I'm not an OP, but I do own a GT HE and play a lot at home & the bars......a few more things to consider..

Are there many bangers in your area or are you just interested in the casual GT player?
How are other OP's machines priced in your area for Live play/stats play/money shot/CTTP?
Don't forget the 'Live' play fee ($99/year for us Home Edition owners)-not sure if/what IT charges OP's....

If youre on FB, this is the group to post your question in.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/GoldenTeeFan/

I've considered doing this also....good luck!

I'm not an OP, but the one I've seen on route allowed you to buy a one and done or I think 3 holes for cheap money. (.25c or .50c).

It can be hard to turn a descent profit unless you have a following at your location.

I had one location where I was making maybe 20-30 bucks a week between 2 machines after a 50/50 split. (not good, I pulled them after 9 months)

I make waaay more then that at my main location, it's just really competitive with operators at different locations. Like who is giving back the most on op gift cards, what prices you have your games set at etc... even after all that golden tee takes their cut and you also have to update your cabinets every year and it isn't cheap. Also computers will need to be updated eventually, it's not like pinball.

So yeah, I would check the Live wire map and see if there are other locations around first and see how they have their stuff set up. If you wind up doing it make sure you will be able to get the cabinet paid off in 2-3 years. Adjust your percentage to make that happen. If your friend is cool with that, then go for it.

Compared to pinball they are 10X easier to maintain. I clean the balls off with a drill buffer every week and clean the buttons out monthly, that's pretty much it. Might be a big issue here or there, but they are pretty easy overall.

in answer to your main questions, no it's not 20% it's .35 cents for most games. Other fees like updates, CC fees, Sprint fees (if you don't use LAN),
Yes use the live version, otherwise they won't be able to do the contest and stuff.

GT Live is a dead game unless you already have a big following. Pieces of shit cost me $3645 plus $365 for that stand. Add $199 for the TV. Fees depend on several factors. Wireless or hardwired connection? Using IT Sprint, add $5/week. Number of online games and prize pool adds to the fees. If you’re only going to own one, it’s $795 annually for updates. What commission split are you going to pay him? I don’t know about Virginia, but you need to know what your amusement machine taxes are. We have a decal in lieu of sales tax, but Maryland collects an astronomical amount monthly.

So let’s say all in, you’re at $4200 for the machine. Runs $100/week (25 rounds). You’ll pay IT approx $26.50/week if you hardwire it to a router. You net $36.75 weekly after fees but pretax. Every year, you pay $795 (plus overnight freight on the updates because if you don’t have it Tuesday, bar patrons will boycott that bar and you better have it installed before happy hour and it has to be done with a thumb drive because IT can’t send it remotely and it takes an hour) and a new Happ trackball (we pay $51 but they’re high anymore if you just buy one) that leaves you $961 annually assuming you don’t lose a Nighthawk CPU ($1000) I/O board ($500), video card ($175) or Mars AE2600 DBA ($375). That’s over 5 years ROI. We have GoldenTees that run over $100/week. We also have more that run less. BTW, after 5 years, you can sell a routed, heavily played pin for close to 65% your initial investment. Guess what a 5 year old, but currently updates GTLive is worth? Less than $2k. And if you don’t update or try to skip, it will seriously run like ZERO dollars a week and IT will back charge for skipping an update year ($100/year back charge). We never skipped but I learned the hard way about buying a used game.

I was born and raised into coin-op. Being a street operator is t as easy as everyone thinks. We do more than drive around and count our money. We’re not greedy and cheap, we’re trying to make a living and not spend ourselves broke. At the end of the day, we have more invested in most locations than the owners.

I don’t mean to be a dick when I say this, but if you’re a hobby pin operator, leave the other stuff to a professional.

I wouldn't say that so much, just do your research. Followings can be built, it just takes a lot of time. Usually you will need at least two to gain that following. Even at that unless it's a high traffic location it still might not work.
It's not so much the fees or anything that suck, its the Operator gift cards that take the biggest chunk out of the earnings. last month alone I gave back close to 2k in gift cards. Gift cards are eared based on how many rounds someone plays.
I do
.25 = 30-50 rounds
.50 = 51- 75 rounds
1.00 = 76-100 rounds
1.50 = 101-200 rounds
2.00 = 200 and up
luckily I only have 3 people that hit the 200 and up, I make almost no money at that point. Plus on top of that all my games are $1 cheaper then the default pricing. Like I was saying it's really competitive here in Houston. Maybe you won't have to do any of that IDK.

Updates vary depending on your machine count, you get a discount if you have more machines. I only have 6 right now and pay 4300 a year
1-2 = 799
3-9 = 699
10-19 = 649
20-29 = 599
30-39 = 549
40 plus = 499

If you can fix a pin these aren't a problem, plus IT has pretty good tech support. Unlike other companies I've dealt with.
there is a reason you see these machines in every bar, but they might not work for everyone and every location.