Gaming the Game by Sean Patrick Griffin

Anybody who visits the site on a regular basis is no doubt familiar with the Tim Donaghy saga. It's one that we've touched upon before, first with Are NBA Games Fixed? and later with Tim Donaghy's Latest Accusations.

While most of the world seemed shocked that an NBA official would partake in such a thing as fixing games, we also looked at the liklihood that Donaghy was not the first referee to be involved in something shady in Was Tim Donaghy the First Official to Fix Games?

But while we have looked at the broad picture, Sean Patrick Griffin gives us an up-close detailed look at the Donaghy ordeal, the people involved and plenty more in Gaming the Game.

In reality, people know very little of the Tim Donaghy story. We were told that he was betting on games he was officiating. That's it, even though most sports bettors aren't naive enough to actually believe that inside information, as opposed to his calls, were what enabled Donaghy to win his bets.

But there are plenty of questions that come to mind. Who was he betting with? Was he winning all of his wagers? And perhaps most importantly, what did knowledgable sports bettors do when they realized an NBA referee was betting on games he officiated?

Until Griffin's book came out, we had no way of knowing the answers to any of those questions. But Griffin goes into great depth to not only provide answers to those questions, but countless others.

Griffin takes great care to point out holes in the "official version" of what took place and shows how there is still plenty of misinformation out there regarding the ordeal, much of it coming from Donaghy himself during his public appearances to promote his own book and in the book itself.

Most of what we've heard about the Donaghy scandal has focused on Donaghy himself, but Griffin knows the true heart of the matter begins with Jimmy Battista, a professional gambler and bookmaker from the Philadelphia area. The first part of the book focuses on Battista and his group of sports gamblers, known as the Animals, and is a remarkable look at the inner workings of a big-money betting syndicate and their trials and tribulations, as well as looking at Battista's relationships with some of the best-known and most feared sports betting outfits of their day.

Battista was a key source of information for the book and his knowledge proves to be invaluable, not only for the story behind the workings of betting syndicates, but also for the straight story on how much Donaghy knew and what he did.

Few people are as qualified as Griffin to write this book, which painstakingly took roughly three years of interviews, research and pouring over official doccuments. A former police officer, Griffin has served as an associate professor in criminal justice at Penn State Abington since 2003. Griffin's schoarly background is evidenced in his research, which is flawless, a remarkable feat considering the subject matter.

If you've ever wanted to know how the big-money betting outfits work, this is the book for you.

If you've ever wondered the true story behind the Tim Donaghy scandal and how much of the truth are we being told, this is also the book for the you.

Griffin gives readers the best of both worlds with Gaming the Game. His academic background ensures that readers will get all of the information that they need, but he is also a gifted story teller and writes in a way that have you glued to the pages.

This is easily one of the best books ever written about the sports betting scene and will give you a first-hand look at the biggest scandal to ever hit the NBA.