Kateryna Pozdnysheva, GR8 Tech: “A champion operator today is one who treats performance like a system”

Following GR8 Tech’s new partnership with José Mourinho, chief client officer Kateryna Pozdnysheva discusses the company’s “anti-luck” philosophy and how the Champions Club initiative aims to deliver tangible value for operators focused on long-term success.

Exclusive interview.- GR8 Tech recently announced a new partnership with legendary football manager José Mourinho, who joins the company’s Champions Club as its newest ambassador. Built around the idea that championship is never about luck, the collaboration reflects GR8 Tech’s broader philosophy: sustainable success in igaming comes from preparation, strategy, and consistent execution.

In this exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News, Kateryna Pozdnysheva, chief client officer at GR8 Tech, explains how the “anti-luck” mindset shapes the company’s approach to platform development, operator support, and long-term growth, and how Mourinho’s winning mentality aligns with the standards GR8 Tech is setting for its partners worldwide.

This partnership is built around a clear idea: championship is never about luck. Why was it important for GR8 Tech to anchor the collaboration around that principle?

Because that idea is at the core of how we see performance at large. Long-term success comes from preparation, smart decisions, and executing well under pressure (rather than winning by luck). That’s how José Mourinho has built his career, and it’s how we build technology and support for operators at GR8 Tech. So this idea gave the partnership a foundation, as we both believe results come from structure.

“Long-term success comes from preparation, smart decisions, and executing well under pressure (rather than winning by luck)”
Kateryna Pozdnysheva, chief client officer at GR8 Tech.

igaming is, by nature, associated with chance. What does it mean in practice for GR8 Tech to take an “anti-luck” approach in such an environment?

Luck mostly stays on the player side—business is always about “anti-luck” and not leaving performance to chance. For us, as a platform provider, that means giving operators a platform that launches faster, remains stable under peak pressure, and helps them make better decisions through data, automation, AI, and robust trading tools. So instead of hoping for results, operators can build for them.

From your perspective, where do operators most often mistake luck for strategy, and how does that impact their long-term performance?

Usually, they confuse short-term spikes with a proper growth model. A good month, a big event, or a strong acquisition burst can look like strategy, but if the platform isn’t built for retention, localisation, operational efficiency, and stable performance under pressure, it doesn’t last. That’s where long-term results suffer, because growth comes from systems that work and systems you can repeat.

José Mourinho is known for turning preparation and discipline into consistent results. Where do you see the biggest parallel between that mindset and how GR8 Tech delivers for its clients?

The biggest parallel is consistency built on preparation. Mourinho has won league titles in four different countries, across four different football cultures, which says a lot about how he works. He adapts, stays disciplined, and keeps delivering.

That’s very close to how we think at GR8 Tech. Our job is to give our partners a system that performs flawlessly and keeps improving results over time. In practice, for our operators, this means:

• Becoming very friendly with data and reports to know what to look at to see issues early or understand that the strategy really works; 
• Thinking in cohorts, not your whole user base, and know which tools and incentives to use for each group; 
• Learning our platform and all it can do—because between getting up to 50 per cent more GGR with advanced sportsbook capabilities and saving 95 per cent of teams’ time with AI-driven tools, there are many valuable features. 

So the overlap is what I’ve mentioned earlier: strong preparation, smart systems, and results you can repeat.

“Our job is to give our partners a system that performs flawlessly and keeps improving results over time”
Kateryna Pozdnysheva, chief client officer at GR8 Tech.

Ambassador partnerships often remain at a branding level. How are you ensuring this collaboration translates into tangible value for your clients and partners?

Ambassador partnerships often stay at the branding level. We’re approaching this differently. Beyond campaigns and visuals, we’re building this collaboration into operator touchpoints: events, content, and direct engagement within Champions Club. The idea is to create access, stronger conversations, and more value for partners who care about performance. We’ll judge the campaign’s success by the quality of those interactions and whether it helps us build deeper relationships with the right operators.

You work closely with operators across multiple markets. What separates those who build sustainable success from those who rely on short-term wins?

The ones focused on long-term success usually get the fundamentals right: fast launch, smart localisation, strong retention, efficient operations, and a platform that stays stable when demand spikes. The others tend to lean too heavily on acquisition bursts or big events and hope the moment lasts.

The World Cup is just a good example of that. A big tournament can bring traffic, but sustainable operators are the ones prepared to turn that attention into long-term value. That’s why we focus on continuously improving launch timelines, keeping retention high, and keeping the platform at large reliably stable with 99.99 per cent uptime under any load. All that makes a difference, and we’re rigorously building something that keeps working after the spike is gone.

The “Champions Club” concept suggests a certain standard. What defines a “champion” operator today, and what does it take to become one?

A champion operator today is one who treats performance like a system. They know their market, stay sharp on execution, adapt quickly, and make decisions with discipline. They focus on being consistently good.

To become one, you need ambition, but also the structure to back it up: the right technology, expertise, and a mindset built around constant improvement. That’s the standard behind Champions Club.