Tony Bloom’s Moneyball method of finding success
Tony Bloom, professional gambler and owner of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, is a notoriously elusive figure.
Professional bettors are understandably keen to remain hidden in the shadows, out of sight of the media. They make their millions by correctly predicting the outcome of sporting fixtures. If their methods are disclosed, they could lose their all-important edge. As such, it is incredibly hard to find any substantial information on Bloom or his methods. However, a new book called The Football Code has given some ground-breaking insights into Bloom’s background, how his betting consultancy StarLizard operates, and how the Albion use Bloom’s data to recruit players.
Before taking over Brighton and Hove Albion in 2009, Bloom operated as a professional poker player. He claims that he fell in love with gambling at the same time as he fell in love with football, at the age of about eight. His first major win came in 2004 when, at the age of thirty-four, Bloom won the Australasian Poker Championship in Melbourne, collecting the first prize of around £180,000. By 2008, his live tournament winnings exceeded £1,200,000. His unwavering poker face led him to be nicknamed The Lizard.
He drew inspiration from this nickname when founding his betting consultancy, Starlizard, in 2006. Besides running this company and forging a successful poker career, Bloom has also been the chairman of Brighton since securing 75% shareholding in 2009. He has invested over £250m of his own personal fortune in the club, steering the Seagulls from League One to the Premier League in a matter of seasons. Bloom’s net worth is estimated by some to run into the billions.
StarLizard employ nearly one hundred analysts to collect unique match data from multiple football leagues across Europe. Bloom uses this data in two capacities. Firstly, the stats allow him to turn over hundreds of millions of pounds each year for StarLizard. The company sells data to professional gamblers in the same way that a company like Opta sells data to the media. These high-rolling clients pay StarLizard for stats which they can use to inform their betting. The company also place bets of its own accord, and Bloom spearheads one of the largest gambling syndicates in Europe. More on this can be found in The Football Code.
In addition to using the data to achieve success with StarLizard, Bloom also deploys it to recruit players for Brighton. His innovative models allow the Seagull’s scouting team to work out which players are actually performing well, and which are simply lucky. This allows Brighton a more accurate assessment of the ability of their targets, giving them an edge over rival clubs. They can pick up good players for rock-bottom prices, whilst avoiding making too many expensive mistakes in the transfer market. This analytical philosophy has drawn comparisons with Billy Beane’s ‘Moneyball’ approach in baseball.
Brighton also have an advantage in the fact that they own their own data company. Whilst almost every other club in English football has to buy their own data from Opta, Prozone or a similar company, Brighton can generate their own unique data through StarLizard, without having to pay a penny. The only other clubs in England with their own statistical analysis companies are Brentford (Smartodds) and Arsenal (StatDNA). Whilst Brighton may have failed to sign a striker in the transfer window, fans should seek comfort in the fact that their owner has given them an all-important edge over the competition.
For more on the secret methods that have allowed Bloom to make his millions, the unique data which StarLizard have used to find success and the system behind how Brighton actually sign players, you can purchase The Football Code here
