How ATG Built Observability Into the Core of Its IT Operations

When ATG transitioned from a betting monopoly to a broader gaming company, the technical demands shifted quickly. New services were added. Infrastructure had to scale. Performance became business-critical. Watch the video below to hear Thomas Mårdh, product owner at ATG, tell about their collaboration with Kanari.

The situation 

In 2019, Sweden deregulated its gaming market. ATG moved into sports and casino, launching new digital offerings under pressure and on deadline. Internally, IT operations were evolving just as fast. Teams were restructured. New roles were introduced. And suddenly, monitoring went from background task to business enabler. 

“We launched on New Year’s Eve—and everything worked. But we knew we had to get ahead of things, not just react to them.” 
— Thomas Mårdh, Product Owner, ATG

What was needed? 

The observability setup at the time was fragmented. Tools were in place, but not integrated. Teams were stretched. Thomas needed a platform that could be implemented quickly—and a partner who could help run it while internal capacity caught up. 

“I didn’t have a team. I needed something that worked out of the box—and someone who could run with it.” 
 — Thomas Mårdh 

Why Kanari? 

Kanari stood out for two reasons: their ability to adapt to ATG’s pace, and their willingness to embed. They weren’t selling tools. They were solving a problem. 

The tool selection happened quickly. But it was the collaboration that defined the outcome. Kanari didn’t operate as a vendor. They became part of the day-to-day: attending weekly SRE meetings, working directly in JIRA, and supporting both strategic planning and operational follow-up. 

“They’re in our meetings. They work in our systems. They answer tickets like any internal resource. You don’t think about whether they’re external or not.” 
 — Thomas Mårdh 

The results 

Since 2019, Kanari has helped ATG scale observability across infrastructure, teams, and services. Key outcomes include:

• Unified performance monitoring across teams
• Improved frontend metrics and proactive identification of degrading user experience
• Vendor negotiations and license planning that match actual usage—not assumptions
• Support during infrastructure transitions (on-prem to cloud, hardware replacements, etc.)
• Importantly, observability has moved from a reactive practice to a shared responsibility across operations and development.

“The dev teams are using observability differently now. They don’t just look at logs after something breaks. They want to understand trends, quality, and stability in real time.” 

 — Thomas Mårdh 

What makes the model work? 

• Continuity: The same Kanari resource has supported ATG from day one, with a clear understanding of both the tools and the business.
• Access to expertise: ATG gains a broader perspective through Kanari’s work with other clients, avoiding trial-and-error.
• Neutral guidance: With multiple vendor relationships, Kanari can recommend changes without bias toward a single product. 

“It’s not about the tool. I’m responsible for a service. Kanari helps me deliver that service—efficiently, reliably, and without adding headcount.” 

 — Thomas Mårdh 

What’s next? 

ATG is in the middle of a multi-year cloud migration. The environment will keep changing. But the structure they’ve built with Kanari gives them room to adapt, without resetting every time the platform or strategy evolves.