Former Rangers and Scotland striker Kris Boyd has tipped Hearts to challenge for a Scottish Premiership (SPFL) title and break the dominance of the old firm’s Celtic and Rangers.

This follows investment into Hearts from current Brighton and Hove Albion chairman Tony Bloom, who made his fortunes from betting, using analytics to predict the fair odds for each market and identify discrepancies.

Under Bloom, Brighton have often been praised for their shrewd recruitment that has benefited from analytical models and statistical tools developed by Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics.

In recent seasons, players such as Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Marc Cucurella have been purchased for modest fees before being sold for up to £115m – in the case of Caicedo.

Since Bloom took ownership of Brighton, the side has risen from League One to the Premier League and qualified for European football.

Speaking on William Hill’s The Warm-up Unfiltered, Boyd said: “If you’d have said to me a few years ago, I’d have said no because I thought the financial gulf was too big. But I now look at what’s going on at Hearts and I genuinely believe there could be.

“You only need to take a quick glimpse of what happened and what’s happening in Belgium right now with, you know, a similar set-up. And I would imagine in the next few months, that’s exactly what will happen at Tynecastle [Hearts’ home ground].

Boyd is referring to Belgium First Division A outfit Royale Union Saint-Gillois, who have transformed into title contenders following investment from Bloom.

Despite Boyd’s optimism, former Scotland player and manager, Gordon Strachan, warned that it is not just about recruitment, and time will need to be invested to properly develop the players.

Craig Levein, also a former manager of Scotland, warned that both Celtic and Rangers would have to have “a terrible year” if any team has a chance of breaking their stranglehold on the competition.

The last team to win the Scottish top flight outside of the old firm teams was Aberdeen under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson.

Currently, Hearts sit second bottom of the SPFL, just one place above their Edinburgh rivals Hibernian.