VfB Stuttgart host its first sports hackathon
01 April 2019 – VfB Stuttgart is a long-standing club and can be proud to call itself one of the Bundesliga’s founding members. Building on this rich history, the club is opening up new perspectives: The city that gave the world Daimler, Mercedes and Porsche is once more at the forefront of technological innovation – only this time in the world of football. At VfB’s first-ever sports hackathon, held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on 27 and 28 February, creative minds and deep thinkers came together to plot new ways of modernising the game.
‘As a traditional club, we also have to face the future,’ admitted Christian Ruf, VfB’s digital business and fan services coordinator.
Thirty entrepreneurs took part in the hackathon. They were split into ten groups of three based on the ‘hipster, hacker and hustler’ principle. Each was tasked with coming up with innovative solutions to traditional football issues.
22 April 2020 – Last weekend, the “Bundesliga Home Challenge” organised by the DFL was successfully concluded after 116 individual games and 480 goals. Over four match days, 29 clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 as well as a team of referees played a part in bridging the football-free period.
Besides numerous players from the two top leagues of German professional football and the team of referees, players who are involved with the clubs were also able to put their console skills to the test, which increased the total number of players to 110. As a finale on the fourth weekend, there was a derby match day featuring a multitude of local derbies and some classic clashes such as Borussia Dortmund – FC Schalke 04, Borussia Mönchengladbach – 1. FC Köln and Hamburger SV – FC St. Pauli.
The “Bundesliga Home Challenge” was broadcast nationally and internationally by a large number of media partners. In Germany, media outlets including Pro7/ran, Sky, DAZN, Bild and Sport1 broadcast the home challenge online and on television. On average, the action reached more than two million users on each match day. All the highlights and the top statistics from the four match days are available at bundesliga.com.
The game is played in the football simulation FIFA 20 by EA SPORTS exlusively on PlayStation 4 in the “85 mode“. This mode guarantees that all teams have the same player rating of 85, so all teams have the same chance of winning. The “Bundesliga Home Challenge” did not influence any official league standings. Meanwhile in the Virtual Bundesliga, the VBL Grand Final, which originally had been planned for March as an event attended in person, was postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus.
The following clubs and players from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 participated in the Bundesliga Home Challenge:
FSV Mainz 05: Jonathan Burkhardt / Leandro Barreiro / Florian Müller / Daniel Brosinski, 1. FC Köln: Noah Katterbach / Rafael Czichos, 1. FC Nürnberg: Tim Handwerker / Felix Schimmel, 1. FC Union Berlin: Keven Schlotterbeck / Julius Kade, Bayer 04 Leverkusen: Adrian Stanilewicz / Nadiem Amiri / Wendell, Borussia Dortmund: Achraf Hakimi / Eldin Todorovac / Leonardo Balerdi /, Borussia Mönchengladbach: Jonas Hofmann, DSC Arminia Bielefeld: Amos Pieper / Andreas Voglsammer, Eintracht Frankfurt: Nils Stendera, FC Augsburg: Marco Richter, FC Schalke 04: Nassim Boujellab, FC St. Pauli: Luca Zander / Marvin Knoll, Hamburger SV: Tim Leibold / Sonny Kittel, Hannover 96: Jannes Horn / Julian Korb, Hertha BSC: Pascal Köpke / Maximilian Mittelstädt, Holstein Kiel: Dominik Schmidt, RB Leipzig: Tom Krauss / Nordi Mukiele, SC Freiburg: Mark Flekken / Nico Schlotterbeck, SC Paderborn 07: Marlon Ritter / Lucas Fiedler, SG Dynamo Dresden: Justin Löwe / Marcel Gramann/ Baris Atik, Marco Terrazzino, SpVgg Greuther Fürth: Timothy Tillman, SSV Jahn Regensburg: Tom Baack / Federico Palacios, SV Darmstadt 98: Felix Platte / Erich Berko, SV Wehen Wiesbaden: Sascha „M_0cki“ Mockenhaupt / Sidney Friede, SV Werder Bremen: Davie Selke / Milos Vejlkovic / Maximilian Eggestein, TSG Hoffenheim: Munas Dabbur, VfL Bochum 1848: Ulrich Bapoh / Vitaly Janelt, VfB Stuttgart: Atakan Karazor, VfL Wolfsburg: Lino Kasten, Schiedsrichter-Team: Deniz Aytekin / Daniel Schlager / Martin Petersen
One group came up with the idea that fans literally energise their clubs with emotion and movement on match day. Another group dealt with the issue of supporter mobility and ways of making it easier for fans to travel to and from games by informing them about alternative means of transport.
A third group looked at developing a system of sports performance analysis that would allow a coach to access real-time data on how each player is performing during a match, while yet another developed an app that would allow eSport enthusiasts to find partners in real life as well as online. This latter field is already booming in Germany, with Werder Bremen recently becoming the first winner of the VBL Club Championship and VfB Stuttgart the vice champion.
Hundreds of people from all parts of Germany applied to take part in the sports hackathon, which was also supported by the regional business development company Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH. They came from wide-ranging backgrounds and included software developers, hardware specialists, designers and marketing and concept professionals. Many had already founded start-ups, something that fits well with VfB’s philosophy. ‘We are looking for ideas that can be used either as a solution for internal use or for start-ups,’ added Ruf.
22 April 2020 – Last weekend, the “Bundesliga Home Challenge” organised by the DFL was successfully concluded after 116 individual games and 480 goals . Over four match days, 29 clubs from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 as well as a team of referees played a part in bridging the football-free period and entertaining the fans.
Besides numerous players and the team of referees, players who are involved with the clubs were also able to put their console skills to the test, which increased the total number of players to 110. As a finale on the fourth weekend, there was a derby match day featuring a multitude of local derbies and some classic clashes such as Borussia Dortmund – FC Schalke 04, Borussia Mönchengladbach – 1. FC Köln and Hamburger SV – FC St. Pauli.
The “Bundesliga Home Challenge” was broadcast nationally and internationally by a large number of media partners. In Germany, media outlets including Pro7/ran, Sky, DAZN, Bild and Sport1 broadcast the home challenge online and on television. On average, the action reached more than two million users on each match day. All the highlights and the top statistics from the four match days are available at bundesliga.com.
The “Bundesliga Home Challenge” did not influence any official league standings. Besides the outstanding match days in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, the VBL Grand Final, which had been planned for March as an event attended in person, was postponed due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Participating clubs and players
FSV Mainz 05: Jonathan Burkhardt / Leandro Barreiro / Florian Müller / Daniel Brosinski, 1. FC Köln: Noah Katterbach / Rafael Czichos, 1. FC Nürnberg: Tim Handwerker / Felix Schimmel, 1. FC Union Berlin: Keven Schlotterbeck / Julius Kade, Bayer 04 Leverkusen: Adrian Stanilewicz / Nadiem Amiri / Wendell, Borussia Dortmund: Achraf Hakimi / Eldin Todorovac / Leonardo Balerdi /, Borussia Mönchengladbach: Jonas Hofmann, DSC Arminia Bielefeld: Amos Pieper / Andreas Voglsammer, Eintracht Frankfurt: Nils Stendera, FC Augsburg: Marco Richter, FC Schalke 04: Nassim Boujellab, FC St. Pauli: Luca Zander / Marvin Knoll, Hamburger SV: Tim Leibold / Sonny Kittel, Hannover 96: Jannes Horn / Julian Korb, Hertha BSC: Pascal Köpke / Maximilian Mittelstädt, Holstein Kiel: Dominik Schmidt, RB Leipzig: Tom Krauss / Nordi Mukiele, SC Freiburg: Mark Flekken / Nico Schlotterbeck, SC Paderborn 07: Marlon Ritter / Lucas Fiedler, SG Dynamo Dresden: Justin Löwe / Marcel Gramann/ Baris Atik, Marco Terrazzino, SpVgg Greuther Fürth: Timothy Tillman, SSV Jahn Regensburg: Tom Baack / Federico Palacios, SV Darmstadt 98: Felix Platte / Erich Berko, SV Wehen Wiesbaden: Sascha „M_0cki“ Mockenhaupt / Sidney Friede, SV Werder Bremen: Davie Selke / Milos Vejlkovic / Maximilian Eggestein, TSG Hoffenheim: Munas Dabbur, VfL Bochum 1848: Ulrich Bapoh / Vitaly Janelt, VfB Stuttgart: Atakan Karazor, VfL Wolfsburg: Lino Kasten
Referee Team
Deniz Aytekin / Daniel Schlager / Martin Petersen
The 30 participants pitched their proposals to an expert panel of judges featuring representatives from the football club, its business partners and other local sponsors and investors. Six teams were then chosen to take part in VfB Partner Day, which took place on 5 March. There they were given the chance to further discuss their projects with the club and other experts.