The billionaire owner of Brighton & Hove Albion football club has confirmed that his syndicate placed millions of pounds worth of bets through the betting accounts of Reform UK adviser George Cottrell.
The admission comes in a document filed in the High Court by Tony Bloom, who also admits that he, Cottrell and a former employee, Ryan Dudfield, had an agreement under which profits were to be split between them.
Bloom also claims that Dudfield, who is suing him and his syndicate, is not owed any further share of the millions made from this scheme.
In his defense against the legal action, Bloom says Dudfield received a ‘nuisance payment’ of £60,000 to settle any claims he had against him in July 2023, having already ‘cashed out’ his position in December 2022.
Bloom, the court document said, had no obligation under the agreement to pay Dudfield and had a right to expect that he would look to Cottrell.
Bloom’s defense said: “The effect… of the July 2023 agreement was to settle any claims the plaintiff may have against Mr Bloom and accordingly cover the claims asserted in these proceedings. The present proceedings are also in breach of the covenant not to prosecute.”
Dudfield says he is owed $17.5 million (£13.1 million).
The dispute has shed light on the largely hidden operations and vast sums of money behind one of the most successful gambling operations in the world.
Bloom is the majority shareholder and chairman of Premier League club Brighton and has made his fortune through gambling.
Dudfield, a professional gambler who worked for Bloom, introduced his former boss to Cottrell. He is pursuing a case against Bloom and his syndicate, claiming he is potentially owed millions of pounds due to an arrangement they made that involved placing bets on Bloom through Cottrell’s accounts.
In the 17-page response to Dudfield’s claims, Bloom says: “It was an express term of the agreement that Mr Cottrell would allow Mr Bloom to place bets on a particular gambling account in Mr Cottrell’s name, described by Mr Cottrell as a ‘hedging account’ which he carried. [the gambling platform] Sportsbet.io.”
The syndicate was entitled to a 60% share, and Dudfield and Cottrell together to 40%. Dudfield and Cottrell were entitled to 7% and 33% respectively, the document said.
It is alleged that Bloom’s syndicate made millions of dollars betting using accounts in Cottrell’s name; from August to December 2022, it earned $3.7 million in net profit.
In his claim filed last year, Dudfield claims he believed the agreement had ended at the end of 2022 because he believed Cottrell had ended his ties to Bloom’s syndicate.
But Bloom’s defense says the syndicate continued placing bets through Cottrell until October 2025, reaping another $2.4 million in net profits. It also claims that Dudfield had no agreement for any compensation or commission on business between him and Cottrell after 2022, and that if Dudfield is owed any money, it is up to Cottrell to pay him.
Another major point of contention between Dudfield and Bloom appears to be over whether or not the agreement with Dudfield, Cottrell and Bloom covered a wide range of Cottrell’s gambling accounts.
According to Bloom’s court document, only one of Cottrell’s accounts was used before Dudfield was “paid out.” Five others were only subsequently used by Bloom and he denies these included an alleged account with online gambling platform stake.com.
The court document confirms that multiple apparent third parties were used by Bloom’s syndicate to place bets through “exotic accounts.” But there was no “standard practice” for how they worked and they were not called “secret,” according to the defense.
Bloom does not admit that the syndicate is “secret” but confirms that it maintains “information barriers” between departments and those placing bets at Starlizard Consulting, which operates the syndicate, according to the document. It is “generally successful” but that it generates £600 million a year – a claim made by Dudfield – is “exaggerated”.
Bloom’s defense does not address a number of the allegations, including claims that footballers and businessmen were used as front men for the gambling syndicate.
Bloom’s defense notes that in 2018, after Dudfield left employment at Starlizard Consulting Limited but before the deal involving Cottrell, Dudfield was given £405,000 to pay off a debt, which was offset against his share of the syndicate’s future profits, which amounted to just £102,000.
Membership in the syndicate was a perk sometimes given to employees, although the defense claims there are non-employee members as well.
Bloom, through Ian McAleavy, an employee at StarLizard, agreed to sign a new deal with Dudfield in 2022 after introducing him to Cottrell.
Successful high profile gamblers can be effectively locked out of betting sites due to the size and frequency of the bets they place. This means that “whales” are often used to place bets on their behalf. As someone known for his high-stakes betting, Cottrell has the profile of a ‘whale’.
Still, Bloom had “no need for” so-called “exotic accounts” that used the identities of others, and many of his bets “did not involve the use of such accounts,” according to the court document.
Lawyers acting for Cottrell said when contacted about Dudfield’s legal action last year: “Our client is not a party to those proceedings but believes it would be inappropriate for him to comment on it in the media.”
Dudfield and Bloom declined to comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.
#Billionaire #gambler #Tony #Bloom #denies #owes #millions #colleague