British entrepreneur James Bord, who made millions from poker and a series of tech-led sports betting syndicates, is set to buy a historic Scottish soccer team.
Bord is the lead investor in a three-party consortium that is soon expected to complete the $1.1 million deal for Dunfermline Athletic Football Club. Founded in 1885, the team currently sits in the second-tier of Scottish football.
Bord is a former investment banker turned pro gambler, and most recently, a tech entrepreneur. In the early 2000s, betting syndicate Starlizard made founder Tony Bloom very rich, and Bord did well for himself, too.
If the takeover of Dunfermline goes ahead as expected, he will join Bloom in owning a football team, as his former mentor owns the successful English Premier League team, Brighton F.C.
The Purchase
Bord, who also won the World Series of Europe Main Event in 2010, is the lead investor in a three-person consortium. American businessmen Wai Yin Kelly Kung and Justin Royce Harkema are his partners in the expected purchase.
The deal to buy Dunfermline from German sports investors DAFC Fussball GmbH has been in the cards for a while. However, British soccer regulations have tightened in recent years, and the partnership underwent a lengthy vetting process.
That included looking at the financial affairs of Spanish second-tier soccer team Córdoba CF, in which Bord and his investors have a significant but minority stake.
Insiders at the Scottish Football Association told the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper this week that they are expected to approve the takeover in the coming weeks.
The Gambling
Bord made his fortune in gambling in the 2000s, first through sports betting, then poker.
He quit his job at Citibank London in the early 2000s while in his early 20s to take a chance on gambling. His first move was to join Tony Bloom and Matthew Benham at the data-led betting syndicate, Starlizard.
That company went on to become one of the biggest and most successful sports betting operations of all-time.
Bord then won the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in 2010, taking home a $1.1 million prize. In 2016, he came fourth in the massive high limit “Big One For One Drop” charity tournament in Monaco. That tournament netted him $2.1 million. To date, he has career poker earnings of $4.34 million, according to poker database Hendon Mob.
Bord’s move into the soccer business is not unprecedented. In 2009, the founder of Starlizard and his former mentor, Bloom, bought his boyhood football team, Brighton & Hove Albion. At the time, the team was struggling in the English third tier League Two. But with £89 million ($108 million) invested by Bloom, the team rocketed up the league pyramid.
By 2017, Brighton was back to the Premier League top flight division for the first time in 40 years, where it remains today.
Their fellow one-time Starlizard partner, Matthew Benham, also went on to buy League Two’s Brentford FC in 2012, now also cemented in the Premier League.
Bord will no doubt be hoping he can use his former partner’s Moneyball-style data-driven approach to bring success to the historic, but not recently successful, Dunfermline Athletic.
The club sits 14th in the Scottish Championship and are currently without a permanent first-team manager.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
