Michael R. Payne's remarkable autobiography takes readers inside the transformation of global sport from a gentleman's pastime into a trillion-dollar industry. One of the last true insiders, Payne delivers a fast-paced, razor-sharp dissection of the deals, scandals, and innovations that defined the past fifty years.

The autobiography of one of the last standing insiders, 'Fast Tracks and Dark Deals', is a surgical dissection of the business of sport and its evolution over the past fifty years from a cottage industry to a trillion-dollar business. Fast-paced and edgy, it profiles the characters and events that gave birth to the sports biz. Along the way, readers encounter dazzling highs and sobering lows, as wars, scandals, and economic crises threaten to pull the whole spectacle apart. The story is told from a seat close enough to hear the whispers in the corridor yet distant enough to see the broader patterns, the fragile alliances, the unexpected friendships, and the bold ideas that reshaped global sport. 'Fast Tracks and Dark Deals' offers unique business insights from someone who was a major player in many of them, who knew everyone and has been everywhere in the labyrinth of world sport, even its dark corners. The final part provides a telling and perhaps unsettling prediction for the next fifty years. Forewords from Dr Thomas Bach, IOC President, and Bernie Ecclestone, F1 Supremo.