Stanislav Horuna: the Olympian who founded prediction platform
Stanislav Horuna (pictured above) is a Ukrainian karate wrestler in the kumite category (up to 75kg) and a bronze medallist in the XXXII Tokyo Olympics. European Champion 2021, winner of the World Games 2017 and European Games 2019. Bronze medallist of the 2014 World Championship, three-time winner of the K1 Premier League tournament series, and six-time Ukrainian Karate Champion. Multiple silver and bronze medallist of the European Championships.
Recently, Stanislav has taken on a new role: together with a friend, he created an application for forecasts, Duel Duck, based on Web3 technology, which he presented during the SBC Summit Ukraine. SiGMA News was the first to discuss with him the transition into the innovative trend of the iGaming industry, which is gradually becoming the norm.?
Stanislav Horuna with Olympics bronze.
Duel Duck – a platform for fair and public competitions
It all started when Stanislav devised a new raffle format for a charity event aimed at raising more donations to support the Ukrainian military. He shared it with a friend who had a similar idea for a betting format. Both agreed that it should run on blockchain for transparency and honesty.
Presenting the platform.
The problem was the trust in the randomiser that was supposed to determine the winners. So, they decided that real events would determine the winners. Consequently, people only need to participate in a bet regarding the future outcome of an event. ‘Besides, why not give people the opportunity to create their own disputes (duels) and earn on it?’, – Stanislav says.?
That is how Duel Duck came into being – a platform where anyone can create a duel, i.e. a question, invite people to make a prediction or forecast and receive a commission for organising it. There is no bookmaker here; there are people who compete with each other honestly and publicly.
One day, Artem, co-founder of Duel Duck, voiced the name, and Stanislav realised that it turned out to be very accurate. ‘Duel’ because it’s a battle of beliefs, a battle of thoughts. And ‘Duck’ – the duck is not explained, it’s just funny,’ continues Stanislav.??
About collegiate sports – most of them are very far from the crypto world, but he can’t wait for Duel Duck to become as commonplace as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and they will be surprised to discover that I am behind it.
Duel Duck’s mission is to re-launch the gambling market
Duel Duck’s team is not building another betting product. They are setting themselves the task of restarting the culture of gambling itself. Gambling has always been part of human nature, but both criminal structures and large corporations are involved in organising gambling. Combined with marketing, this may have a negative impact on society, Stanislav states.
Stanislav aims to create a betting culture that is healthy, honest, and safe, with opportunities for financial growth. He wants to give people a tool that previously, and even now, only operators have.
Duel Duck’s features.
Answering the question about choosing the prediction market? Stanislav said that classic betting is often a confusing, monopolised system. On the contrary, in the prediction market, it is not the system that takes bets; the game happens between users.
How Stanislav see the prediction market in 5 years:
– Bloggers will have their prediction hubs
– Duels will become part of daily content
– Media will insert duels into every important story
– ‘Betting’ will no longer be a stigmatised concept
– Forecasting will become a new profession for many
On the interaction between betting and sport
Stanislav would like more Olympians in the iGaming sphere, not as ‘advertising faces’ but as creators of the gaming experience. As he explains, ‘Athletes know what it is to compete, to take risks, to win. They can make the gambling product fair, exciting and healthy.’?
‘If they have a platform like Duel Duck, they will bring a very different standard to iGaming.’?
Stanislav likes that prediction markets have no centralised bookmaker. A person creates a duel on their own and determines the commission and the cost of participating in that duel. Other users join on equal terms; their contributions form a prize pool, which is distributed among the winners.
Previously, he served as an ambassador for a major international betting company. He published announcements of football matches, UFC fights and the like on social networks. ‘Honestly – a very mechanical story, no emotion, no depth’, comments Stanislav.
About the team to launch a prediction marketplace
Further, Stanislav explained how to launch a web3 application like his and what team is enough:
- A CTO who understands how to build a product, not just a smart contract;
- A frontend dev who knows that a Web3 user fears MetaMask more than a bear market;
- A designer who knows how to make a decentralised product as simple as Telegram;
- A community manager who can lead an audience not through ‘GM’ but through real emotion;
- And funders who don’t wait for investment but start from scratch because they believe in the product.
On social responsibility
Supporting social initiatives is a must for public figures nowadays in Ukraine. As a renowned athlete, Stanislav participates in events that raise funds for the rehabilitation of injured individuals, supports children affected by war, and engages in charity training.?
He even sold his Olympic medal at auction for $20,500, which went to support the Ukrainian military, hospitals and evacuees. He is also a co-founder of the charity foundation ‘Na Chasi’, where, with his team, he organises targeted aid to those who come.
In conclusion
As Stanislav said, athletes can bring new standards to the iGaming industry. The prediction markets provide an opportunity for transparent interaction between betting participants, so they correspond to the social position of an Olympic athlete. The global perspectives of prediction markets support the ambitious creator of an innovative product.
This article was first published in Russian on 28 May 2025.
