Launching a new sportsbook must be an exciting venture for any sports-mad, mathematically inclined entrepreneur who spots a gap in a market.

Being able to bring entertainment to like-minded individuals while making a healthy return does seem like an enticing proposition, but it is often much more difficult than plugging an odds feed into a platform and pressing the big green ‘go live’ button.

Particularly in this mobile-first age, where consumers have so much choice – not just for betting purposes, but for mobile entertainment more generally – operators simply have to possess best-in-class technology built for the modern era.

Unfortunately, that means some very technical tasks need completing before one can even think about offering 50-1 bet builders on the weekend’s biggest Premier League encounter.

“Operators sometimes treat the platform configuration as a ticking-box exercise, instead of aligning this each time,” said Kateryna Pozdnysheva, Chief Client Officer at GR8 Tech, a sportsbook-first platform provider.

“You need to be involved in this because it’s really important to understand and tune each time for your players based on what they want. Particularly if it’s a new market for you, you need to be really involved in this process.”

A lack of involvement in the configuration of a platform is one of the biggest mistakes that Pozdnysheva sees operators making when launching a sportsbook. Without that, proper content localisation to each market is just impossible.

And that is the next biggest mistake.

She added: “Yes, we can launch or run a platform with general settings, but it’s important that if we’re creating a specific ‘juice,’ you need to understand the formula. You have to understand the culture and fit of the market. It’s important to have accurate translations, payment methods, special odds and so on. It helps you to boost your revenue and your growth.”

With 20+ years of sportsbook expertise under the team’s belt, GR8 Tech has plenty of experience helping new operators get to market quickly and efficiently through its various solutions.

From its ULTIM8 Sportsbook, designed for casino operators to offer sports quickly via iFrame integration, to its Hyper Turnkey solution, the provider knows what it takes to get a new operator up and running.

“Some clients have really experienced operations teams, others do not,” GR8 Tech’s Chief Client Officer noted. “If they don’t, we need to provide them with a really good onboarding experience to help them really understand the platform.

“At the end of the day you can buy an amazing car, but if you want to win the race you need to know how to drive. We can help clients learn to drive in this aspect.”

Crucially, Pozdnysheva said, the work doesn’t stop after the operator goes live.

“My job begins when we go live together,” she said. “We work together to tune the solution. For example, we have a framework, and for me, it’s really important to have stabilisation with the platform. We need to know that everything works properly.

“The second part is we need to dive into some campaigns and change, for example, the deposit funnels, registration funnels and retention funnels, because it’s really important that we try to bring traffic to the acquisition funnel.”

Creating Heavyweight Partnerships

This involves regular meetings between operator and provider to work out exactly what works well and what does not. Pozdnysheva and her team set out short, medium and long-term goals for their operator partners and map out shared objectives.

This is because, she explained: “I discuss with them their goals and let them know that this is not just their race; we will run together and we have to win.”

This forms part of GR8 Tech’s “Heavyweight Club” campaign that the company has rolled out throughout 2025, with undisputed heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk, co-founder of GR8 Tech’s partner Ready to Fight, as the face of the message.

Collaboration is a core tenet of the Heavyweight Club, according to Pozdnysheva, who added that it isn’t just actions that contribute to becoming part of the elite.

“I think that a strong mindset sets the bar and then structure makes it possible; GR8 Tech brings both,” she explained. “We want to have partners who have proactive ownership, not just waiting around for solutions to appear. We want our partners to be really involved and show us what they want and how they want it.

“We call it performance under pressure. Sometimes you need to make decisions urgently and they need to be ready for this at all times.”

Mastering Tier 2 and 3 Markets

Part of this collaborative process is helping operators identify markets to enter and, importantly, equipping them with the tools they need to succeed in those jurisdictions.

Increasingly, GR8 Tech is facilitating more demand for what are perhaps known as Tier 2 and 3 markets. Pozdnysheva noted that these markets include Latin American jurisdictions and the MENA region, and that because they are less saturated and have growing populations, they can be lucrative markets for operators who approach them correctly.

“We need to keep in mind that they are mobile-first markets, so operators need to be sure their platforms provide really good mobile support,” she remarked. “In the current situation in these markets, early adopters can have really good success. It’s a great opportunity for operators to enter these markets and do so with our platform.”

It’s paramount that operators are in tune with these markets though – remember the top mistakes that Pozdnysheva sees.

There is a whole list of priorities an operator must have ticked if they are to succeed.

“Operators need to stay focused and what I mean here is their product fit. If they are sports-oriented or casino-focused, they need to build their strategy and platform around that. Next is localisation and personalisation done through specific targeting and campaigns. There is so much content in these markets and operators need to be prepared for it.

“They also need an experienced local team with an operational core to boost their brand in these markets.”

Educating Operators

GR8 Tech is ending 2025 with momentum as it continues to roll out its solutions to the market. But the company aims to keep that momentum rolling with experienced and newer operators by giving back through education.

It already launched a new podcast, Bet It Drives, over the summer and Pozdnysheva said that an upcoming Advanced Sportsbook Course in partnership with Gaming Operations Academy will help it to further educate operators who may have less operational experience and expertise.

Outlining that education is a core part of GR8 Tech’s upcoming aspirations, the company’s Chief Client Officer concluded: “I think it’s really important to teach operators, particularly if they are inexperienced, how to operate these products. I love to do this type of work and I really advocate for this in our business.”