Leading sports betting company slashes data migration time by 3+ months with Datafold

Challenge

This sports betting leader was tackling a massive Redshift-to-Databricks migration while navigating the complex waters of the highly regulated gaming industry. Their sprawling data ecosystem—packed with multiple source systems and critical downstream outputs for regulatory compliance—couldn't afford even a moment's inconsistency. With costly legacy clusters draining resources and mounting maintenance overhead, the stakes were high for a seamless transition.

Solution

The team engineered a dual-pipeline architecture that kept both systems running in perfect harmony. By deploying Datafold's powerful validation capabilities across three critical fronts—raw source data, complex business logic, and regulatory reporting outputs—they established an unshakable foundation in Databricks while positioning dbt as their single source of truth for data transformation. This approach allowed them to methodically validate each component of their data ecosystem as they migrated to the Databricks and dbt combination.

Results

The implementation delivered immediate impact across the organization. In addition to about an hour of savings validating every dbt table migrated, engineers estimated that they'd save 3-4 days of work on each of the complex regulatory reports. Total time savings has already amounted to 3+ months of work for the team. Beyond time saved, developer satisfaction soared as teams embraced streamlined workflows with crystal-clear audit trails.

While the meters were still running on both platforms, the betting company maintained flawless operations throughout the transition. The team was able to firmly establish confidence in the Databricks environment, accelerating their timeline and enabling them to earn signoff on key components while the larger migration continued.

Conclusion

This leading sports betting platform's strategic use of Datafold's cross-database validation capabilities transformed what could have been a painful migration ordeal into a highly efficient exercise in building stakeholder trust. By maintaining ironclad data integrity throughout the process, they've demonstrated how even the most complex migrations can accelerate without compromise—particularly vital for organizations navigating strict regulatory requirements.

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