Tony Bloom

Anthony Grant "Tony" Bloom (born 1970 in Brighton, Sussex) is a football club chairman and successful poker player.

Bloom has been a sports bettor and property investor, nicknamed The Lizard.

Bloom appeared in the Late Night Poker television series and also has a final table appearance on the World Poker Tour. He also made back-to-back final table appearances in the first two Poker Million events. His first major win came in January 2004 when he won the Australasian Poker Championship in Melbourne, collecting a first prize of around A$420,000 ($320,000, £180,000).

Bloom won the £5,000 No Limit Hold'em VC Poker Cup Final in London on 5 August 2005 and won the £200,000 ($351,401) first prize.

He also had a fourth-place finish in the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions. He was a member of the winning British team in the Poker Nations Cup.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,500,000. Bloom won A$600,000 for his second-place finish in the High Rollers Challenge, event 8 of the Australian Poker Millions tournament held in Melbourne in Jan 2009.

Bloom fell short of the million pound grand prize in the Poker Million IX event held in London on 10 December 2010. He finished second behind Gus Hansen.

Since 2009 Bloom has been the chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion, currently in the Football League Championship, the second flight of English football. He succeeded Dick Knight after securing a 75% shareholding in the club and investing £93 million in the development of the club's new ground, the American Express Community Stadium at Falmer.

Upon taking over the club, Bloom declared his love of the game, "I've been a football fan and a gambler since the age of about seven or eight. My interest in both developed at the same time." Bloom is a longtime fan of Brighton and his family has had a long association with the club: his uncle Ray is a director and his grandfather, Harry, was vice-chairman during the 1970s. On becoming chairman Bloom appointed former Uruguay international Gus Poyet as manager, and together they led the team to promotion from Football League One as champions in 2011. Poyet left the club in 2013 after losing the play-off semi-final to Crystal Palace. In June 2013, Bloom appointed Óscar García as the new head coach of the club; Garcia resigned after losing the play-off semi-final to Derby County and left the club in May 2014. The next manager was former Liverpool player Sami Hyypiä, and the club is currently managed by Chris Hughton.