Global Gladiators and Ping-Pong Fate: How the FA Cup Draw Became the World’s Most Watched Lottery
London, England – Somewhere between a rain-soaked betting shop in Manchester and a diplomatic cable marked “Urgent” in Abu Dhabi, ninety-two numbered balls tumbled around a perspex drum like anxious hamsters auditioning for Shakespeare. The occasion was the FA Cup Fourth-Round draw, an event the English still call “quaint tradition” and the rest of the…