Founding father of sports marketing... now leading global promotion of poker as a mind sport. Me on the ‘new way' of sports business, sponsorship & education.
Great wealth should bring great accountability. The Olympic Movement might want to slow down… before Pac‑Man eats the playing field, the clubhouse and the practice courts.
Montreal 76 showed the Olympic Movement needed urgent reform.The financial collapse,the African boycott exposed the fragility of the old model — seen again with the last‑minute boycott of Moscow 80. Moments that shaped the modernisation that followed, All in my forthcoming book .
JPMorgan now positioning itself for an Olympic sponsorship is interesting. With Deloitte already deeply embedded across technology integration and strategic operations, does this signal yet another blurring of the IOC’s once‑clear category boundaries?
In 1974, the World Snooker Championship landed at Belle Vue —the first time the whole event ran in one controlled venue with multiple tables.
The roof leaked, the headline read “Raindrops Are Falling on My Reds”, yet West Nally quietly reshaped how the sport was staged.
Early days of badminton sponsorship at West Nally in the late ’70s.
Seeing this again reminds me of two of sport’s true gentlemen — Craig Reedie and Tommie Keller — whose integrity shaped international sport far more than most will ever know.
A bittersweet memory today.
FIFA’s 75th. World football was still defining its identity 45 years later, the scale, wealth and reach are unrecognisable. So too the expectations of transparency, governance and global responsibility. A reminder of how important to protect its integrity as it continues to grow
The world has changed. Media, technology and audiences now follow athletes, not institutions. If the Olympic commercial system is to recover, it must shift from protecting symbols to empowering Olympians
TOP was built on clarity and purpose. Renewal today means returning to that clarity—and aligning with reality: the Games’ value lies in the athletes, not the bureaucracy.
After reading the Cortina coverage, it’s hard to ignore: the Olympic Movement is facing its toughest crossroads in decades, with an ageing model, expanding bureaucracy, eroding trust and weakening financial foundations.
Good to see partners praising athletes as the heart of the Games. Harder to square with how little direct support athletes receive and how limited their voice remains.Even Toyota raised transparency concerns.If support is truly athlete‑centred, the funding model should reflect it
@duncanjourno@Olympics@TeamGB@ObserverUK@ISU_Figure The very same Olympics where we first met a young Sepp Blatter, then with Swiss Timing — and where his journey to the top of FIFA began without him ever needing to fill out an application form.
We built the Olympic commercial model to save the Games.
Not to turn IOC directors into multi‑millionaires.
$55–65M to executives.
Federations struggling.
Athletes ignored.
Has the Movement lost its compass?
The reality: Dassler faced urgent financial pressures after his split with André Guelfie. He asked for our support, agreed terms, and accepted funds raised — but was then offered a substantial sum (a bribe) to seize control of a business that was proving an extraordinary success
The IOC’s TOP programme wasn’t Samaranch’s invention either. The exclusive brand model was set out in the mid‑70s and evolving by Moscow 1980. Another “fact” now being misrepresented.
Let’s be clear: the LA84 sponsorship model wasn’t Ueberroth’s invention. It was designed by the bidding committee with West Nally before he arrived. He executed, not created. One of many “facts” now being misrepresented.
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