Betting the house: A former Nigel Farage aide has been accused in court papers of helping the owner of Brighton & Hove Albion operate a secret £600 million gambling syndicate to bet on football matches.
https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/brighton-tony-bloom-gambling-nigel-farage-george-cottrell-x568ssgm2
Nigel Farage aide fronted Tony Bloom’s £600m betting syndicate, court told
High Court claim alleges George Cottrell was the ‘whale’ for syndicate of Brighton owner, who has had special dispensation from the FA to gamble on football since 2014
Bloom, left, is a professional gambler while Cottrell, right, has admitted to betting since he was 12 years old
Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton & Hove Albion, has been accused of operating a secret £600million gambling syndicate to bet on football matches, using accounts including some belonging to Nigel Farage’s former chief of staff.
Bloom, the 55-year-old billionaire businessman and professional gambler, also has a significant stake in the Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts. He controls the “Tony Bloom Betting Syndicate”, which is said in court papers to have agreed with George Cottrell, Farage’s former aide, to use his offshore gaming accounts “to place bets on sporting fixtures, predominantly football matches”. Cottrell has previously been jailed for money laundering in the United States.
The allegations are included in a claim filed at London’s High Court by a former employee of Starlizard, a betting advisory company owned by Bloom through which his syndicate — which boasts more than 100 members that he invites personally to join — places some of its bets.
Cottrell was jailed for eight months in 2017 for money laundering in the US
In the claim seen by The Times, Ryan Dudfield alleges he is owed £17.5million of the profits made via Cottrell’s accounts after introducing the political aide to the syndicate.
Dudfield said the syndicate used “secret exotic accounts . . . in the name of third parties, through which Mr Bloom and his betting syndicate placed their bets”. Somebody like Cottrell is described as a “whale” — a term used to describe high-stakes gamblers who act as a front to place bets on behalf of a syndicate.
Dudfield says he has known Cottrell, 32, a former deputy treasurer of UKIP, for five years. Cottrell is known in political circles as “Posh George” and was previously Farage’s chief of staff.
While it is believed that Bloom has never met Cottrell personally, he is said to have been introduced to the syndicate by Dudfield via a senior employee at Starlizard in 2022. In 2017, Cottrell was jailed for eight months in the US after admitting offering to use the “dark web” to launder money for drug dealers. He was caught in an operation by undercover agents.
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Dudfield also claims that Bloom and the syndicate used the betting accounts of “well-known footballers, sportsmen and businessmen” to place bets. While it is not thought that any ex-footballers are members of Bloom’s syndicate, The Times understands some placed the same bets as those on the syndicate.
Evidence submitted as part of the claim includes a list of bets which Dudfield suggests may be linked to the Bloom syndicate, some of which are said to be on Premier League matches.
In 2014 Bloom was given special dispensation by the Football Association to operate his betting consultancy, Starlizard, and continue to bet on football through his syndicate. The exemption was extended to other club owners with pre-existing business interests in gambling, including Brentford’s Matthew Benham.
However, the FA policy does not permit participants to place bets on matches or competitions involving their own clubs, meaning Bloom is not allowed to bet on Brighton games, any other Premier League game, or matches in knockout competitions involving Premier League teams.
As part of an agreement with the FA that has never been publicly disclosed, all his bets are audited both by a leading accountancy firm and the FA every year. Bloom has never been found to have breached the special agreement with English football’s governing body.
Cottrell, right, with Farage in 2019
ALAMY
Indeed, it is expected that lawyers acting for Bloom will reject any suggestion that his syndicate has placed bets on Premier League matches or games involving top-flight teams in the 11 years since the FA introduced its exemption. They plan to file a defence rejecting the allegations in response to Dudfield’s claim next month.
But within the 19-page claim, which was accepted at the High Court on November 20, the details around Bloom’s betting activities in football remain eye-watering when other participants in football, from players to club employees and officials, are banned from betting on the sport worldwide. The England internationals Ivan Toney and Kieran Trippier are among those to have been banned in recent years for breaches of FA rules on gambling.
Lawyers acting for Dudfield say their client is owed a share of $250million (£188million) in estimated profits. Collectively, the claim states that the syndicate — which it inaccurately calls the “Starlizard Betting Syndicate” — makes about £600million each year in winnings. Dudfield claims the syndicate is “highly successful”.
Dudfield is suing Bloom, known in the gambling world as “The Lizard”, and “all other members of the ‘Starlizard’ betting syndicate”.
Bloom has overseen Brighton’s rise from the lower leagues to an established Premier League club since becoming chairman in 2009
ANTHONY HANC/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
He says the syndicate is operated via “Starlizard Consulting Limited”, which was incorporated by Bloom in January 2006. He says the shares are owned by Blue Lizard Commercial Ltd, in which Bloom is the majority shareholder.
Dudfield claims he was employed by Starlizard Consulting as a “placer” to decide when and where to place bets “usually on behalf of Mr Bloom and his betting syndicate”. He says he was based at a small “satellite office” in Canary Wharf, London, and operated in a “secretive manner” so other employees of the consulting company were unaware of their activities.
Bloom is alleged to be the “head of the syndicate” and “the sole beneficial owner of the bank accounts into which the syndicate’s winnings are paid and out of which winnings are distributed”.
Cottrell is described in the claim as a high-stakes gambler who is involved in co-ordinating an offshore sports and casino betting business called “tether.bet”, which allows its users to place bets in cryptocurrencies.
Dudfield says Cottrell contacted him in February 2022 asking for the likely identity of the person who was placing bets via the “tether.bet” website, which resulted in seven-figure wins. Dudfield claims he believed it could be Bloom and informed Ian McAleavy, the syndicate’s head of football, via WhatsApp and during a meeting at the Bald Faced Stag pub in East Finchley, north London.
Dudfield says he offered to introduce Cottrell to McAleavy, in order to strike an agreement between the syndicate and Bloom to use the aide’s betting accounts. Dudfield claims he arranged a meeting with McAleavy, Cottrell and Cottrell’s then girlfriend, the socialite Georgia Toffolo, at Daphne’s restaurant in Chelsea, west London. Toffolo, 31, appeared in the E4 reality show Made in Chelsea and won ITV’s I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! in 2017.
Cottrell was previously in a relationship with the Made in Chelsea star Toffolo
AARON CHOWN/PA
He claims an agreement was reached that 60 per cent of the profits made using Cottrell’s accounts would go to Bloom and the syndicate, 33 per cent to Cottrell, and 7 per cent to himself. The syndicate also allegedly agreed to stop placing its bets via gambling platforms in which Cottrell had a financial interest, such as tether.bet.
Dudfield said messages from McAleavy suggested that the agreement led to £3million of profits by October 20, 2022, and £4.5million by November 25, 2022. Dudfield says he was told the syndicate stopped using Cottrell’s betting accounts between December 22, 2022, and July 2023.
He says Cottrell told him at Brinkley’s restaurant in Chelsea on July 6, 2023 that he ended his relationship with the syndicate because “he did not consider they would win him enough money”.
Dudfield says the claims that the syndicate stopped using Cottrell’s accounts were “false” and “fraudulent”, and that Bloom and the syndicate have benefited from “unjust enrichment” by cutting him out of his 7 per cent share of the profits. Cottrell is alleged to have already made an estimated $85million (£64million).
Dudfield claims after he introduced the syndicate to Cottrell that it placed bets using the aide’s accounts on Stake.com, a gambling site based on the Caribbean island of Curaçao which is not authorised to operate in the UK. It is not unlawful for US gamblers to place bets on unregulated sites.
Cottrell describes himself on LinkedIn as a “political adviser and strategist” who was deputy treasurer of UKIP during the EU referendum campaign in 2016 and The Brexit Party in 2019, and served as a senior adviser to Farage.
Cottrell was arrested in 2016 after attending the Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump won the party’s nomination for president. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud after offering advice to undercover federal agents in Las Vegas, posing as drug traffickers, on “ways criminal proceeds could be laundered” on the dark web. He served eight months in prisons in Arizona and Illinois.
Cottrell has signed a deal to co-write a book titled How to Launder Money, which is described by the publisher as a “unique insiders’ guide to money laundering — and how to stop it”. He started placing bets at the age of 12, and has admitted being so addicted to gambling that he once took a Harvey Nichols bag stuffed with £50,000 cash into a William Hill bookmakers’ and lost it all. He is reported to have once lost $20million in a single poker game.
Cottrell has a deal to co-write a book titled “How to Launder Money”
ALAMY
His father, Mark, went to Gordonstoun School with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his mother, Fiona, a former glamour model, was romantically linked to Prince Charles in the 1970s. His mother is the biggest donor to Reform, contributing £250,000 in March to take her total to £750,000 over the past year.
Cottrell was privately educated on Mustique, the Caribbean island, and later at Malvern College. He divides his time between London and Montenegro.
Bloom has declined to comment. Both Cottrell and his lawyers have also been approached for comment. The FA will not respond while legal proceedings are in progress.
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