Billionaire gambler Tony Bloom denies owing millions to former colleague | Brighton & Hove Albion

The billionaire owner of Brighton & Hove Albion football club has confirmed that his union’s Reform England adviser George Cottrell placed bets worth millions of pounds through gambling accounts.

The confession is contained in a document Tony Bloom filed with the high court; He also acknowledges that he, Cottrell and a former employee, Ryan Dudfield, had an agreement to split earnings between them.

Bloom also claims that Dudfield, who is suing him and his union, had no other share of the millions in profits from the arrangement.

In his defense to the case, Bloom said Dudfield received a £60,000 “distress payment” to settle all claims against him in July 2023, having “cashed up” his position in December 2022.

According to the court document, Bloom had no obligation to pay Dudfield under the agreement and had the right to expect him to care for Cottrell.

Bloom’s defense said: “The effect of the settlement in July 2023 was to resolve any claims the plaintiff may have against Mr Bloom and accordingly cover the claims asserted in those proceedings. The current proceedings also amount to a breach of the covenant not to sue.”

Dudfield says he is owed $17.5m (£13.1m).

The dispute has shed light on the largely undercover operations and vast sums of money that power one of the world’s most successful betting operations.

Bloom is the majority shareholder and chairman of Premier League club Brighton and made his fortune from gambling.

Dudfield, a professional gambler who used to work for Bloom, introduced his former boss to Cottrell. He is pursuing a lawsuit against Bloom and his union, alleging Cottrell is potentially owed millions of pounds over a deal in which bets were placed on Bloom’s behalf through his accounts.

In the 17-page response to Dudfield’s allegations, Bloom says: “It was an express term of the Agreement that Mr Cottrell permitted Mr Cottrell to place bets on a particular gambling account in Mr Cottrell’s name, which Mr Cottrell described as a ‘hedged account’. [the gambling platform] Sportsbet.io.”

The union was entitled to 60% and Dudfield and Cottrell were entitled to 40%. The document states that Dudfield and Cottrell were entitled to 7 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

He claims that Bloom’s syndicate made millions of dollars by placing bets using accounts in Cottrell’s name; It generated net earnings of $3.7 million from August to December 2022.

In his claim filed last year, Dudfield claims Cottrell thought the deal expired at the end of 2022 because he believed Bloom had terminated ties with his union.

But Bloom’s defense said the syndicate continued placing bets through Cottrell until October 2025, netting another $2.4 million. He also claims that Dudfield has no fee or commission agreement between him and Cottrell after 2022, and that if he owes Dudfield anything, it is Cottrell’s responsibility to pay.

Another major point of contention between Dudfield and Bloom appears to be over whether the agreement with Dudfield, Cottrell and Bloom covers a wide range of Cottrell’s betting accounts.

According to Bloom’s court document, only one account belonging to Cottrell was used before Dudfield “withdrew the money.” The other five were later used by Bloom, who denies they were an alleged account at online betting 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 acknowledge that the syndicate is “secret” but confirms that there are “information barriers” between departments and those placing bets on Starlizard Consulting, which operates the syndicate, according to the document. It is “generally successful” but generating revenues of £600 million a year (Dudfield’s claim) is an “exaggeration”.

Bloom’s defense does not address some of the allegations, including allegations that football players and businessmen were used as frontrunners for the betting syndicate.

Bloom’s defense states that after Dudfield left his job at Starlizard Consulting Limited in 2018, but before the deal involving Cottrell, he was given £405,000 to settle a debt set in exchange for his share of £102,000 of the union’s future earnings.

According to the defense, union membership was sometimes a privilege granted to employees, but there are also members who are not employees.

Bloom agreed to a new deal with Dudfield in 2022 after introducing him to Cottrell through StarLizard employee Ian McAleavy.

High-profile, successful gamblers can find themselves effectively excluded from betting sites due to the scale and frequency of the bets they place. This means that “whales” are often recruited to place bets on their behalf. As someone known for high stakes, Cottrell has a “whale” profile.

Still, Bloom “had no need” for so-called “exotic accounts” that used other people’s identities, and most of his bets “did not involve the use of such accounts,” according to the court document.

When approached about Dudfield’s legal case last year, lawyers acting for Cottrell said: “Our client is not a party to these proceedings but feels it would be inappropriate for him to comment on them in the media.”

Dudfield and Bloom declined to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.