Saying something 'sucks' is unfortunately one of those creeping Americanisms taking over here when we already have a perfectly good word of our own for the concept: in this case we would say that a thing 'stinks'. Other examples are 'waiting in line' for our 'queuing (up)', and 'off limits' for our 'out of bounds'— a while back I OP'd a thread on this very topic, but it will bear repeating here as the subject has re-emerged.

As to 'sucks' — I have always assumed some ref intended to fellatio? Tho the old English school slang, of 'sucks to...' (sometimes even expanded to 'Yah sucks boo to...') whatever it is intended to denigrate, might well also be an influence, as ABCD suggests above.