Brighton’s Tony Bloom Denies Link to $1 Billion Rollbit Betting Account
Posted on: December 8, 2025, 01:11h.
Last updated on: December 8, 2025, 01:55h.
- Top gambler Tony Bloom denies crypto betting syndicate links
- US court filings reveal BullGaming’s battle over Hopkins’ Rollbit account
- Bloom denies links to account and to betting on Brighton
English Premier League team Brighton & Hove Albion has banned The Guardian from matchday access for reporting “false” allegations that owner Tony Bloom wagered on his own team via a $1 billion betting account.
Prior to Sunday’s match against West Ham, Brighton officials told the UK media outlet it “would be inappropriate for journalists and photographers from The Guardian to be accredited to matches at the Amex.”
This followed a report published Friday claiming Bloom was “facing questions” over whether he is behind the gambling account, which is named in a US court case as having won $133 million betting on soccer teams, including Brighton.
If true, Bloom could be in breach of English Football Association (FA) rules, which prohibit owners from betting on games involving their teams.
Except Bloom, one of the world’s most successful gamblers, says it’s not true.
I can categorically assure our supporters that I have not placed bets on any Brighton & Hove Albion matches since becoming the owner of the club in 2009,” he said in a statement.
Bloom is the head of StarLizard, a phenomenally successful, data-driven betting syndicate whose profits are said to be around $800 million per year.
‘Staggering Gambling’
The US court case was filed in 2024 in a Northern California federal court by BullGaming N.V., the parent company of Curacao-based crypto casino Rollbit. It concerns a Rollbit betting account registered to the poker player James Hopkins.
Hopkins’ gambling activity was “staggering,” according to the filing – more than $1 billion in cryptocurrencies were wagered on soccer, with $133 million in winnings.
This led the company to suspect Hopkins was gambling on behalf of others or for a betting syndicate, or that his account was being used for proxy gambling by a syndicate – a violation of Rollbit’s terms and conditions.
BullGaming asked the US court for permission to serve a subpoena on Payward, Inc., the company that operates the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. That’s after several of the transactions funding Hopkins’ Rollbit account were traced to Kraken-linked wallets.
The company believes Kraken holds information that would identify the true beneficial owners behind the account because the exchange requires verified personal information, including names, addresses, and government-issued ID, from anyone opening an account.
No Evidence?
The legal filing doesn’t mention Bloom, but Rollbit’s anonymous owner, known online only as “Razer,” claimed in a November 14 post on X, without citing evidence, that the Brighton owner was behind the account.
Razer claimed Bloom had “ravaged through the crypto casino space over the last few years, extracting over 9-figs across several operators.”
Beyond citing some additional internet chatter, The Guardian didn’t provide evidence that Bloom was behind the account either.
For his part, Bloom said in his statement that he had always complied fully with FA regulations.
“[…A]ll of my bets on football are audited by one of the world’s leading accounting firms on an annual basis to ensure full compliance with the FA’s policy,” he noted.
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