ICC and NIUM announce Global Hackathon winning idea set to improve the digital cricket fan experience

The ICC and Nium, the global platform for on-demand money movement, have announced the winning idea for the first ever “Next In” global hackathon from over 9550 teams, with the aim of changing the way fans experience cricket and to engage a younger audience.

In an exclusive event held in Bengaluru, the winning idea was presented by team ‘Fanisko’. Their solution offers an enhanced live cricket viewing experience through 3D Augmented Reality, allowing users to play the game in real time from the comfort of their homes. The team’s solution is based on Web AR technology, can integrate within the ICC app and offers in-depth player insights, bringing cricket spectators closer to the action.

The event saw five passionate teams shortlisted, and invited to present their concepts and creations to a panel of prestigious judges including Hackathon Ambassador, Dinesh Karthik.

The other teams in the Finale explored various other aspects of digital fan engagement from a rewards based crypto solution to immersive metaverse experiences and a location based social media application catered around cricket events.

The “Next In” Hackathon, kicked off in January and saw 12,500 individuals form over 9550 teams from 113 countries, including over 1000 registrants from the USA, a strategic priority market for both the ICC and Nium. Ideas were submitted across four key areas; Web3 & Metaverse, Fintech, In-stadia experience and Augmented or Virtual Reality (AR/VR).

From the concepts submitted 32% focused on improving the experience of a fan going to watch a match in the stadium, while 28% centred on the use of AR/VR technologies to create a fan engagement activity or game.

Throughout the idea-submission process each key area had a dedicated set of mentors, who are experts in their respective fields, guiding the teams to meet the below criteria:

Technically feasibility
Financial feasibility
Potential Business impact
Implementation and scalability
The registered teams were from a variety of different backgrounds including schools, colleges, corporate business and start-ups, with an average age of 26.

ICC Head of Digital, Finn Bradshaw said: The “Next In” Hackathon has been an incredible exercise in unearthing some of the most innovative solutions from the global tech community. As we went through this journey for the first time with NIUM, what was really exciting was seeing fans from over a 100 countries engage with our sport. Today we are proud to have crowned Fanisko as winners and believe their prototype has the potential to become a favourite product for cricket fans.”

Team Lead for Fanisko, Venugopal Rajagopalan said: “We at team Fanisko are thrilled to have won this exciting Hackathon organised by the ICC in partnership with NIUM and Hack2skill. It took a ton of planning and lots of iterations to get it absolutely right as we faced a few unique challenges of being in different countries and time-zones. What helped was the common vision and understanding that we had about the process and the desired output. We would like to thank the ICC, NIUM and Hack2skill for providing this opportunity to us to display our capabilities. We really look forward to working with them and executing this idea in the coming few months.”

“All of the entries in the Next In Hackathon showed how technical innovation are flourishing in the global cricket community,” said Jeremiah Glodoveza, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at Nium. “On behalf of the 1000 cricket fans at Nium working on the most-challenging problems in finance, thank you to all our participants and congratulations to the winners. The future of fan engagement is bright and I cannot wait to see some of these ideas become part of the game.”

Hackathon Ambassador Dinesh Karthik said: “Cricket has always embraced innovation, no matter what your role – broadcaster, player or fan. As broadcasters we rely heavily on technology to enhance the viewing experience & as players we’ve seen first-hand the benefits of performance & data analysis. But, today, as a fan, I am very much looking forward to what these ideas mean for the future of cricket experiences”

Next In Hackathon Judges

Dinesh Karthik – Hackathon Ambassador
Finn Bradshaw – ICC Head of Digital
Jaya Kapur – Nium Vice President, Product Management
Joaquin Ayuso De Paul – Nium Head of Crypto & Web3
Unmish Parthasarathi – Picture Board Partners, Founder & Executive Director