Failures of devotees accepting second in place of victory (6)
I believe the answer is:
losers
'failures' is the definition.
('loser' can be a synonym of 'failure')
'place of victory' is the wordplay.
'place' becomes 'lose' (losing is a kind of placing).
'of victory' becomes 'rs' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'lose'+'rs'='LOSERS'
'of devotees accepting second in' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
(Other definitions for losers that I've seen before include "Also-rans" , "Odd sorels never win" , "Odd sorels don't win" , "They're unsuccessful" , "They're defeated" .)