SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR, MARTIAL ARTS FANATIC, COMBAT SPORTS BETTOR, EARLY BITCOIN ADOPTER, BESTSELLING AUTHOR, AND GLOBETROTTER ADVENTURER.
Franco Richard's Story
Franco Richard, commonly known by his ring name Francombat, is a Canadian martial artist, businessman, investor, best-selling author, and one of the most successful combat sports bettor of all time, having a winning streak which extended over 30 years.
Franco serves as Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Investment Officer of Richard, Inc., a multi-million-dollar family office dedicated to preserving and growing family capital through diversified investments in private equity, hedge funds, public equities, real estate, maple products, and Bitcoin.
Prior to launching Richard Inc., Franco was best known for turning his life savings of $17,450.00 into over $4.7 million dollars by betting on fights whilst still in his 20s, a fact made even more remarkable when you realize he also dropped out of college! His rags-to-riches life story has inspired millions around the world to want to know more about him and his betting strategy. In 2017, Franco wrote an e-book, Betting It All On A Fight: The Untold Story of Franco Richard, in which he chronicles his life experiences as an oddsmaker, professional bettor, and bookmaker. To this day, he is still widely regarded as the go-to-guys on how to make money betting on fights.
After launching his career via the sports betting industry, Franco has since branched out into numerous other business sectors, including a burgeoning media group Francombat, and his current passion for all things Bitcoin. He is currently engaged in a forthcoming book project entitled Bitcoinaire: The 21 Million Club, which relates to blockchain tech, digital currency, and crypto assets.
In addition to his relentless entrepreneurial drive, wanting to give back to the community, Franco launched unfightable.com, a not-for-profit initiative, which has raised over $2 Million dollars providing scholarships to Canadian students in need.
Franco’s life ambition is to create the first professional Lei Tai championship.
Early Life
Franco, a French-speaking Quebecer, was born and raised in Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, a rural French-Canadian town of roughly 1,500 people on the southern slope of the St. Lawrence River, about 200 kilometers northeast of Québec City. He was the youngest of four children born to France St-Pierre and Robert Richard. His father worked as a papermaker and maple syrup producer, while his mother was a stay-at-home mother who also worked as a librarian.
Franco describes his parents as deeply involved in his upbringing and eager to expose him to a wide range of interests. He recalls being pulled out of school to visit science museums or to listen to a specific author read at a local bookstore—experiences that helped shape his curiosity and love of learning.
As a child, Franco struggled in preschool with concentration and discipline, challenges later attributed to ADHD. When a doctor advised medication, his parents chose a different path. Instead of pills, they enrolled him in martial arts, hoping to channel his excess energy and strong assertiveness into something constructive.
After just one session, Franco was hooked. He devoted himself fully to martial arts throughout his childhood and teenage years. While most kids his age spent weekends playing video games, Franco was traveling and competing in martial arts tournaments around the world against the best youth competitors on the planet. By the age of six, he was completing 1,000 push-ups and sit-ups a day on his living-room floor.
The Martial Artist
Already a karate black belt by the age of 17, Franco Richard was one martial artist who chose not to follow the rising wave of mixed martial arts. Rather than taking the familiar path of kickboxing or wrestling, Franco found his true calling in Lei Tai fighting—a full-contact combat sport that combines striking with high-amplitude throws and takedowns, all contested on an elevated platform known as the Lei Tai (擂臺).
At just 18, Franco qualified for the 1996 8th World Kuoshu Tournament in Taiwan, where he competed in the men’s middleweight division, becoming one of the youngest athletes in the entire Games. Despite an early loss, Franco knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life and how he was going to reach those goals. It was there that he unintentionally discovered the concept of professional Lei Tai, which would later play a major role in his career.
After four years of inactivity, Franco returned to competition and made an immediate impact in March 2004 at the 9th International Chinese Kuoshu Federation (ICKF) World Championship, held at the Aquatic Training Centre along the Tainan Canal in Tainan, Taiwan. He won the ICKF Middleweight World Championship title in a fight against Indonesia’s James Clark. Franco stunned the Indonesian middleweight with a short right hand in the opening stanza. With this victory, he became the only non-Chinese athlete to win a title at the event, and the first Canadian to claim a gold medal in a world-level kung fu competition held in China.
A two-time Lei Tai gold medalist, Franco has competed in many Lei Tai tournaments all over the world (from 1996 to 2004), in the light heavyweight division, compiling an overall amateur record of 17–3, including one silver medal and one bronze medal in Shuai Jiao (Chinese wrestling).
The Bettor
Franco Richard’s path to becoming a multi-millionaire is anything but conventional. Drawn to risk and challenge, he began betting on combat sports in the early 2000s, starting with a bankroll of just a few hundred dollars—and turning it into millions.
You may have heard the story — how he transformed his life savings of roughly $17,450 into $1.7 million in just a few years. By age 27, Franco had built a reputation as the go-to authority on making money betting on fights, becoming a regular guest on radio shows, morning news programs, and television networks, where he discussed combat sports betting on a weekly basis.
In the early 2000s, Franco relocated to Taiwan to study martial arts. There, he broke into the gambling industry by working for one of Asia’s largest bookmakers, gaining firsthand exposure to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the business as both an oddsmaker and handicapper. This insider role gave him a rare perspective on how lines are created, how they move, how public perception distorts them, and—most importantly—how value is found. In 2004, he founded Bet on Combat®, an online gaming venture advising clients on who to bet on and how to bet, much like a stockbroker guides investment decisions. By 2010, Franco had become Asia’s leading combat sports betting consultant, serving a roster of 100 high-net-worth individuals, each wagering a minimum of $10,000.
As the face of the Bet on Combat brand, Franco’s reputation grew alongside the explosion of online gaming in the mid-2000s. He also gained notoriety for a series of high-stakes wagers that captured public attention. In 2004, he placed his entire $17,450 life savings on fellow French-Canadian prospect Georges St-Pierre at UFC 46, doubling his money. Three years later, he made international headlines after winning $259,000 betting on Matt Serra at 7-1 odds to claim the UFC welterweight title at UFC 69. One of the largest wagers of his career came in 2015, when Franco placed $1 million on Floyd Mayweather to defeat Conor McGregor—earning $1 million in profit.
The Manager
Franco Richard has been managing top fighters for the past couple of decades now. When he isn’t with his family or negotiating contracts, you will find him on the mats rolling with his clients.
His expertise in negotiations and his passion for combat sports naturally brought him to the world of athlete representation. Now recognized as one of the top agents in combat sports, Franco Richard has secured some of the highest-paying endorsement deals for its fighters and has negotiated contracts with some of the top brands in the world, including Bud Light, Gatorade, and MicroTech among many others. He effectively assisted in acquiring lucrative deals for such notable fighters as Li Jun Fa and James Wu.
Francombat’s athletes compete in the UFC, ONE Championship, Bellator, and other promotions. His vision came down to three clear ideas: Recommit to the concept that quality talent matters, embrace technology instead of fighting it, and think globally. Fourteen years later, Francombat is the largest, most admired management company in the world.
Franco, who can be seen at almost every UFC event, built his company on loyalty and is willing to go to war for his fighters. Franco has been managing top fighters for the past decades now. If he isn’t with his family or negotiating contracts, you will find him on the mats rolling with his clients.
The Promoter
Franco’s success story starts where most entrepreneurs begin: with a big dream and zero cash. He discovered a simple truth: Launching a sport is no small task. No matter how big an idea you think you have, it still takes a lot of work and a ton of cash.
In August 2011, Franco wrote to renowned Chinese Kung Fu masters from around the world, intimating that he wished to organize the first Professional Lei Tai Championship, in order to inspire more people to learn Kung Fu, stating, “I want to hold the first professional Lei Tai Championship™ event in the world in the process of creating a legitimate and profitable combat sport, and consistently the next big thing in martial arts entertainment.”
But Franco understood his project was going nowhere without state approval (The sport was not sanctioned by any state or country). From there, he embarked upon a journey of working diligently to educate politicians and appointed officials on the merits, safety, and economic impact the sport of Lei Tai could bring to the province of Quebec. During this time, Franco accomplished what many would have thought impossible, including the recognition of Lei Tai as a professional sport, the establishment of a worldwide Lei Tai circuit, and permission for events to have matches under the PRO LEI TAI® Rules and Regulations.
It’s all happening…
The Investor
After launching his career via the sports betting industry, Franco has since branched out into numerous other business sectors, including a burgeoning media group and his current passion for all things Bitcoin.
Franco’s involvement with Bitcoin began back in 2011, when a friend offered him some bitcoin in exchange for cash and forgot about them. After figuring out the password to his virtual wallet, and seeing how valuable those bitcoins had become, he sold off a portion of them and launched Bitcoinaire®, a Bitcoin financial app focusing exclusively on bringing Bitcoin to Decentralized Finance (DeFi). In less than eight months, Franco grew Bitcoinaire.io into the world’s most trusted and secure Bitcoin wallet, with more than 200k downloads.
But Franco association with the virtual currency extends far beyond just owning it. He sees bitcoin as a vital tool for removing government control over money and economic activity. The relatively young industry of digital assets caught his attention because of its ability to provide the opportunity for financial freedom for people, regardless of education or background.
The price was still under one U.S. Dollar each, but he already knew that it was one of the most important inventions since the internet. It was a wise investment by someone who stumbled across bitcoin before many others did. “I was buying fake money,” he said. Since then, the cryptocurrency has seen large fluctuations in its value by almost 10,000% with one BTC being valued at $38567 ICP-BTCUSD at the current Bitcoin Price Index.
In January 2021, as the dollar price of bitcoin surged to an all-time high of $52140, he tweeted that 70 percent of his net worth was in crypto assets. Soon after, Franco began angel investing in notable companies including Ripple, Coinbase, Tesla, Uber, and Canopy.
The Philanthropist
Franco Richard grew up in a small village in quebec, canada, and his not-quite-rags-to-riches story instilled in him the belief that those who have achieved great success have a duty to give something back to those in need. Keep reading to learn how he inspired the Unfightable movement.
Franco Richard strongly believes in giving back. His commitment and contributions to philanthropy have continued to serve and benefit people far beyond the martial arts community. Despite his success, Franco never forgot his humble upbringing. In 2017, he spearheaded the Unfightable Initiatives to share his good fortune with others who may not have been afforded the same opportunities.
A semi-retired entrepreneur, Franco continues to serve as the company’s Chairman of the Board, playing a key role in determining the path of Richard, Inc., and directing other areas of the corporation including television, video production, licensing, and digital content. In addition, he is also an active private investor and advisor for several young companies in an ever-growing portfolio of businesses. In this top management position, Franco directs all business operations including event planning, marketing, public relations, broadcast production, fight-card selections, finances, and legal operations.
Personal Life
For someone constantly in pursuit of his dreams, relaxation is an unfamiliar concept for Franco; there is simply too much life to experience. When he’s not traveling the globe for one of his promotional fight events, he splits his time between Montreal and El Salvador.
In 2026, Franco established a second residence in El Salvador with the acquisition of an estate in El Tunco (known for its nightlife and surf culture), inspired by the Hollywood surfing movies that shaped his childhood dreams. Situated on the Pacific coast, the Mediterranean-style villa features a main house, guesthouse, pool, lush tropical gardens, a private gym, a movie theater, an entertainment room, a poolside bar and spa—along with every luxury imaginable.
Since acquiring the property, the Bitcoin Beach House has become Franco’s home, workplace, and a gathering place for hundreds of bitcoinaires and close friends, making it both a cultural hub and a strategic investment. The Bitcoinaire Beach House gained fame in the 2000s through media coverage of Franco’s legendary parties. “Some playgrounds are much cooler than others,” he once said. “This is what God would have built if He had bitcoin.”
To this day, Franco is still obsessed with being in the best physical condition possible, and has embraced the spirit of the white belt: forever the student. Despite his busy schedule, he is inspiring others to keep fit as he believes in working out every single day.
Franco has a long and storied history that is still in the making…
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