[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"case-studies":3},[4],{"id":5,"title":6,"atAGlance":7,"body":17,"clientName":343,"clientQuote":344,"clientQuoteAttribution":345,"description":346,"extension":347,"featured":348,"heroImage":349,"industry":350,"keyOutcome":351,"meta":352,"navigation":348,"path":353,"product":354,"readingTime":355,"seo":356,"service":357,"stem":358,"year":359,"__hash__":360},"caseStudies/case-studies/bet-software-hackathon.md","How BET Software Turned a Virtual Hackathon into a High-Signal Talent Acquisition Engine",[8,11,14],{"value":9,"label":10},"2,300+","Applications",{"value":12,"label":13},"160","Finalists invited",{"value":15,"label":16},"90%+","Completion rate vs ±60% typical",{"type":18,"value":19,"toc":327},"minimark",[20,25,29,32,36,39,42,55,59,67,108,111,115,118,128,146,150,153,156,160,163,189,192,196,199,205,211,215,218,225,228,232,235,238,242,245,248,252,255,269,273,276,309,312,315],[21,22,24],"h2",{"id":23},"when-hiring-engineers-becomes-deeply-human","When Hiring Engineers Becomes Deeply Human",[26,27,28],"p",{},"Hiring tools have never been more plentiful, yet the experience of being hired still often feels impersonal. Great engineers are looking for more than a job: they want meaningful work, room to keep learning, a fair process, and a culture that genuinely values engineering.",[26,30,31],{},"Traditional assessments are good at testing an individual's skills in isolation. They are far worse at revealing how someone behaves inside a real team—or what it actually feels like to build something alongside the people you would join. BET Software set out to design a talent-acquisition experience engineers would want to be part of, one that surfaced richer human signals through collaborative, real-world work.",[21,33,35],{"id":34},"why-this-story-matters-now","Why This Story Matters Now",[26,37,38],{},"Every organisation hiring engineers is wrestling with the same three problems: standing out in a crowded talent market, trusting a hiring decision when every CV looks alike, and creating an experience that actually reflects the company's culture.",[26,40,41],{},"This hackathon sits at the intersection of all three. It treats talent acquisition as a designed experience—supported by AI and virtual infrastructure rather than replaced by it. Three questions framed the experiment:",[43,44,45,49,52],"ul",{},[46,47,48],"li",{},"Can a virtual hackathon function as a genuine talent engine, not just a marketing event?",[46,50,51],{},"What behavioural signals emerge during collaborative problem-solving that a CV can never show?",[46,53,54],{},"How do you design an experience that benefits the organisation, the hiring team and the participating engineers equally?",[21,56,58],{"id":57},"a-quick-look-at-the-scale","A Quick Look at the Scale",[26,60,61,62,66],{},"A prize pool of ",[63,64,65],"strong",{},"R50,000"," drew a large, engaged field, which then concentrated stage by stage into a small group of high-signal finishers:",[43,68,69,74,80,85,91,97,103],{},[46,70,71,73],{},[63,72,9],{}," applications",[46,75,76,79],{},[63,77,78],{},"600+"," candidates shortlisted",[46,81,82,84],{},[63,83,12],{}," finalists invited",[46,86,87,90],{},[63,88,89],{},"130+"," participants who took part",[46,92,93,96],{},[63,94,95],{},"50+"," teams formed",[46,98,99,102],{},[63,100,101],{},"40+"," demos delivered",[46,104,105,107],{},[63,106,15],{}," completion rate—well above the ±60% typical of open public hackathons",[26,109,110],{},"Each stage of that funnel signals something different: applications show brand pull, shortlisting shows baseline fit, finalist attendance shows commitment, and demo delivery shows follow-through and resilience under pressure.",[21,112,114],{"id":113},"the-partners-behind-the-weekend","The Partners Behind the Weekend",[26,116,117],{},"The weekend worked because no single organisation had to carry it alone.",[26,119,120,123,124,127],{},[63,121,122],{},"Otinga"," provided the platform infrastructure—handling applications, screening, team formation, judging and the capture of soft-skill signals—and built the virtual venue in ",[63,125,126],{},"Gather.town",". That let BET Software's people spend the weekend mentoring and deciding, not administrating.",[26,129,130,133,134,137,138,141,142,145],{},[63,131,132],{},"OfferZen"," brought developer-community reach and contextualised outreach, connecting the event to engineers who were genuinely a fit. ",[63,135,136],{},"Couchbase",", ",[63,139,140],{},"Confluent"," and ",[63,143,144],{},"Red Hat"," joined as technology and prize partners, grounding the challenges in real production stacks rather than toy problems.",[21,147,149],{"id":148},"the-talent-challenge-standing-out-in-a-noisy-market","The Talent Challenge: Standing Out in a Noisy Market",[26,151,152],{},"BET Software needed engineers who go beyond basic coding competence—people comfortable with the complexity of real payment systems, collaborative under pressure, and attentive to detail.",[26,154,155],{},"The trouble is that strong developers are inundated with recruiter outreach, and interview loops start to feel interchangeable on both sides. Engineers want to know whether a role offers real growth, a fair process and a team culture worth joining—questions a standard interview can't answer. That gap, for both the company and the candidate, is exactly what a shared, real-world experience can close.",[21,157,159],{"id":158},"what-we-built-a-virtual-fintech-talent-hackathon","What We Built: A Virtual FinTech Talent Hackathon",[26,161,162],{},"The answer was a virtual FinTech hackathon built around four deliberate design choices:",[43,164,165,171,177,183],{},[46,166,167,170],{},[63,168,169],{},"Time-boxed focus:"," 36 hours of concentrated, high-energy work.",[46,172,173,176],{},[63,174,175],{},"Real-world payments challenges:"," problems that mirror the kind of work engineers would actually do at BET Software.",[46,178,179,182],{},[63,180,181],{},"Team-based collaboration:"," engineers built in teams, not in isolation.",[46,184,185,188],{},[63,186,187],{},"A clear demo finish line:"," every team worked toward a tangible demo.",[26,190,191],{},"The format felt less like an assessment and more like a compressed product sprint. The FinTech theme attracted engineers who were genuinely interested in the domain; virtual delivery removed logistical barriers to entry; and the structure naturally surfaced ownership, teamwork, communication and resilience—behaviours that are very hard to fake in an interview.",[21,193,195],{"id":194},"the-infrastructure-ai-powered-platform-virtual-venue","The Infrastructure: AI-Powered Platform & Virtual Venue",[26,197,198],{},"Two pieces of infrastructure did the heavy lifting.",[26,200,201,204],{},[63,202,203],{},"Otinga's AI-powered platform"," managed the entire participant journey end to end: applications, screening, team formation, judging rubrics, communications and behavioural-signal capture. That freed BET Software's people to mentor rather than administrate.",[26,206,207,210],{},[63,208,209],{},"The Gather.town virtual venue"," turned what could have been a static grid of video calls into a customised digital space. Avatars moved around and naturally approached teammates, mentors and hiring managers—recreating the energy of a great in-person offsite while remaining entirely online. Together, the two provided structure while preserving genuine human connection.",[21,212,214],{"id":213},"a-talent-funnel-with-real-signal","A Talent Funnel with Real Signal",[26,216,217],{},"The real value was in what each funnel stage revealed.",[26,219,220,221,224],{},"Thousands of applications showed brand resonance. Shortlisting identified baseline technical fit. Finalist attendance showed genuine motivation. And the ",[63,222,223],{},"90%+ completion rate"," proved persistence, accountability, adaptability and ownership—traits that rarely show up in a standard interview but matter enormously on a production team.",[26,226,227],{},"That completion rate is the standout signal. It's roughly 50% higher than the ±60% typical of open public hackathons, and it points to participants who were building alongside committed peers rather than collecting swag—a self-reinforcing cycle of quality engagement.",[21,229,231],{"id":230},"human-centred-hiring-and-the-secret-shopper-lens","Human-Centred Hiring and the \"Secret Shopper\" Lens",[26,233,234],{},"Hiring managers took part as avatars inside Gather.town. Rather than running staged interviews, they moved through the space and observed collaboration, leadership, growth mindset and coachability as they naturally occurred.",[26,236,237],{},"Those observations were translated into structured soft-skill signals: teamwork, learning orientation, response to feedback, initiative and critical thinking. The effect was a high-fidelity window into real on-the-job behaviour for the hiring team—while participants experienced mentoring, not surveillance. Decisions were grounded in lived evidence alongside technical scores.",[21,239,241],{"id":240},"talent-experience-and-brand-moments","Talent Experience and Brand Moments",[26,243,244],{},"Participants pointed to several things they valued: stretching themselves on new tools, connecting with a community of driven peers, meaningful mentorship, and—perhaps unexpectedly—how much they enjoyed the gamified environment.",[26,246,247],{},"Dozens of organic social posts followed, with high engagement, as engineers celebrated their demos and thanked their mentors. That kind of authentic, third-party validation is the most valuable form of employer branding—far more credible than any official campaign.",[21,249,251],{"id":250},"beyond-hiring-impact-for-organisations-participants-and-the-tech-ecosystem","Beyond Hiring: Impact for Organisations, Participants and the Tech Ecosystem",[26,253,254],{},"The impact reached well beyond a single round of hires.",[26,256,257,260,261,264,265,268],{},[63,258,259],{},"For organisations:"," a repeatable, scalable talent model with a richer pipeline grounded in demonstrated behaviour rather than CV claims. ",[63,262,263],{},"For participants:"," compressed learning, an expanded professional network, and a tangible portfolio piece for future conversations. ",[63,266,267],{},"For the ecosystem:"," a signal that transparent, meaningful hiring exists—spaces where emerging and experienced engineers collaborate differently, and a cultural shift toward opportunity visibility and learning-integrated recruitment over purely transactional approaches.",[21,270,272],{"id":271},"lessons-and-what-comes-next","Lessons and What Comes Next",[26,274,275],{},"Five lessons carry forward:",[277,278,279,285,291,297,303],"ol",{},[46,280,281,284],{},[63,282,283],{},"Design talent acquisition as an experience,"," not a pipeline.",[46,286,287,290],{},[63,288,289],{},"Let structure and technology create space for human contact,"," rather than replacing it.",[46,292,293,296],{},[63,294,295],{},"Treat behaviour as a first-class hiring signal,"," alongside technical scores.",[46,298,299,302],{},[63,300,301],{},"Build repeatable models"," that adapt to different roles, teams and regions.",[46,304,305,308],{},[63,306,307],{},"To innovate is human","—the best signals come from watching people do real work together.",[26,310,311],{},"The experiment proved that a virtual format can seriously drive talent acquisition, surface behavioural signals invisible to a CV, and create an experience that benefits everyone involved—establishing reusable patterns for data, platform and security teams across new markets.",[313,314],"hr",{},[26,316,317,320,321,326],{},[63,318,319],{},"Want to turn hiring into a high-signal experience?"," ",[322,323,325],"a",{"href":324},"/contact","Start a conversation"," to learn how Otinga designs and runs innovation hackathons that reveal how people really work.",{"title":328,"searchDepth":329,"depth":329,"links":330},"",2,[331,332,333,334,335,336,337,338,339,340,341,342],{"id":23,"depth":329,"text":24},{"id":34,"depth":329,"text":35},{"id":57,"depth":329,"text":58},{"id":113,"depth":329,"text":114},{"id":148,"depth":329,"text":149},{"id":158,"depth":329,"text":159},{"id":194,"depth":329,"text":195},{"id":213,"depth":329,"text":214},{"id":230,"depth":329,"text":231},{"id":240,"depth":329,"text":241},{"id":250,"depth":329,"text":251},{"id":271,"depth":329,"text":272},"BET Software","The game-style setup was mind-blowing—the Gather environment made it feel better than a physical hack.","Hackathon participant","BET Software ran a 36-hour virtual FinTech Innovation Hackathon with Otinga and OfferZen as partners, as a focused talent-acquisition experiment—designed to reveal how engineers actually think, collaborate and follow through, not just what their CVs claim.","md",true,"/images/case-studies/bet-software-hackathon.png","Financial services","90%+ completion rate (vs ±60% typical)",{},"/case-studies/bet-software-hackathon",null,8,{"title":6,"description":346},"Innovation Hackathon","case-studies/bet-software-hackathon","2025","uupEs-lADOS57K5_0-9Hdfzm0Hm0ol7xQ172CPZVLto"]