The architect of the bid to oust Albion manager Mark McGhee is a football betting expert and top poker player, The Argus can reveal.

Tony Bloom, nephew of long-serving Seagulls director Ray Bloom, is the wealthy investor spearheading the campaign to remove McGhee.

He is known on the poker circuit as 'The Lizard', an alias acquired from an old friend who claimed he had alligator blood.

Bloom's sibling, Darren, is often seen in the company of Albion players. They are referred to by club insiders as the 'Dangerous Brothers'.

Darren is particularly friendly with Michel Kuipers, Albion's out-of-favour Dutch goalkeeper.

The scale of his brother's involvement in the club and motives are unclear but he has sufficient power to challenge chairman Dick Knight's desire to keep McGhee.

The Argus revealed on Monday a board split over whether McGhee should remain in charge following Albion's relegation from the Championship.

We then revealed yesterday that McGhee is on the brink of parting company with the club, a victim of a boardroom power struggled based on the Seagulls' precarious finances.

Knight and chief executive Martin Perry are strongly in favour of retaining McGhee.

Ray Bloom and fellow director Derek Chapman, the natural successor to Knight, are thought to have sided with Tony Bloom.

Knight has so far been unsuccessful in persuading him that removing McGhee is a knee-jerk reaction, not in the best long-term interests of the club. An announcement on McGhee's future is expected from the club by the end of the week.

London-based Bloom, a former professional gambler, worked for bookmaker Victor Chandler in his football division in Bangkok.

The diminutive 36-year-old returned home on the eve of the World Cup in 2002 to launch premierbet.com, a successful on-line football betting firm which now has thousands of customers.

Bloom is also a leading poker player. Earlier this month he took part in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and in January 2004 he won the Australasian Poker Championship in Melbourne, picking up a first prize of £180,000.

The Bloom brothers have funded Albion's end-of-season trips to Spain in recent seasons.