It's played a great deal for nothing (4)
I believe the answer is:
faro
'nothing' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'it's played a great deal for' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is within the answer.
an anagram of 'for' is 'fro' which is located in the left over letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for faro that I've seen before include "Gambling game with card dealer and players" , "Card game - Algarve port" , "Algarve seaport" , "Portuguese seaport" , "European port" .)