From Stalled Roadmap to a $975M Acquisition: How SBTech Built Its Engineering Team with Alcor

Eastern Europe
Engineering Infrastructure Setup
Hard-to-Find Tech Skills
High-Volume Hiring

HQ: Douglas, Isle of Man
Company size: 1,001-5,000
Funding raised: Acquired
Lead investors: by DraftKings
Team location: Eastern Europe

Cooperation time: 2 years
Product: Full-stack sports betting technology
Notable clients: Aspire Global, GoldenRace, Bet.co.za, ORYX Gaming

SBTech: recruitment process outsourcing

SBTech is an Isle of Man-based sports betting technology company building full-stack platform solutions for over 50 partners worldwide. In 2020, it merged with DraftKings in a $975M deal – becoming the technology backbone of the first vertically integrated pure-play online sports betting company on Nasdaq, with the combined entity valued at $3.3B.

Issue

SBTech’s search had been running for months. Twenty positions. Multiple agencies. Thousands of candidate profiles reviewed, dozens of interviews run – and a growing sense that something in the process was broken.

The agencies kept searching. The positions kept sitting open.

The problem wasn’t effort. It was each. Standard recruitment pipelines work for visible candidates – engineers who are actively looking, already on the market, and already being contacted by everyone else. Ukraine’s senior engineering talent in sports betting technology is a different category. These are specialists who are employed, experienced, and not responding to cold outreach from a shared database.

Strategic processes were on hold. Each week without the right engineers, the roadmap didn’t move.

SBTech needed a recruitment partner that could go deeper into Ukraine’s talent market than any agency had managed – and own the outcome, not just run the search.

Solution

Alcor ran the search and tracked conversion patterns simultaneously – all within a tight 1-month deadline.

Executive Search among SBTech’s direct competitors in Ukraine. Dedicated headhunters targeting employed engineers who weren’t on any active candidate list. A single Customer Operations Manager who owned the process end-to-end and kept the conversation with SBTech’s leadership open throughout.

Ten positions closed fast. The other ten revealed the pattern Alcor had been watching: the pipeline was strong, but conversion on the two hardest roles was zero. The requirements were the wall. Alcor laid out the findings and made a direct recommendation.

SBTech reconsidered the spec. The wall came down. The roles closed.

With the team in place, Alcor handled payroll, accounting, and compliant employment – so SBTech’s leadership had nothing to manage on the ground. The processes that had been waiting started running.

Results:

16 top-tier hires, 1 month

Alcor closed 16 of SBTech’s 20 open roles in thirty days – more than the combined output of three other agencies on the same brief. The business had been waiting months for this.

Senior hires that stuck

Alcor sourced top-10% .NET engineers from Ukraine’s senior market. 98.6% probation pass rate. Over 15% of vacancies closed on the very first CV presented. 98.6% probation pass rate. Not a batch of hires – a team that embedded, performed, and stayed.

Same talent. 40% lower cost

SBTech’s senior engineering team cost significantly less than equivalent hiring in Western Europe or the US – not because of a quality trade-off, but because of Ukraine’s cost base and Alcor’s EOR model with no hidden markups.

Full tech team integration

Engineers were screened for cultural fit before the first interview. From day one, they worked directly under SBTech’s leadership – aligned to the roadmap, no intermediary layer.

Human-first support

SBTech’s team had a dedicated Customer Operations Manager. Every question, every issue, every request was owned by one person and resolved without a support queue in sight.

Compliant employment, no overhead

Alcor handled payroll, accounting, and compliant employment in Ukraine under its EOR model – so SBTech’s leadership never had to deal with local employment law or administrative overhead.

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Alcor Helped Build the Foundation for Everything That Followed

2018

Alcor begins building SBTech’s Ukrainian engineering team

2019

SBTech powers Oregon Lottery’s Scoreboard, the first US lottery-run online sportsbook

2019

DraftKings acquires SBTech in a $975M three-way SPAC merger with DEAC, valuing the combined company at $3.3B

2020

Merger closes; DraftKings lists on Nasdaq, with SBTech powering its vertically integrated betting platform

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Clients Love Us. Teams Do Too.

“The Alcor team has always been supportive and approachable whenever assistance was needed. Rather than feeling like an external resource, engineers working through Alcor are able to integrate closely with the client’s teams. This creates a more collaborative environment and allows engineers to have a greater impact.”

Germán Parodi Senior QA Automation Engineer

“My overall experience has been outstanding. Alcor’s model offered the right balance — strong operational support combined with genuine ownership and long-term collaboration. In this model, I am a core member of the team. Rather than rotating between projects, I can invest meaningfully in improving the product and establishing processes that deliver lasting value.”

Oleksandr Artemenko Senior QA Engineer

“Whenever I’ve had tricky bank requests or needed extra documentation, Alcor has resolved everything rapidly. I also love their support with business trips and expense tracking—it’s incredibly convenient. Their team is always available via messenger and ready to help. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a hassle-free professional life!”

Yevhen Kochetkov Staff Software Engineer

“Alcor has been a reliable partner throughout, especially in complex situations. Issues are resolved quickly — often within minutes or hours. Their ability to adapt and support us in complex situations has made a real difference for our team.”