Sportradar celebrates Innovation Challenge

The Innoventure 7 team was the winner of the Innovation Challenge 2018, celebrated at LAOLA1 offices in Vienna.

Austria.- The Innovation Challenge 2018 drew to a close at LAOLA1 offices in Vienna on Friday as Innoventure 7 were crowned the winning team with their Instant Automatic Sportnews Content Creator.

Following the warm-up day in the Austrian capital at the start of May, all four finalists worked on their ideas with Sportradar mentors before pitching the finished article to a panel of company representatives.

The teams – made up of students from different programmes, courses and universities across Europe – were also given a tour of LAOLA1’s cutting-edge offices to see the state-of-the-art technology and broadcast equipment first hand prior to their final pitches.

After Team EPS, Sport Invest and Team 11 each delivered impressive pitches to the judges, it was Innoventure 7 who were adjudged winners, with a product that looks to aid sports writing with a stats tool using Sportradar’s market-leading data.

They will now receive €1,000 per person as well as further guidance from Sportradar mentors and the possibility for product development or even employment.

Dr Malte Siegle, Head of Sportradar’s University and Research Programme, said: “We were very pleased and excited by the pitches of the finalist teams. The quality was really amazing throughout all the participants and it was a really tough decision. Innoventure 7 ultimately got the prize because their idea was the most convincing one, with the highest innovation factor, a solid market analysis and a valid business case behind it.

“We are very proud to attract such talented teams and entrepreneur through the Innovation Challenge powered by Sportradar and we are very much looking forward to the next editions this autumn in Augsburg, Germany and Tallinn, Estonia.”