The AIG Rugby Innovation Challenge has come to a close, announcing the five winning apps out of 26 submissions from around the world.
(More about the challenge: The sport of rugby: Now powered by Big Data)
Developers of each app were tasked with integrating one or more data feeds including match results, season rankings and totals, stadium feeds, player profiles and stats, and x/y coordinate data into their apps to enhance the rugby fan experience or to teach users about the sport. The apps can run either on smartphones and tablets, or in desktop and mobile browsers.
The winners, who will receive a combination of cash and promotional prizes, are:
Grand Prize and Popular Choice winner: Ultimate Rugby
One of the few pre-existing apps resubmitted with updated features, Ultimate Rugby took home both the top prize and popular choice awards. On top of the customizable mobile app’s interactive team databases and real-time match functionality, developers added a new UScore feature that tracks local, semi-pro and college rugby clubs on top of professional leagues.
Second Prize: Rugby Advisor
Rugby Advisor is an interactive and visual rugby analysis app that runs in desktop and mobile browsers. The chart- and graph-heavy app gives detailed player and match statistics, along with live streaming capabilities and a built-in Twitter feed.
Third Prize: rugbyHacker
This mobile and Web app sports an immersive design, providing real-time game analysis, plus player and team comparison abilities. It also presents a variety of statistical ratings, rankings and archives of past games embedded in a translucent interface on a rugby pitch background.
#!Best Rugby Education App: STAR COMPARE
STAR COMPARE teaches users the game of rugby through straightforward comparison, putting two players’ or teams’ performance indicators and statistics side-by-side, and even using feed data to generate player silhouettes comparing physical characteristics.
Best App by a University Student: Think you know Rugby?
This educational app has both learning and quizzing functions, allowing users to browse player statistics or test their knowledge with an interactive, randomly generated seven-question quiz.
Judges evaluated each working app—submitted with a demo video and screen shots—based on quality, implementation and potential impact of how the apps integrated rugby data. The judging panel included executives from AIG, Opta Sports, Adidas, USA and International Rugby, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and three New Zealand All Blacks Players.
All told, the data streams made available by data company Opta Sports received more than 400 individual downloads from the 700 developers who registered, according to Brandon Kessler, CEO of ChallengePost. His company provided the platform to organize and run the challenge.
The final breakdown of the 26 submitted apps, according to Kessler, came from 10 different countries including France, India, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand and the U.S. Fifty percent of the apps are optimized for mobile and Web browsers; 30% are Android apps; and 20% run on iOS.
