Nikki Rafiki - Rugby Prediction Game for Android

It all started when we wanted to create awareness and excitement for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in our office.

In 2015 we had a prediction pool; and each colleague was also assigned to a specific team via a lucky draw. The problem was:

Other apps are too complicated to navigate and takes too much time to predict.

The novice found it difficult to predict score margins.

There is no incentive for backing the underdog or minnow teams.

If you missed to predict a couple of games, you were out of contention.

Only colleagues that were assigned to the top four teams had a realistic chance of winning.

What happens if your team is eliminated during the pool stages?

We love rugby and appreciate everything about it: from the camaraderie, the discipline, the competition, all the way to the cheerleaders. And we want everyone in this amazing country to fall in love with this amazing game.

Therefore, we have created the simplest and funnest mobile app to encourage participation and create awareness. Nikki Rafiki For the love of rugby.

Where everyone stands a realistic chance of winning.

Where one can back the underdog and even if they lose the match you can still be a winner.

You dont get penalized when you forgot to make a pick or signup late.

We also realized that there is too much emphasis on just winning a match. And there is no recognition for weaker teams that actually outperforms their abilities and expectations. Therefore, we have introduced the handicap principle - where each team competes with its own ability.

How it worksParticipants get the opportunity to predict the outcome of a rugby match.

But instead of predicting only who the winner is going to be or the margin of the score - the participant must predict who the winner of the match is going to be based on a match handicap (similar to handicaps in golf).

For example, the handicap for the recent match between the Springboks and Japan was -24.5 points. So, the participants had to predict one of three outcomes:

1) Are the Springboks going to beat Japan by more than 24.5 points; or

2) Are the Springboks not going to beat Japan by more than 24.5 points (in other words, is Japan going to lose with less than 24.5 points or draw the match or win the match); or

3) You can choose not to participate in the match

It is as simple as that.

The Springboks in fact won by 34 points. In other words, if you chose option 1 (swiped left) you would have been the winner and awarded 1 point.

If you chose option 2 (swiped right) you would have been awarded 0 point.

And the best of all is - if you forgot to play or chose not to participate you would not have been penalized and instead be awarded point.