Smart Money: The Fall & Rise of Brentford FC

by Alex Duff

In 1978, when Alex Duff first went to watch Brentford, players would go on midweek pub crawls near the Griffin Park stadium. Sometimes, in no fit state to go home, they would crash out in a terraced home where one of them lived opposite the stadium gates. The next morning, they clambered into a white van which one of them would drive to training, stopping on the way for a bacon sandwich and cup of tea at a greasy spoon café. Brentford had once played in the top-flight but now, idling in the third division, were a second home for players and supporters, but there was neither the ambition nor money to revive their best days. They bumbled along until in 2005, fed up with trying to make a profit from a club with an ageing stadium in an unfashionable west London suburb, owner Ron Noades agreed to hand over the business to supporters on the condition they take over responsibility for their £5.5 million overdraft. One of the fans, an Oxford University physics graduate called Matthew Benham, was making millions of pounds from professional gambling and threw in a £500,000 lifeline to help keep the club afloat. Initially, as a sort of academic challenge, he began figuring out if he could employ the mathematics which he used in beating the bookmakers to improve the club's performance on the pitch. Smart Money is the story of how a scientist with an inquiring mind was set loose in a backwater of professional football, and how he turned a modest, little-known team into a competitor in one of the world's most-watched sports leagues.

Genres: Football, Sports, History, Soccer, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

Published March 21, 2024

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, if unspectacular. Call it modern bias, but the book doesn't become interesting until Matthew Benham comes into the picture (around 145 pages in).

The book is framed as looking at how Brentford use cutting edge analytics to prosper as a football club but doesn't always succeed as keeping this as the narrative focus;140 pages covering the entire history of the club felt a bit superfluous.

Also, the conclusion felt weak? The awkward dichotomy of football-powered-by-betting and the blanket ban on betting for footballers is an interesting topic, sure. But it felt somewhat shoehorned in to just be brought up in the final 10 pages, rather than covering the alleged central focus of the book.

All in all, an okay book. It just needs better restraint of its narrative focus, or to at least reframe the focus as being the entire history of Brentford FC.

[David Margetts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please send me a 47.72727% refund! When I decided to buy this book, I was specifically interested in improving my understanding of the use of statistics and data in the running of football clubs, in this case Brentford, through maximising player, tactics and recruitment efficiencies. Sadly only a small proportion goes into the details, and even then, at a very high and basic level. I suppose my xS (expected satisfaction) was too high, and I should have done better due diligence on the author ( a football hack) but frankly I have learnt more from other more precise books on the subject. I am also a football fan so some of the anecdotes about Stan Bowles, Terry Hurlock and Dave Webb were of some interest, yet had I wanted nostalgia, or gossip, I could have simply read any of a myriad of books written by ex-footballers and managers, which I normally try to avoid. What I did not want was a 'history of Brentford' that took up 147 pages of a 308 page book! The success of Brentford and their nemesis Brighton, has been phenomenal, and given the failure of their ex-managers after leaving these clubs, notably Warburton and Potter, indicates the power of the quants in maximising every penny of investment and every ounce of energy from the players, akin to Moneyball....just a pity that this book does little to delve into the 'how's'.

[Kemill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read, solid but unspectacular. A lot of the other reviews make reference to when Matthew Benham appears and the change in course of Brentford's fortunes. Which of course is significant, but it feels as if there is a lot missing in this book. It was interesting, to learn about it's history and it's place in the social hierarchy of London clubs. The rise of sports analytics, occured at the right time and clearly they were one of the first to really embrace marginal gains and unearthing a gem or two of underused or underappreciated players. There even a little nod to big Sam, which was nice, for his work at Bolton.
But the story, is really the same as another football club, big investor comes in and turns around club fortunes, losses eaten as interest free loans and a relatable and steadfastly loyal fan base. who are very happy to achieve success. I would be interested to see a book on both tony bloom and Matthew Benham, that seems to be a rivalry with a little bite and both teams (Brighton and Brentford) who look at football through rose tinted analytical spectacles, who punch above their weight in the prem. but a decent read, none the less.

[Frédéric Bonin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked-up this book from the library because of the dual appeal of the title “Smart Money” and the business of professional soccer in the UK. Unfortunately, only the second half of the book discusses the “Smart Money” aspect.

The majority of the book discusses the trials and tribulations of the Brentford FC. In that, the book’s sub-title “The Fall and Rise of Brentford FC” is a lot more honest description of what the book is really about.

The book itself wasn’t bad or badly written but it was misleading in that its discussion of “smart money” was relatively superficial for my taste and a lot of it felt like an essay/research paper based on secondary sources (e.g. newspapers, blogs, podcasts, second-hand accounts).

Ultimately this book is probably better suited to real fans of professional soccer and fans of Brentford FC than fans of the business of sports.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read about Brentford FC, which has recently made it to the Premier League after years (turns out decades) of mediocrity. Its owner has applied his knowledge and money from statistical analysis of gambling to soccer (football) game management and player development. The book first traces the history of Brentford and how it scuffled while nearby London clubs soared to the Premier League. This part is fine but could be the story of a hundred clubs. It gets more interesting in the present, and ends by pointing out the troubling and gray line of gambling in English football. Brentford's best player Andrew Toney is ultimately banned for 8 months for gambling on football when Brentford's owner's wealth and team success is from the same industry. As we allow more gambling in the US, this will be the same balancing act happening here.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a passable read but certainly didn't have the depth promised by the title. Duff spends a great deal of time establishing the historical roots of the club but doesn't draw enough of a through line to the current iteration to make the first half of the book interesting to anyone who isn't a Brentford supporter.

Beginning with the takeover by Benham, the narrative is much more compelling. There's enough in that back half to make it worth the read.

That said, there were a couple times where I wondered if this book was properly edited/fact checked. The claim that Sam Allerdyce moved to Seattle to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies makes no sense on its face and left me wondering how much to trust any of what Duff wrote. Also, I'm not a gambler but I'm pretty sure he explained point spreads wrong.

[Nate Bragg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
An enjoyable read about the history and rise of Brentford FC with some additional insights on sports betting, analytics and modern scouting/talent development. A bit of a British Moneyball.

The chronology can be a tad muddled at times but all in all solid sports read for any football/EPL fan. I have really been enjoying reading Duff’s writing/reporting in recent weeks.

[Graham Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who, like me, stood on the terraces at Griffin Park in the 1980s the first half of the book is evocative nostalgia. Unfortunately the second half merely skims across the surface of the quantitative analysis which, according to the author, has transformed football, leaving the reader none the wiser as to how it has done so.

[Jamie Langan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. More a general history of Brentford and an overview of the modern history of sports betting and analytics in British football intertwined with Brentford’s methods at a brief glance than a deep dive on ‘smart money’. However, still a well written and interesting book.

[Kevin Postlewaite · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine history of Brentford FC, I had hoped for and expected more detail about using analytics to run the club recently.

[Daniel Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting
Enjoyed it more than expected!

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but I’m a Brentford fan so that might help in the liking of it.

[Peter Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a Brentford fan but I found the social history surrounding the club as interesting as the approach Benham experimented with.

I think the author could have delved deeper into the analysis approach more than he does but overall a good listen. Football fans will certainly enjoy but the characters around the club can probably be spotted at most lower league clubs and a few Premiership ones too.

Overall football is a rich man’s game and a toy for man. No sensible businessman would buy a football club.