GR8 Tech puts customisation front and centre of new sportsbook API

With the biggest year in the history of sports betting on the horizon, established operators are united on one priority: the importance of standing out from the crowd.

While the stakes are always high in this notoriously competitive sector, the biggest-ever Fifa World Cup across North America – the world’s No 1 entertainment market – will elevate the competition for sportsbook supremacy to fever pitch.

In a year full of major sporting moments, the 2026 World Cup stands out as the defining event – promising to transcend sport and embed itself into the culture of the 48 participating nations.

The opportunity for operator engagement is unprecedented. According to extensive research published earlier this year by media intelligence platforms Sightly and MAGNA, brands that align themselves with cultural events can triple purchase intent. In sports betting, the potential gains may be even more pronounced.

Gaining greater control

With such lofty targets, major operators are fine-tuning their brand, narrative and user experience surrounding the tournament – and at the heart of this strategy is control.

For sportsbooks that are hoping to win the hearts and minds of a significant segment of the sports betting audience, they want to move beyond basic colour and layout tweaks to deliver a genuinely bespoke user experience.

With this in mind, iGaming and sports betting solutions provider GR8 Tech is positioning its new product, the ULTIM8 Sportsbook API, as the natural transition for operators seeking greater control than is available with iFrames and other platforms.

The API product complements the existing iFrame solution in the ULTIM8 Sportsbook suite and is one of the key pillars of GR8 Tech’s ‘Platform for Champions’.

“Champions never settle; they continue to look for and push for more flexibility, more control, more profitability and security in the products they use,” says GR8 Tech’s head of sportsbook business, Dinos Doxiadis. “These aspects form the USP of our ULTIM8 Sportsbook solution, the whole umbrella.”

iFrame versus API

With iFrame integration, operators can achieve rapid time to market. If communications are flowing well and all the documentation is prepared promptly, the ULTIM8 Sportsbook iFrame can be launched in as little as a week, Doxiadis says.

However, in spite of its flexibility, operators that have established operations, steady revenues and are targeting unique, long-term benchmarks rather than quick wins could require different elements. The API integration helps to satisfy this need by “providing operators with the ability to develop a front end that’s truly their own on the foundation of a really robust back end”.

“Building something of their own comes from ambition, and ambition makes brands stand out.”

For this reason, Doxiadis insists that there is no real competition between these two different integration options, especially because they target different operator needs. On the contrary, he adds, there is a good synergy between the two, with some of their customers opting to start with iFrame while they are building their own front end on the API.

With more operators than ever interested in transitioning to an API infrastructure, Doxiadis is in no doubt that the time is right for the launch of the ULTIM8 Sportsbook API into the marketplace.

“The market has matured to the point where this demand is consistent and specific enough to warrant a dedicated solution,” he says. “Operators have cycled through enough integrations to know exactly what they want to build.”

Why use an API in iGaming

According to GR8 Tech, customised player journeys and real-time personalisation can increase engagement rates by as much as 30%.

However, Doxiadis is the first to acknowledge that a solution tagged as the best sportsbook API in the market is not for every operator. Some may lack either the resources or the appetite for such extensive customisation.

For more mature operators though, the API acts as a natural extension to the iFrame. Indeed, Doxiadis explains that the ULTIM8 Sportsbook API has been created in response to the red-hot demand for customisation options and controls that many operators see as an opportunity today.

By their nature, iFrames are pre-coded, restricting the degree of possible customisation. APIs meanwhile broaden horizons while remaining straightforward to integrate.

“Building something of their own comes from ambition, and ambition makes brands stand out,” Doxiadis says. “Ambitions connect brands with their audiences, who prefer something interesting and distinct to bland and similar any day. To create something of your own, you have full control over it.”

A stepping stone to a proprietary platform?

Doxiadis also outlines how the API serves as a stepping stone on the path to potentially developing a proprietary platform – an option for many mature operators who embrace the ownership mindset.

“Developing a fully proprietary platform is a lengthy and resource-intensive process,” he says. “It takes several years to develop, and some more to stress-test to ensure there are no experience-breaking bugs or that the platform won’t crash when hundreds of thousands of users come in all at once, for example during the FIFA World Cup final.

“At the same time, operators eventually embarking on this quest and opening B2B businesses alongside their operations – or sometimes refocusing entirely – is not unheard of. Being in the iGaming market long enough, you amass such expertise that it becomes a very logical evolution. From this perspective, building your own front end on our API can serve as a training ground of sorts.”

Supporting the integration process

Investing in the back end pays when it comes to developing custom front ends – and GR8 Tech provides a one-stop-shop back end, packaging together various strands including sports, odds, risk, anti-fraud, AI-based personalisation and state-of-the-art CRM.

“Very often, when talking about sportsbook APIs, it truly means a whole bunch of them, all being separate,” Doxiadis adds. “With our API, the operator doesn’t have to chase three, five or even 10 different vendors – they just deal with one.”

As many operators will testify, integrations and migrations can be a headache. According to Doxiadis, GR8 Tech is well aware of this challenge, and is ready to provide support to new customers building via the ULTIM8 Sportsbook API for the first time.

“API is actually one of the easiest integrations there is,” he says. “Even so, with all our integrations, be it Sportsbook API, Hyper Turnkey or even Casino Aggregation, we provide extensive documentation, dedicated integration teams and a chief client officer who guides operators through every step, ensuring that their tech setup fully supports their business goals.

“Each client gets a hyper-care period after we start working together. Platform for Champions isn’t just our promise to the market – it’s a commitment that iGaming champions will find everything they need to succeed with our solutions.”

Growth with GR8 Tech

GR8 Tech’s proven sportsbook covers more than 50 sports and esports, delivering over 180,000 in-play events each month. Doxiadis says the company can curate great experiences for pretty much everyone.

“With over 200 specialists in our in-house trading team, we can meet local demand by adding regional tournaments that are severely underrepresented on other, more global platforms. We offer profitability that lasts and performance that can scale with the business.”

GR8 Tech has a track record of fuelling growth. Now, with the ULTIM8 Sportsbook added API integration part of the portfolio, there is hope that the enriched offering will help sportsbooks to maximise their potential – in the leadup to the 2026 World Cup and beyond.