Sportradar crown “Team RevolutION” as winners of the Innovation Challenge 2017

ts data technology supplier Sportradar, has announced that “team RevolutION” are the winners of the Innovation Challenge 2017, the latest edition of its mentorship and innovation programme for students in Ljubljana.

Now in its second year, Sportradar’s Innovation Challenge 2017 brought together a group of aspiring young innovators for one month to develop ideas based on sports data use. Sportradar teamed up with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana (FEUL)to run the programme.

This year saw seven teams made up of 23 students from five different faculties join the challenge at the application phase in September. The challenge this year was to develop a product and business model that would re-invent the way sports data is consumed.

Each team delivered their ideas on Saturday 14th October following a whole day of brainstorming with representatives from Sportradar and the University. Together the representatives selected four finalist teams, providing further mentoring and support in bringing their concepts closer to marketability, as part of the competition phase of the challenge.

The four finalists then presented the final results of their teamwork to a jury of experts from the sports data industry on the last day, before the winning team was announced. . The winning team was made up of four aspiring students with backgrounds in computer and information science. Upon winning the Challenge “team RevolutION” also collected a cheque for €4.000.

Indicative of the forward-looking character of the Innovation Challenge, “team RevolutION”’s winning idea was not connected to one of the classic global sports like football, tennis or basketball, but rather focused on the highly popular and exciting esports.

Paying tribute to the winners of the Innovation Challenge 2017, Sportradar’s Malte Siegle, Head of University and Research Program and Innovation Challenge mentor said: ““Team RevolutION” made effective use of Sportradar’s data sets together with its portfolio of live streams and betting odds information. It was good to see an idea that has the potential to significantly change the way fans experience and engage with esports come to life.

“We are very happy with the performance of all teams. It was a real close call and we had intense discussions about who was awarded as the winner. The purpose of the Challenge is to uncover and provide a platform for the next generation of sports data experts, so we are already really looking forward to next year’s edition.”