Vardan Hakobyan, GR8_TECH: “Operators want to launch faster, scale faster, and see a return on investment sooner”

Vardan Hakobyan, Head of Sales at GR8_TECH, spoke to Focus Gaming News about the company’s objectives for SBC Summit Lisbon, its updated affiliate management platform, and shared details about “The Locker Room: World Cup Numbers”.

Exclusive interview.- On September 29, a new edition of SBC Summit Lisbon will get underway, gathering around the main igaming companies to showcase its latest products and innovations, meet old and new partners, network, and get first-hand insight into what’s happening in the industry and what comes next.

GR8_TECH is heading to the event with the Champions Arena, a new exhibition space created because real champions deserve their own arena, and to learn more about their upcoming attendance at the event, Focus Gaming News spoke to Vardan Hakobyan, head of sales at GR8_TECH.

During the interview, Hakobyan discussed the company’s objectives and plans for the event, provided details about GR8_TECH’s updated affiliate management platform, spoke about “The Locker Room: World Cup Numbers“, and outlined the company’s main challenges for the coming year.

How is GR8_TECH preparing for SBC Summit Lisbon? What are the objectives for the expo?

At SBC Summit, we want to make the time operators spend with us extremely valuable. There’s a lot happening at a show of this size, so with the Champions Arena, we wanted to create a space where people can come in with a business challenge, speak directly with our experts, see the technology in practice, and leave with something useful.

We’ll be showcasing the full GR8_TECH portfolio, but I’d especially highlight MTS, which is one of the newest additions to our offering. We also have a very exciting platform update coming around speed and performance.

Acceler8 Lab is a big part of our stand as well, because we want to bring practical education into the experience; not just talk about industry challenges, but help operators think about what they can actually do differently. It’s our champion mindset brought to practice: preparation, discipline, smart decision-making, and performing under pressure.

To sum up, we want to create strong connections, share useful expertise, and help operators identify the next performance advantage for their business.

What are you planning to showcase at the event?

One of the key things we’ll showcase is our new Sportsbook Managed Trading Services offering. MTS is designed for operators that already have a sportsbook but want to improve trading performance, reduce operational costs, and strengthen risk management without changing their existing frontend or platform. It combines our trading team, sports feed, proprietary odds engine, mathematical models, and real-time risk capabilities to give operators more control over margins and performance.

We’ll also showcase our Crypto Turnkey, built for operators seeking a fast, straightforward way to launch and scale a crypto-focused gaming business. Beyond that, we’ll show the full GR8_TECH portfolio, from the turnkey platform to sportsbook and casino aggregation, as well as several new additions and innovations we’ll announce in the coming weeks. We’ll be demonstrating what our solutions can actually do for operators, helping them enter new markets faster, adapt to specific geos, improve the player experience, and gain more control over their day-to-day operations.

GR8_TECH has recently updated its affiliate management platform, introducing new features. Can you explain the main updates?

We’re giving operators more flexibility in how they structure partnerships while taking more operational complexity out of managing them.

Affiliate programmes are becoming much more sophisticated, so operators need to manage different partner types, commercial models, and network structures without creating a huge amount of manual work.

We’ve expanded the Revenue Share options, so operators can now calculate commissions based on turnover, GGR, net deposits, and NGR. We’ve also introduced unlimited sub-affiliate levels, which is important for businesses managing more complex partner networks.

There are also new custom tagging capabilities, which make it much easier to segment and manage affiliates based on the operator’s own criteria. Plus, on the payments side, we’ve added prepayments for flat-fee plans, with the platform automatically reconciling them against future commissions.

“Affiliate programmes are becoming much more sophisticated, so operators need to manage different partner types, commercial models, and network structures without creating a huge amount of manual work.”

Vardan Hakobyan, head of sales at GR8_TECH.

The company hosted “The Locker Room: World Cup Numbers”. How did this session help operators analyse post-tournament data?

After an event like the World Cup, everyone has a huge amount of data (turnover, margin, acquisition, retention, player activity), but the most valuable thing is knowing how those numbers compare with the wider market and what they actually tell you.

So we brought operators together in “The Locker Room”,  a closed-door environment where everyone shared anonymised benchmarks from across our platform and examined areas such as live betting, staking patterns, peak-load performance, acquisition versus reactivation, and player activity after the final. Just as importantly, we looked at what didn’t work, whether that was a campaign, a product decision, or an operational process.

We sought to help operators challenge their assumptions, identify patterns they may not see in their own reporting, and turn the World Cup into practical learnings they can apply to the next major sporting event.

What are the company’s main challenges for 2027?

The biggest challenge in 2027 is making sure we continue to grow in the right way. The market is becoming more competitive, operators are more selective, and expectations of technology partners are higher than ever. So it’s not enough to have a strong product; you need to clearly demonstrate where you can create business value.

A big focus for us will be expanding into the markets where we see the strongest opportunities, while making sure our proposition is relevant locally. Every operator has different priorities, so the sales conversation has to start with understanding their business, their challenges, and where they see the biggest opportunity for growth.

At the same time, we need to keep shortening the path from opportunity to results. Operators want to launch faster, scale faster, and see a return on investment sooner.

“The market is becoming more competitive, operators are more selective, and expectations of technology partners are higher than ever.”

Vardan Hakobyan, head of sales at GR8_TECH.

Book a meeting with GR8_TECH at the SBC Summit Lisbon to explore your path to igaming championship.