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Live sport on SN this weekend‘Play to win’: The family philosophy driving Eddie Hearn
Sport Nation • November 13th, 2026 6:00 am
Eddie Hearn | Photo: Photosport
Eddie Hearn says the mindset he learnt from his father has shaped his approach to boxing promotion: treat business like sport and play to win.
The English boxing promoter at Matchroom Sport, has spent nearly 20 years in the industry, where he took over as Group Chairman from his father, Barry, in 2021.
“I've been doing it 20 years nearly, so sometimes it's draining, sometimes it gets you down, but it's also a wonderful position to be in," Heard told Sport Nation Afternoons host Mark Stafford.
“I think anybody that works in sport is really a failed athlete. We'd all rather be actually playing. I mean, that's like our dream when we were kids.
“So to be involved with sport and to be involved in athletes' careers and the big occasions, I think we're incredibly blessed.”
Barry Hearn | Photo: Photosport
For Hearn, the drive to succeed comes from lessons passed on by his father, who built Matchroom from the ground up.
“For me, I've always been taught by my dad that business is just like sport and I've also been taught in terms of sport, the only thing that actually matters is winning.
“So I play business like I play sport, which is to play to win.”
Hearn describes Matchroom as more than a business, pointing to his father’s work in building the company and the responsibility he feels in continuing that legacy.
“It's a business that I love and it's the sport that I love. But it's more than that. It's kind of our everything, the company.
“My dad started as a hundred pound company 45 years ago, now today it's over a billion pounds in its value and one of the biggest sporting companies in the world.
“When I took it over, we were still a 20th of the size of where we are now.”
Eddie Hearn | Photo: Dave Hunt/AAP
Hearn says knowing what the company means to his father has strengthened his own commitment to it.
“It's his baby and it means everything to him so I know what it means to him and that's come through to me. So we take it so seriously.
He believes consistency and hard work ultimately give a business an advantage, even if success does not come every time.
“If you are good at what you do, if you're consistent and if you work harder than everybody else, the bad news for everybody else is you're going to win. Not every time, but over time you will win and that's what we've kind of continued to do.”
Listen to the full interview below:
