Why Hearts are the club that Tony Bloom wants to invest in
Tony Bloom is in talks with Hearts about a £10 million investment in the Scottish club which would see them given access to Starlizard recruitment analytics.
And if the Jambos benefit suitably from Bloom’s data and algorithms, it could lead the Brighton owner to become a minority Hearts shareholder in the near-future.
The Jambos are currently fan-owned with Foundation of Hearts having a 75.1 percent shareholding. For Bloom to acquire shares from the Foundation, it would require 90 percent of members to give their approval in a vote.
But if Starlizard leading recruitment at Tynecastle Park can transform Hearts as it has the Albion and Bloom’s Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise, you would think gaining such approval in a few years would become a formality.
According to the BBC, Tony Bloom and Hearts have been in negotiations since early 2024. Both parties are keen to formalise the investment in the next few weeks, meaning the Jambos can prepare for the January transfer window having full access to Starlizard.
With Hearts nearly going out of business because of outside investors within the last decade, there is understandably some scepticism in Edinburgh over Bloom wanting to invest.
The fact the Jambos have been through the ringer though is probably part of appeal. The Albion’s rags-to-riches story is well known. Union SG were a big club who had fallen upon nearly 50 years of hard times before Bloom came along.
You can guarantee Tony Bloom will have considered several clubs to invest in and offer access to Starlizard – and there will be a very good reason why he landed on Hearts.
Turning Hearts into Brighton B
Part of Bloom’s reasoning for buying Union SG was to benefit the Albion. Brighton could loan young players to Belgium to pick up experience or send signings there to help them qualify for a British work permit.
Kaoru Mitoma and Simon Adingra both spent time in Brussels for work permit reasons with great success. Less successful were Kacper Kozlowski, Alex Cochrane and Soufyan Ahannach, all sent to the Jupiler League for first team football.
Player trading between Brighton and Union SG became more complicated when both qualified for Europe. Bloom had to reduce his stake in Union SG from a majority to minority to comply with multi-club ownership rules for teams playing in the same UEFA competition.
There would be no benefit to Brighton from Bloom investing in Hearts for work permit reasons – unless he knows something none of the rest of us do about Scottish independence and re-joining the EU.
And it would make little sense from a development point of view either. The standard of the Scottish Premiership is such that no Albion loan player sent north of the border in recent years has come remotely close to breaking into the first team squad.
Even Abdallah Sima was packed off on loan again for the current campaign after scoring 16 goals and earning rave reviews for Rangers last season.
The Albion’s existing strong relationships with Championship clubs like Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City are of greater benefit for young players than making Hearts into Brighton B.
Bloom using Hearts as a case study for selling Starlizard data
One of the chief concerns amongst Hearts supporters is their club is about to be turned into nothing more than a case study for Starlizard.
The theory goes Bloom is allowing the Jambos access to his algorithms so that if successful, he can use the example of Hearts as a means to selling data to other football clubs.
This though is highly unlikely. Firstly, Bloom is so secretive that only he knows exactly how all the different pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Chelsea are still yet to learn this particular lesson. Todd Boehly continues to lure members of the Albion’s recruitment team to Stamford Bridge in an attempt to copy what Brighton do.
But it will never work unless Boehly manages to buy Bloom himself from the Albion. Which seems unlikely.
Also unlikely is Bloom selling off the secrets to any Tom, Dick or Harry for the right price in future, having kept it all tightly under wraps for 20 years.
To do so would be to eliminate the edge Brighton and Union SG enjoy in the transfer market. Without that edge, neither the Albion nor Union would continue to punch well above their weight.
An edge he is now willing to give to Hearts.
Breaking the Old Firm Monopoly
Brighton and Union both went from long-term underachievers to scaling heights nobody thought possible. If the journey has been wild and fun in equal measure for supporters, imagine how exciting it has been for Bloom?
Which brings us nicely to the final consideration – maybe Tony Bloom just wants to invest in Hearts for the fun of it?
He loves a challenge and has become rich and famous by defying the odds. Be that with the success he has brought Brighton and Union SG. Or through beating the bookies to become known as the cleverest man to ever place a bet.
In football terms, you do not get a much bigger odds-defying challenge than ending the dominance of Celtic and Rangers in Scotland.
Aberdeen in 1985 were the last club outside of the Old Firm to be crowned Scottish champions. Hearts most recently won the title in 1960.
When Bloom invested in Union SG in May 2018, they had not played Belgian top flight football for 46 years. Within three seasons, they won promotion to the Jupiler League.
The success did not stop there. Union SG have finished runners up twice, qualified for Europe and won a Belgian Cup.
Hearts are an established Scottish Premiership outfit and one of Scotland’s biggest clubs. They are already starting from a better position than Brighton or Union when Bloom arrived.
If Starlizard data can drive the same amount of improvement at Tynecastle Park as it has for Brighton and Union, it might be enough for Hearts to break the Old Firm monopoly.
Union winning trophies in Belgium. Brighton playing in Europe. Awakening the sleeping giant which Hearts are to have them challenging Celtic and Rangers.
Sounds like good fun to me.
