In our latest staff Q&A, we find out about Richard Duncan, Head of New Business & Strategic Partnerships
What’s a childhood sporting memory that sparked your love for sport?
Watching World Cup Italia ’90 with my dad, I had no idea how tough things had been for England in the years running up, losing every group game at Euro ’88, and I was just a toddler when Maradona knocked us out in ’86. I didn’t grasp the history or the weight of it, I was just caught up in his excitement. I was the same age then as my son is now, and I can’t wait to watch this summer with them both.
What’s the most emotional match or moment you’ve experienced as a fan?
The 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay between Manchester United and Arsenal had absolutely everything. United went down to 10 men after Keane was sent off, Schmeichel saved a late Bergkamp penalty, and then Giggs tore through five of the best defenders of their day to score the winner. Even better that one of my best mates, a die-hard Gunner, had been bragging about Bergkamp barely five minutes earlier.
What’s your favourite sports tournament and why?
I watch the X Games every year. The way the athletes compete fiercely yet still root for one another and celebrate each other’s performances is something you rarely see in sport. I think when you’re doing something that dangerous, out in the shadow of a mountain, you gain a perspective that makes the small stuff seem less important, a mindset I wish more people could experience.
I couldn’t tell you why I got so interested in snow sport exactly. Seems strange when you consider I grew up in probably the flattest, low-lying part of Yorkshire, the wrong side of the Pennines where it never snows!
If you could play any position in any sport professionally, what would it be and for which team?
Sticking with snowboarding, I’d have loved to put in my 10,000 hours as a kid and compete for Team GB at the X Games, riding Slopestyle and Natural Selection as a backcountry freerider. Ungroomed, unpredictable terrain, powder, trees, cliffs, and natural kickers – that’s the dream.
Have you ever played sport competitively? If so, what did it teach you about performance, pressure, or teamwork?
I ran short and middle-distance track and field at county level. I was a small kid, but until I was 15 or 16, I consistently finished on the podium.
Eventually, the physicality of other sprinters caught up with me. My dad, who remembered Seb Coe winning 1500m gold in LA the summer after I was born, wanted me to shift my focus to the 800m and 1500m. We were a similar build and the same height, so it made sense, but I’ve always hated cardio, and soon after I quit. It was probably some of the best advice I ever had, and being a stubborn kid, I ignored it.
Years later, I made my Olympics debut at Beijing 2008, not as an athlete but as part of the UK’s national press agency team covering the Games. Seeing what might have been haunted me, but it taught me that I don’t know everything, and that every opportunity is worth exploring.
What type of bet do you think brings the most excitement — a last-minute winner, a long-shot outsider, or a perfectly predicted accumulator?
I love a wild acca. All outsiders and zero chance at a life-changing pay-out…here, take my money.
What’s one challenge in your job that feels like being “in the final minutes of a close game”?
Trying to hit the Q3 sales target while everyone is on holiday.
If you could design a new sports-based product or feature, what would it look like and why?
I would develop the ‘Racing Ledger’, a blockchain-based ecosystem built on Solana (SOL), designed to unify and simplify the fragmented world of global horse racing. It would serve as a single, transparent source of truth for every aspect of the sport – from breeding records and ownership data to pre-race entries, declarations, and real-time race-day data.
By leveraging Solana’s speed and scalability, Racing Ledger would record, verify, and connect all transactions and datasets across the industry – including rights holders, operators, regulators, breeders, and data providers – through smart contracts that ensure trust, traceability, and equitable value distribution.
Racing Ledger would transform how the sport’s complex ecosystem interacts, streamlining data exchange, reducing duplication and creating an open, auditable framework that gives every stakeholder true visibility and ownership of their part in racing’s digital supply chain.
I’m also in early-stage development of the flying pig, seeking investment. DM if interested.
Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richoduncan/
