Saudi Arabia holds first sports-based AI hackathon

Hundreds of computer programmers, developers and tech heads took part on Friday in the first sports-related Artificial Intelligence (AI) hackathon, the Dawri Thakaa event, in Riyadh, the Centre for International Communication (CIC) said in a statement.

Also read: Saudi Arabia organizes world's largest health hackathon

The event comes on the heels of the Kingdom making AI a national priority as a key enabler in realizing many ambitious transformation programs.

In the event, one hundred and fifty teams of programmers and data scientists competed to develop AI models that can predict the results of the upcoming matches in the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Cup League for football (soccer). A total of 500 teams had registered to take part in the hackathon.

The hackathon was organized by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) in partnership with the AI Center of Advanced Studies (Thakaa Center) and sponsored by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the General Sports Authority.

“The Thakaa hackathon tournament is the first-time technological sports hackathon using AI techniques designed specifically to discover the skills of amateurs and specialists in AI,” SAFCSP said in a statement.