Former poker player James Bord set to be given the go-ahead to purchase Scottish Championship club Dunfermline by the SFA

The SFA are set to approve the sale of Dunfermline to an investment group headed up by former professional poker player James Bord next week.

Entrepreneur Bord has thrashed out a deal to purchase the Championship club from German football investment group Fussball GmbH after the Pars were put up for sale in August.

The Hamburg-based owners purchased a 30-per-cent stake in the Fifers in 2020 before agreeing to increase that to 75 per cent the following year.

Mail Sport understands that Bord and fellow investors Wai Yin Kelly Kung and Justin Royce Harkema will meet the SFA board next week to seek the seek regulatory approval to complete the purchase of the club.

Originally from Stanmore in England, Bord quit banking in his mid-twenties to forge a career playing poker, gaining international attention when he won the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event.

He is now founder of a San Francisco-based company, Short Circuit Science, who specialise in sports-data analytics, medical-prescription technology and climate adoption analysis. 

They already hold a minority stake in Spanish La Liga 2 side Cordoba CF and, under multi-club ownership regulations, Bord requires the approval of the SFA board.

While Bournemouth owner Bill Foley was granted a maximum stake of 29.9 per cent in Hibernian, the SFA consider each case on its merits.

And, provided Bord and his fellow investors satisfy the Professional Game Board over their fit-and-proper-person status, they are likely to become the latest American-based owners of a Scottish football club.

With Dunfermline currently ninth in the ten-team Championship, the new owners will move quickly to appoint Kelty Hearts’ Michael Tidser as the new manager.

The Pars asked their near neighbours for permission to hold talks with the 34-year-old last week, with compensation likely to be paid once the new regime are in place.