RALPH Topping was once informed by a man from the Nevada Gaming Commission that he was the most boring man he had ever met. This was meant as a compliment, rather than an insult, as it was that blemish-free record which allowed him to wave through the application for William Hill's first sports betting licence in the state.

But it was also an exaggeration. The man standing in front of him, after all, had built his way up from a Saturday job at a betting shop in Mount Florida - Sir Alex Ferguson was one of his occasional customers - to become chief executive of a global company with an annual turnover of £1.5bn. The Gambler, by Kenny Rogers, seems as appropriate a choice as any for his ringtone.

Brought up in Bathgate, Topping's team is Hibs. If this connection was eventually consummated when David Gray lifted the William Hill Scottish Cup for the Easter Road club, this backstory was also responsible for his big break. Arriving in London for his interview in the mid 80s, he was forced first to prove his credentials by reciting the Famous Five then give his opinion on Graeme Souness' classic mid-80s reintroduction to George McCluskey and the Scottish game. "It was classic atavistic behaviour," he said, lifting directly from that day's Scotsman. "You can take the man out Stenhouse, but you can't take the Stenhouse out of the man." His application form was ripped up there and then, and a cushy number found for him in personnel.

Fast forward more years than you would care to mention and it was another intervention from Topping which was responsible for stitching up the gaping suture in the Scottish league game. Ever since the formation of the SPL, the relationship between it and the SFL could best be described as a distrust bordering on barely concealed hatred. Back in June 2013, when both parties were mulling over an epoch-defining merger, things would have gone south had Topping not been prevailed upon to cross enemy lines and make an impassioned address to the malcontents.

"I remember thinking 'what am I going to say?'," recalls Topping. "But I spoke from the heart, it seemed to go down well, and it was clinched that night. I remember leaving here at 1am in the morning and thinking 'well, at least that is a step forward'."

Everything in Scottish football will never be sweetness and light, but at least the play-offs were back, with a more gradated distribution model to keep what he calls Scottish football's traditional 'yo yo clubs' in business. Originally indicating he would retire, he decided to hang around to ensure that promises made to SFL clubs at that time were abided by. It is only now, another four years down the line, that he is finally being allowed to depart. Except people like Topping never actually retire. He has already replaced his old business interests with numerous other business interests.

Anyway, on to the matter in hand, and an assessment of a Ladbrokes Premiership race, which not to put to fine a point on it, is the very definition of a one-horse race. By the start of March, Celtic lead Aberdeen by 27 points, and Rangers by a further three, and it could all be skewed still further if another season of Champions League cash comes along. While Topping is leaving at a time when sponsorships and TV deals are tied up for the foreseeable future, suffice to say it isn't the easiest proposition to put on the table.

"It has always been a challenge, it is a challenge now and it will continue to be a challenge," said Topping. "I am not critical of the media because I recognise that the media has got a job to do but you have to step back and look at what we have got to sell.

"Well, we have got a league which is competitive, but the competition is really about the places in Europe if you look at the top of the league," he added. "At the moment it is dominated by one club, it has historically been dominated by two clubs. I am always amazed by the guys who turn up and by season tickets, maybe it is a bit of a habit, that we are dealing with guys who have always bought season tickets. But you have to ask yourself why would you do that if your team is not going to have the chance to win the league.

"But I would imagine that the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers will still be here in 100 years, and it will swing one way or the other. Nothing is certain or definite in football. We are where we are at the moment but I have been here before, way back in the 60s and 70s, when it was one period of dominance and then another period of dominance. It is just part of the lifeblood of football."

Wrapped up in all this is the notion that Celtic, particularly in the form of chief executive Peter Lawwell, are somehow allowed to exert too much influence. While there is no room as yet on the SPFL's six-man board for any representation from Rangers - Stewart Robertson does sit on the SFA professional game board - Topping is in particularly acerbic mood when he interrogates the theory that Lawwell is all powerful.

"Every sport has big clubs and big characters," says Topping. "They say that Godolphin or the Coolmore guys run racing. There ARE people with influence around the place - that is always going to be the case with a man like Peter who does a superb job in running Celtic - but don't just single out Peter Lawwell. The Rangers guys do themselves down if they think they haven't got influence as well, because they have spent time in the lower divisions and made lots of friends there. If Donald Trump can get elected then I am sure Stewart Robertson can get elected!

"Peter was involved in the last TV discussions, when Rangers went out of the league, but so was Kenny [Cameron] from Inverness and no-one says that Kenny has got too much influence on the league."

Topping's influence on proceedings will end soon enough but there are areas where he knows the game needs to improve. Sharpening up practice in relation to minimum wage legislation and working time directives is one, while attracting more people along to football could take a step forward if there was more capital investment in stadia and infrastructure. The modern consumer has come to expect simple things like Wi-Fi and simple comfort.

"If you want to get more fans back to the game then investing in modern stadiums would be a good way to go about it," says Topping. "I disagree that going to an Airdrie-Motherwell match costs you too much money, as anyone who has ever taken kids to the pictures will know, with seven grand kids I can tell you it costs you an arm and a leg. I don't want it to suddenly become that people are taking poetry books to football, and you might not think it when you hear what they are singing, but the audience has got much more sophisticated.

"You go to pubs now and they are mini restaurant. People are a bit more demanding and I think football in general has to play a bit of catch up. This thing, [he looks at his smartphone] is going to be a feature of everyone's life. There's much more to come on that."

All the best gamblers know when to get out of the game and Topping appears to have timed his exit well. You can bet that Scottish football will be a more boring place without him.