Watch Now!

Tony Bloom is a British entrepreneur, professional sports bettor and lovingly known of course, for being the Chairman of the Premier League Football club, Brighton and Hove Albion.

Born Anthony Grant Bloom in Brighton in 1970, Tony went to a local boarding school, and making his Jewish family proud, became an accountant at E.Y. via a Maths degree from Manchester University.

From a young age Tony had a knack for beating the odds, first with fruit machines and then on to sports betting. Realising it was more than just fun, and that it was his true passion, he used his skills in maths to create and craft new strategies and systems to identify and calculate the best bets to make.

The 1998 World Cup in France was a pivotal moment in Tony’s life, when working for Victor Chandler, for what is now known as BetVictor, he convinced them to bet everything they had won so far from the tournament on France to beat Brazil in the final. He was right, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Tony went off on his own and created StarLizard, which with over 160 employees use complex statistical models to generate football odds that are more accurate than those offered by bookmakers. They even somehow take into account the weather forecast and the overall morale of a team!

Due to the secrecy surrounding the company, for obvious reasons, little is known about how their system actually works, but Starlizard success has made them the biggest betting syndicate in Britain.

But of course, his success was just the start, as just 12 years later, Tony had achieved enough in his career to be able to purchase his home town football club, Brighton and Hove Albion and would go on not just to transform a team, but an entire community!

He has invested in a brand new stadium and helped grow the team to be promoted to the Premier League in 2017, now 3 seasons on, he is continuing to exceed fan’s expectations each and every season.

Tony also set up the Bloom Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting the Jewish community in Brighton and beyond, as well as committed to promoting tolerance and equality, and for which JLGB is a proud grant recipient for it’s eVOLve youth volunteering and skills initiative.

Tonight is a first for us too at JLGB Virtual, as Tony joins us live now all the way from Australia, where he lives with his wife and family, and so without further ado, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our very special guest..... Tony Bloom!!!