All Case Studies

GridRival: Driving High Performance & Winning Fans

  • SERVICES

  • Technical Architecture

  • Development

  • UI/UX Design

  • TECHNOLOGY

  • React Native

  • Node.js

  • Laravel

The Ultimate Fantasy Platform for Motorsport Fans

Founded in 2019, GridRival's mission is to give motorsports enthusiasts a new way to engage with their favorite sports. They aim to create authentic, engaging experiences with real-time, cash-based fantasy games, industry leading content and a community of like-minded race fans.

From Scaling Challenges to Market Leadership

In late 2023, GridRival was scaling fast but hit technical roadblocks that were limiting their growth potential. To meet their ambitious goals, they recognized the platform needed enhanced performance, particularly for Android users, and saw an opportunity to not only address technical challenges but to fundamentally reimagine their approach to user engagement.

Laying the Groundwork to Scale Faster—and Smarter

Working closely with GridRival's team, we rebuilt the technical foundation from the ground up, consolidating programming languages and cutting infrastructure costs by 50% while dramatically increasing uptime. Our comprehensive approach tackled multiple critical areas simultaneously:


  • Drove major performance gains while building for future scalability, ensuring the platform could handle rapid user growth without compromising the user experience that motorsport fans demanded.
  • Expanded behavior tracking across the platform to enable faster iteration and better prioritization, moving from minimal coverage to meaningful insights across key user flows that informed every subsequent product decision.
  • Enhanced user acquisition and retention strategies, driving rapid growth in paid users through data-driven optimization of conversion funnels and user engagement patterns.

This technical transformation enabled GridRival to implement enhanced acquisition and retention strategies, ultimately leading to exponential player growth. With this robust foundation in place, we made comprehensive UX improvements focused on the unique needs of motorsport fans.

What ended up happening is we reduced our infrastructure cost by half. We cut half out of our infrastructure spend and we increased our uptime by whole percentage points and we increased our overall performance in the app by taking whole seconds out of the critical path of the game." 

Michael UrcinoliCTO, GridRival

Enhancing the Fantasy Gaming Experience

Our approach began with a comprehensive UI/UX audit that identified opportunities where rapid scaling had created design debt. We categorized improvements by development effort to prioritize quick wins versus larger initiatives, establishing a strategic roadmap for transformation.

Optimizing the Path to Revenue

Through data analysis, we identified that early verification was crucial for driving paid game participation. We redesigned the entire conversion funnel across three strategic phases to:

  • Incorporate verification into onboarding for eligible users
  • Create personas that informed targeted messaging and promotional strategies throughout the experience
  • Create more compelling reward messaging
  • Consolidate deposit steps to build trust and reduce friction
  • Form redesign to reduce steps and friction

Elevating the Betting Interface

We restructured the app architecture to make paid games the central focus. The navigation overhaul and redesign of interactive elements made content highly discoverable and with genuine engagement with:

  • Updated global navigation
  • Re-categorized and designed interactive elements encouraging increased participation
  • Expanded playable markets 
  • Restructured design enabling future promotions
  • An updated entry slip, highlighting potential earnings and allowing correlated bets for increased participation
  • Improved hierarchy of information and encouraged referrals with updated header and on-page navigation

Increasing Participation in Paid Games

Previously, wins went uncelebrated and were difficult to share. We introduced prominent animated win celebrations that not only increased the excitement of victory but made sharing seamless, encouraging organic referrals and community growth.


Strategic promotion placement within Leagues highlighted potential wins and low-risk opportunities, directly increasing participation in paid games.

Whitespectre proves you don't need to choose two from cheap, fast, or good, as the saying goes. You can find a partner who gives you all three... When I met the team, I had the feeling 'this is dialed in'.”

Michael UrcinoliCTO, GridRival

A Championship Platform Built for Growth

The transformation of GridRival demonstrates how strategic technical and design improvements can drive exponential business growth. By addressing fundamental infrastructure challenges while simultaneously reimagining the user experience, we helped GridRival evolve from a rapidly scaling platform to the official fantasy sports app for IndyCar. 

The combination of reduced costs, improved performance, and user-centered design created a sustainable foundation for continued growth in the competitive fantasy sports market. GridRival now stands as a premium destination for motorsports fans, equipped with the technical capabilities and user experience excellence needed to capture and retain their passionate community.

  • Exponential paid user growth across 2024/25
  • 25% YoY increase in retention
  • 3.4 to 4.6: Increase in App Store rating from 2023 to 2025
  • Became Official Fantasy Sports App for IndyCar in 2025
  • 50% Reduction in infrastructure costs
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