Uilleam

Brighton & Hove Albion, then. Here's an interview with BHA's owner, Tony Bloom, from The Times, last Friday INTERVIEW BY MARTIN SAMUEL Brighton owner Tony Bloom: Poker still influences a lot of what I do The man they call The Lizard’ reveals how his club sell their best players at peak prices but still keep improving Martin Samuel Friday September 15 2023, 2.45pm, The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brighton-hove-albion-owner-tony-bloom-interview-gambling-poker-football-club-whrvn637z Bloom is renowned for taking some of the coldest decisions in football Tony Bloom is talking about the best bet he ever had. Not the biggest, not the most lucrative. The one that gave him most pleasure. It’s 1996, long before Starlizard, syndicates and data analytic, long before he bought Brighton & Hove Albion, and long, long before he was arguably the most admired owner in English football. Back then Bloom was simply a professional gambler who had previously worked in accountancy with Ernst & Young. And he had spotted something. Before the 1996 Cricket World Cup, Bloom had noticed that the limited-overs game had changed and that the country best set up to take advantage of it was one of the hosts, and the eventual winners, Sri Lanka. “You know how it goes in sport,” he says. “There are just times of different innovation. They had pinch hitters at the top of the order, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana, the wicketkeeper, and they scored very quickly early on, which didn’t really happen back then. Now everyone sees it as obvious — plus they had Muttiah Muralitharan.” Bloom is murdering some of these names, by the way. It doesn’t matter. He’s not commentating, he’s just betting. And he hasn’t got a team around him at this time, either. These days Bloom is known for making some of the coldest, most calculating decisions in football, but he sounds almost wistful recalling his 26-year-old lone-wolf self, working into the small hours, calculating the odds. “The Sri Lanka bet was just from feel,” he says. “It wasn’t number-crunching. It was me and a pen and an Excel spreadsheet. Sri Lanka were a bit of a nonentity in cricket at the time. They’d had some good results in the lead-up and I just thought they were mispriced. It wasn’t like I was super-confident, but I took them at 66-1 and again at 50-1. I didn’t have a huge amount on it. I wasn’t betting that big. I’d have had a few hundred pounds, no more. I can’t even remember what I won, but it was decent for me at the time.” Bloom collects his trophy from the Queen after the horse that he owns, Energumene, won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March. He returned to the Amex that evening to watch Brighton beat Crystal Palace SPORTSFILE And Bloom’s been doing very decently ever since. Within the year he had come to the notice of Victor Chandler and by 2002 he had set up his own online football betting company, serving the Asian market, which he sold three years later for £1 million. He’s been beating the book consistently for more than three decades now. Not only as a smart gambler and poker player, but as chairman of Brighton, a club somehow contriving to sell their best players at peak prices, while consistently improving. On Saturday they travel to Old Trafford, where it would not be considered a shock if they defeated Manchester United. Brighton have beaten United home and away the past two seasons, they won two and drew one against Liverpool last year and beat Arsenal in two out of three meetings. “The odds are close,” muses Bloom of the market on another Brighton victory over the self-appointed elite. “It’s a lovely position to be in, a beautiful position.” It wasn’t such a good position when Bloom unveiled the strategy that we now know transformed his club. The top-ten plan came after a season in which Brighton had finished 17th under Chris Hughton, avoiding relegation by two points after a run of two wins in 23 matches. It was at this point in 2019 that Bloom sent an internal missive, later released publicly, setting out his vision of Brighton as a club that would finish consistently in the top half of the table. Bloom enjoys the moment of Brighton’s promotion to the Premier League in 2017 REX FEATURES Outside the south coast, it was largely ignored. Inside, there were sharp intakes of breath. Bloom also dismissed Hughton, who many believed had done a fine job simply maintaining Brighton as a Premier League club. Yet Bloom wasn’t interested in attritional survival. As he says several times during our conversation, he’s an optimist as well as a risk-taker. He wanted to look up the table at where Brighton could go, not over his shoulder at the void. He thought Hughton’s brand of football couldn’t get Brighton there. He replaced him with Graham Potter and set about building the club we now recognise. “We’d escaped relegation but we’d made an error because all we had talked about in our second season in the Premier League was staying in it,” Bloom says. “And it’s a big deal, survival, but we shouldn’t have been talking about it so much because then you’re only aiming for 17th. And if you fall short, you’re relegated. So we had a poor season, a terrible second half to the season, but I wanted to look towards the future. “So we said, ‘Let’s set the men’s team a tough target — to be consistently in the top ten.’ Doesn’t mean we get there in a year, or that it happens every season, but it’s gettable. We had a board meeting and then we communicated it internally. People were a bit surprised given how we finished. But then Graham came in. We didn’t always get the results the performances deserved at first, but we started playing better. And look, if we had finished 15th the next six seasons, then got relegated, it wouldn’t have been because we aimed higher. We didn’t say it would happen. We didn’t even put a time on it. But, sometimes, you’ve just got to put it out there as a target. “I’m always an optimist. After three seasons we finished ninth, then sixth. And, yes, it could have happened even quicker. But I am surprised at how good we are right now. Not just finishing top ten, but playing such good football. We played like a top-four team the majority of last season. In a different year, we could have finished fourth. We can compete with any team. I’m not surprised we’re in the top ten again. Graham’s an exceptional manager but Roberto De Zerbi came in mid-season and took us to a different level, playing so well in so many games. And he’s always pushing. He’s got that Sir Alex Ferguson mentality — nothing’s ever enough.” As a gambler, Bloom’s first great love was poker. He is, by all accounts, a quite brilliant player. The reptilian nickname — “The Lizard” — comes from a certain ruthless cold-bloodedness at the table. He won the Australasian Championship in 2004, and has career tournament winnings of $3.8 million [now £3.06 million]. He claims his best performance was a year ago when, on holiday in Las Vegas, he took two days out to play in a Poker Masters event, which he won. What made it special is that it was his first poker in four years. Bloom says he no longer has the time. And yet, talking with him, he’s never far removed from the poker table. In a world greatly distanced from the image of dingy, smoke-filled back rooms, Bloom speaks of poker as informing his every business decision. “It’s a really good game,” he says. “It uses so many different skills. It’s about risk, calculated risk, understanding of situations, reading people, there’s a lot to it. I miss poker. It can teach people lots about life, about individuals, about personalities, character — the psychology is big. There have been parts of the game that have helped me in terms of making decisions and certainly running a football club — the calculated risks in particular. Bloom would not have sold Caicedo had the player wanted to stay with Brighton, not even for the £105 million they received EPA “People make decisions in life all the time, and even not making a decision is a decision and a risk of sorts. But in poker you’re always thinking odds, the likeliness of things happening, the risk if you go in one direction, or another. So that understanding does help. What sort of players to go for, the hiring of a head coach — which is so big because your season lives or dies by that. Running a business, running a football club is all about decisions. The skills I learnt from playing poker influence a lot of what I do.” Bloom’s best poker-related football decision? The hiring of their present coach, De Zerbi. “That element of risk is always something I’ve enjoyed,” Bloom says. “When you’re younger you enjoy risk for its own sake; it’s only when you get older that you learn to balance things up and take the right risks in the right situations. Roberto hadn’t played or managed in the Premier League and in an ideal world he would have [before they appointed him]. “So what’s the risk? We weighed it up with a lot of other factors and decided to take that chance. So then we analysed his performances as a head coach throughout his career and spoke to people who had worked with him, players who had played for him. And then we had the meeting and it was really good, and it became obvious he was the clear No 1.” The “we” in that sentence are the analytics experts that are the cornerstone of Brighton’s success. Starlizard, the company Bloom founded in 2006 to aid with his sporting predictions and bet execution, provides his football club with some of the most innovative data available, enough to be paid £3 million in the most recent accounts. Bloom no longer runs the business — the separation began as far back as 2008 — and is instead its main client, both personally and through Brighton. Starlizard has other patrons in football, but none are in the Premier League. Meaning Brighton stay smart; or smarter. It is presumed that were De Zerbi to quit tomorrow, or were they to lose the striker Evan Ferguson or full back Pervis Estupiñán, there would be another cab off the rank in days, but that’s too simplistic. Brighton have started the season well, but it is far too early to say there will be no effect from the losses of Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo, to Liverpool and Chelsea respectively. Contrary to the assertion that Brighton is an analytics-driven production line, Bloom did not want to sell Caicedo and would even have turned down Chelsea’s £105 million had the player not made it plain that he wished to leave. I wonder if there will come a time when Bloom the Brighton fan overrules Bloom the cold-blooded pragmatist. When the sense of looming achievement is so palpable — next week brings the first European fixture in the club’s history, a Europa League group stage tie at home to AEK Athens — that he may find himself saying no to the next small fortune. “Well, we weren’t selling Moisés for £85 million,” Bloom counters. “And unless other clubs match our valuations, no one goes. We’re competing against opponents with a lot more resources and it’s tough. Caicedo’s world-class. It’s not as if we just have someone sitting there who fills in and it makes no difference. In the summer, with Moisés, I would have preferred to keep him, even with that huge Chelsea bid, because this season with Moisés we could have been anything. And maybe we can be, still. “But I was looking at Moisés and, barring a serious injury, I thought there was no way he was going to lose money if he stayed another year with us. But he made it quite clear that he wanted to move. So weighing it all up, there was an acceptable offer, and he left. But if Moisés had been happy to stay I’d have kept him for another season, no matter what Chelsea bid. “I always watch the games as a fan, but outside that I have to think of the football club as a business, because the people who don’t only end up one way — and it’s not a good way. I do look at certain things other clubs do and think, ‘I’m not sure that’s the best way.’ The choice of De Zerbi was another example of Bloom’s penchant for calculated risks MATCHDAY IMAGES LIMITED “The Super League breakaway I was very angry about. It had no chance of success, I was as certain as I could be about that. And what annoyed me most was that when these owners bought into these clubs they knew how it worked, the Premier League, qualifying for the Champions League, they knew. And just because they weren’t getting as much money as they wanted, they chose to go with these European clubs that were looking enviously at our league. I was really disappointed, really annoyed. If Brighton were ever in that position, I would never have even contemplated it. And Brighton will always be part of the league that wasn’t part of the Super League — we’ll always be the anti-Super League.” I ask if he takes personal satisfaction, then, in making the wannabe breakaway clubs pay through the nose for the talent that little Brighton have unearthed. He gives a diplomatic answer, and then another one, and another, and we agree that it is probably me that is living vicariously through the pleasure of Brighton make the “big six” pay for their arrogance — and taking the wonderful talent Ansu Fati from under the noses of Tottenham Hotspur was a joyous coup too. But something about the mischief in his eyes is the one time there is an undoubted tell in Bloom’s visage, the moment when it is very easy to read his poker face. “Every club in the world has players poached, even clubs in the top three, and we’ve got to live with that,” he says. “What is never going to happen is our key player goes mid-season. So it’s not just about winning the league, or having an exceptional season, and it’s not just about the numbers, either. I’m always looking at everything. We have to do what is right for the football club. So if we do have a season that could be exceptional, that comes into what is best for the football club too. “The recruitment of players is paramount. If you don’t get the recruitment right, you’re going to get relegated, even if you are a big club. But I think we’ve done well because I still say this is the best squad we’ve ever had, despite the players that have left.” Match days in the directors’ box at Brighton are a family affair. Bloom’s brother, Darren, is there, his uncles Ray and David also. Apart from a couple of years there has been a Bloom in the Brighton boardroom for half a century now. The present chairman has no intention of letting that change. “I never viewed Brighton as a risk and I’ve loved every step of the way,” Bloom says. “I do have sympathy for other owners because I know how difficult it is. Some are doing their best and are just not capable. Even if they are capable, they can’t make it very successful or sustainable. It is extremely hard to run a club well, to be successful, to be sustainable and take the fans with you. “I think I bring a lot to the football club. It’s a family club and there’s not many of us about in the Premier League. I envisage being part of Brighton for many, many years to come. The Bloom name will be there a long time.” What about a suitor from Saudi Arabia, I ask? “That’s not happening,” Bloom states, definitively. “There is no amount of money.” And even if there were, you still wouldn’t bet against The Lizard holding an even better hand.

Gewurtzraminer.

I don't know how this will play out. I hope that Mr Beale does. My concern is that he shares my lack of clarity.

Drag the rest down to our level of chaos. Might work.

Michael Beale has shown that, if determined, a manager may achieve these ends, even under the strictures of a Transfer Window.

Nah.

For a Rangers' Manager, that would be conduct sufficiently unbecoming to warrant dismissal, (in my humble opinion).

Would you be happy with this Potter? Wins things....Tuner Prize, for one See The Rangers? See Diversity?

Pedro Caixinha Such an impact that we can still spell his name.

And David Weir will be coming in as DoF. What was that tune the band was fond of playing?

There is a rumour -there's always a rumour- which suggests that MB + staff are away, with an announcement scheduled, to that effect, on Monday. This, purportedly comes from a source inside the Club. Oh, and the replacement manager will be some guy called Potter.

The fitba' team is playing Cyprus, in Cyprus, tonight, apparently. If you are up for it, Viagra Sports, or somesuch, has it, at 19.45, or thereabouts. The Rugby World Cup commences tonight, with FRA v NZ opening proceedings, at 20.00, a match which sounds like it could/should be a final, and I shall be watching that. (Frankly, I should choose to watch that, even if the fitba' was readily accessible.)

They 'referee' to fuck up The Rangers, if you ask me.

Just sad masochists.

P 100 W L D Pts You do the stats.

When you were taking Instruction?

Michael Beale cannot, may not, must not, will not, be dismissed today: it is his birthday, apparently. Do we send felicitations? Many happy returns? (He's already had one so far unhappy return, so perhaps not.)

You'd have given him a pre-season? Changed your tune, there

You don't fancy going full dug meat?

You've missed Scott Brown, just parted company with Fleetwood Town

You too? Amazon will be busy.

This, surely....?

Only one of those (You have never been a fan, Ah ken.)

If a suitable replacement were to hand, or at least available, or even could be found in the short term, * would anybody be really shocked, surprised, or otherwise taken aback, if MB and the Club parted company in this International break? I think that there may be now a substantial %age of the support who would get rid tout de suite - certainly more than 50%, maybe as much as 75%. SPL: Played 4 lost 2. Horsed, embarrassingly, by PSV. Has no idea of his best XI, and doesn't start, or even give game time to, players he has bought in. He started 3 today -out of what, 9?- and one of those was an emergency selection. Has no discernible style, or game plan, and the players look confused, lost even, and his defence remains a clusterfuck. In nearly a year, he has defeated the fhilth once, and that in a more or less dead rubber. Surely these facts add up to the shoogliest of shoogly pegs. * Would Billy (Bluenose) Reid and Graham Potter be interested, or persuadable?