If there’s one team apart from Newcastle United that has surpassed everyone’s expectations in the Premier League this season, it is Brighton & Hove Albion.
Currently sitting in the sixth spot, Brighton are in great shape and since their promotion to the Premier League in 2017, the club has seemed to have burned all bridges leading them back to the Championship.
But it has taken years of planning and execution to see where Brighton is today and the man responsible for Brighton’s success is their chairman, Tony Bloom.
Bloom is a 52-year-old entrepreneur who holds 75% shareholding in Brighton, making him the largest shareholder of the club. Apart from Brighton’s ownership, Bloom is a world-class sports bettor, a renowned poker player, a serial investor in businesses in England, and a majority owner of the Belgian second-division club, Union SG.
That’s an extremely impressive résumé that deserves to be appreciated. But how did Bloom gain such status and make all this wealth?
Bloom started young and is said to have made his first bet in Sunday football when he was eight years old. He continued betting right until his college days and had close to £20,000 at the time of his graduation from the University of Manchester.
He even left his job at Ernst & Young and travelled to Bangkok to realize his dream of becoming a professional sports bettor. After a few successful stints which earned him enormous sums of money, Bloom placed a huge bet on the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final on the unlikely favourites, France.
This bet paid off and Bloom established himself as the boss of sports betting in the gambling circles. Post that, he tried his hand at Poker and was nicknamed Lizard for his cold and calm attitude while playing. Bloom was a success at Poker as well. He won the Australian Poker Championship in 2004, which made him almost £320,000 and finished fourth in the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions in 2005.
What is Tony Bloom’s net worth?
As of 2022, Bloom has made close to 3.8 million USD in tournament winnings.
From the money he won at different poker tournaments, Bloom started a company named Starlizard in 2006 whose purpose was to use statistical models to predict the outcomes of football matches. The company has been another successful venture of Bloom who is now responsible for the functioning of many betting websites on the internet.
It was then in 2008 that Bloom came forward with a £93 million offer and bought 75% of Brighton.
Even though Bloom has invested almost £360 million in Brighton, his major source of income is Starlizard, the biggest betting consultancy organization in the business.
When accounted for everything, his net worth adds up to a whopping £1.3 billion.
Bloom is in the news these days for holding off lucrative offers from Chelsea and Arsenal for his star midfielder Moises Caicedo.
Bloom has rejected a £70 million bid from Arsenal who are vying to strengthen their squad to speed up their title charge. Bloom has a figure that he wants Arsenal or Chelsea to meet for Caicedo. He’s expecting the biggies to cough up more money but in the end, it looks like he will keep Caicedo until the summer and then sell him for more.
Brighton might have a chance for European qualification and Bloom doesn’t want to lose his star performers, not just yet. No matter what, Bloom will make good money, whether it’s in this transfer window or in the summer.
Apart from all the betting, football, and gambling, Tony also owns a horse called Energumene, who was the winner of the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.
Tony is a married man. He’s spoken for and is married to Linda Bloom, who heads the registered charity for Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis.
Bloom’s story is one of success and might be the biggest flex of wealth in modern football.