliding with local struggles over water, land, housing, public space, and environmental protection.

In Mexico City, residents near the Azteca Stadium continue to resist projects they fear will increase water scarcity, displacement, and gentrification.

In Monterrey, the build-up to the World Cup has intersected with long-running conflicts over public land, air pollution, water access, and the protection of rivers.

And in Guadalajara, the Akron Stadium and its surroundings near La Primavera forest raise questions about urban expansion, wildfire risks, pressure on water resources, and the limits of sustainability branding.

The episode looks beyond the global spectacle and asks what happens locally when the world’s biggest football tournament arrives.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Author: Monika Streule, urban anthropologist and professor of social anthropology based in Mexico City

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Cold Case by Riverside

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in North America, Jules Boykoff asks us to look beyond the spectacle.

For millions of fans, the tournament will bring football, drama, beauty, and emotion. But behind the spectacle lies another story – one about power, money, political prestige, and who gets to use sport, and for what purpose.

In this episode, you will hear Jules Boykoff speak about sportswashing, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, and the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Boykoff is a political scientist, author, former professional football player, and one of the most critical voices on the politics of sport and mega-events.

His analysis focuses on the concept of sportswashing: how political leaders, states, and powerful institutions use sport to build prestige, stoke nationalism, and deflect attention from chronic problems at home.

In the case of the 2026 World Cup, Boykoff turns his attention to FIFA, Donald Trump, and the political and commercial machinery surrounding the tournament.

But his argument does not stop with football. Two years after the World Cup, the Olympic Games will come to Los Angeles – raising many of the same questions about power, profit, public money, policing, displacement, and political image-making.

The episode also comes as Boykoff releases his new book, Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Speaker: Jules Boykoff, political scientist, author, and former professional football player

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley.

Is FIFA moving into the betting industry faster than it can protect the integrity of the game?

Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, football’s global governing body is deepening its relationship with betting operators, prediction markets, data companies, and streaming rights - and, on June 9, FIFA announced Kraken as an official crypto exchange supporter of the tournament.

The result is a rapidly expanding commercial landscape where new betting opportunities are emerging not only around the World Cup itself, but also around low-level matches streamed on FIFA+.

Some of those matches involve amateur or poorly paid players in countries where online gambling is illegal. Yet they can still end up on global betting markets, raising questions about offshore operators, cryptocurrency, weak regulation, and match-fixing risks.

This episode looks at how FIFA’s commercial partnerships are bringing thousands of matches closer to betting markets, why sports integrity experts are concerned about prediction markets ahead of the 2026 World Cup, and whether football’s systems of protection and accountability can keep up.

This is a story about money, governance, betting, and the integrity of football – from the biggest World Cup ever staged to some of the smallest leagues in the game.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Author: Steve Menary, journalist

This episode is produced by Play the Game.

Music: Cold Case by Riverside

That is the message from Qatar 2022 whistleblower Abdullah Ibhais, the former media manager for Qatar’s World Cup organising committee, who paid a heavy price for speaking out about the treatment of migrant workers ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

In the opening episode of the Play the Game Podcast, Stanis Elsborg speaks with Ibhais in an exclusive interview about the latest developments in his case.

After travelling to Norway to speak publicly about FIFA, Qatar, and the World Cup, Ibhais says he was stopped at the airport on his return to Jordan, questioned, and had his passport confiscated.

The episode also features Ibhais’ powerful presentation from Play the Game 2025, where he describes Qatar’s media strategy in the years leading up to the tournament — a strategy he sums up as: “Deflect, discredit, and deny.”

This is the story of an insider turned whistleblower – a story about prison, pressure, media control, FIFA, migrant workers, and the global politics behind Qatar 2022.

Host: Stanis Elsborg, head of Play the Game

Guest: Abdullah Ibhais, whistleblower, communications and advocacy consultant, Jordan

*This episode is produced by Play the Game*

Music: I Walk With Ghosts by Scott Buckley

Play the Game Podcast is a new podcast about the people, powers, and politics shaping sport.

The podcast brings you voices, stories, and debates that rarely get enough space in the world of sport.

For almost three decades, Play the Game has worked to create space for open, critical, and informed dialogue about international sport through conferences, analyses, and journalism.

Now, we are bringing that work to your headphones.

In the podcast, you will hear from investigative journalists, researchers, athletes, whistleblowers, sports leaders, decision-makers, and others who help uncover what is happening behind the scenes of international sport.

Episodes will include interviews, narrated articles, conference presentations, and critical debates on some of the biggest challenges facing sport today — from corruption, match-fixing, doping, and human rights to geopolitics, gambling, sustainability, athlete welfare, and abuse in sport.

Some episodes will give new life to important material from Play the Game’s conferences and website: presentations, articles, and conversations that deserve to travel further than the room where they were first heard. Others will open up new conversations about the questions that sport still struggles to answer.

Play the Game Podcast is for everyone who believes that sport deserves scrutiny, transparency, and open debate.

Subscribe now, and listen soon on all major podcast platforms.

For more information visit www.playthegame.org/podcast