Ahead of the start of next month’s Women’s World Cup, FIFA have announced the launch of a virtual hackathon in partnership with software development platform Github.

The scheme, called ‘Give Voice to Football’, will focus on voice technology and will call upon developers to put their creative skills to use by coming up with ways in which football’s global governing body can “engage with fans and the wider football community through digital technology, as well as exploring how to democratise innovation in football and create better experiences and services to enhance the overall fan experience.”

FIFA notes that, there were 2.5 billion digital voice assistants – that is, devices using Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa etc – in use at the end of 2018. But by 2023, that will rise to an estimated 8 billion. The challenge, then, is how best to leverage that trend and ensure that FIFA can best serve fans around the world.

In particular, the hackathon looks to integrate voice assistant technology with football events and match data, and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Fit to the topic
• Quality and innovative nature of the product idea/demo
• Utility of the product idea/demo
• Compelling use of FIFA data/APIs

The winners of the challenge will each win two tickets to the final of the Women’s World Cup in Lyon on 7th July.