The chairman of Brighton and Hove Albion has been accused of operating a secret £600 million gambling syndicate to bet on football matches, according to documents filed at the High Court.
Tony Bloom is accused of running the operation through his consultancy, Starlizard, which uses data analytics to place high-stakes bets on football fixtures.
According to court documents, Mr Bloom allegedly used betting accounts held in the name of George Cottrell, Nigel Farage’s former chief of staff, to place bets on sporting fixtures.
Ryan Dudfield, who was employed by Mr Bloom’s company, is suing him, claiming that he is owed 17.5 million US dollars (£13.1m) in profits from the operation, as he was responsible for introducing Mr Cottrell to the syndicate, and they allegedly had an agreement which would see him get 7% of the profits.
Mr Bloom has not yet filed a defence to the claim.
In the claim filed by his lawyer, Christopher Snell, Mr Dudfield alleges that the relevant online betting accounts were or are held by Mr Cottrell with stake.com, an “offshore” online casino that uses cryptocurrency.
According to the documents, Mr Dudfield claims he has known Mr Cottrell, who was previously the deputy treasurer of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip), for five years, and he has a reputation as a “high-stakes gambler”.
Mr Dudfield claims the syndicate used “secret exotic accounts”, which were betting accounts in the name of third parties, through which Mr Bloom and his betting syndicate placed their bets.
He alleges these accounts were routinely introduced to Mr Bloom, his betting syndicate and Starlizard Consulting via third party introducers not employed by Starlizard, and who do not have their own betting accounts.
In court documents, Mr Snell said: “Instead, the introducers have knowledge of other individuals who operate betting accounts with a history of high-stakes gambling, commonly referred to as a ‘whale’ profile.”
Mr Snell continued: “The claimant also has direct knowledge of the identities of individuals whose betting accounts have been used by Mr Bloom and his syndicate.
“They include well-known footballers, sportsmen and businessmen.”
However, Mr Dudfield claims he does not know the identities of people who are members of the syndicate, save that Mr Bloom is its “head”.
Mr Dudfield claims he was employed by Starlizard Consulting from April 2008 to May 2017, latterly as a “placer”.
In this role he was responsible for deciding when and where to place bets, usually on behalf of Mr Bloom and his betting syndicate.
Mr Snell said: “To the best of the claimant’s knowledge, Mr Bloom and his betting syndicate are in fact the only clients of Starlizard Consulting.”
He added: “The syndicate is highly successful. The claimant understands its yearly winnings to be in the region of £600 million.”
Mr Dudfield says the syndicate is operated via Starlizard Consulting Limited, which was incorporated by Mr Bloom in January 2006.
Mr Bloom, who also has a stake in the Scottish Premiership team Hearts, has been approached for comment through his law firm and Brighton & Hove Albion.
Breaking news – Man famous for running legal betting syndicate that isn’t allowed to bet on any games involving Brighton or other Premier League clubs accused of running a betting syndicate regularly audited by the FA. This is just clickbait drivel.
Whilst I agree a lot of the original story was sensationalising what was already known and it’s very unlikely any wrongdoing will be found, it’s not really clickbait to report that the legal action is being taken. It’s up to Bloom to defend it and hopefully see it all dismissed. The broadsheets that first broke the story took different angles with the Guardian drawing attention to the fact it was revealed Bloom had a relationship with the Farage crony which isn’t a good look. Whilst the Times focused more on the claims of the man bringing the action, even though they’re pretty spurious. I think it’s most likely the claimant wants a payday and will chuck mud to cause scene in the hope that Bloom eventually pays him off to go away except he’s taken it too far now and it will have to be investigated, then if no wrongdoing is found, Bloom will most likely countersue and he has every right to.
All bets off now
“Starlizard”? Hmmm. Interesting name.