[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":574},["ShallowReactive",2],{"case-study-/case-studies/bet-software-hackathon":3,"case-studies-all":360},{"id":4,"title":5,"atAGlance":6,"body":16,"clientName":342,"clientQuote":343,"clientQuoteAttribution":344,"description":345,"extension":346,"featured":347,"heroImage":348,"industry":349,"keyOutcome":350,"meta":351,"navigation":347,"path":352,"product":353,"readingTime":354,"seo":355,"service":356,"stem":357,"year":358,"__hash__":359},"caseStudies/case-studies/bet-software-hackathon.md","How BET Software Turned a Virtual Hackathon into a High-Signal Talent Acquisition Engine",[7,10,13],{"value":8,"label":9},"2,300+","Applications",{"value":11,"label":12},"160","Finalists invited",{"value":14,"label":15},"90%+","Completion rate vs ±60% typical",{"type":17,"value":18,"toc":326},"minimark",[19,24,28,31,35,38,41,54,58,66,107,110,114,117,127,145,149,152,155,159,162,188,191,195,198,204,210,214,217,224,227,231,234,237,241,244,247,251,254,268,272,275,308,311,314],[20,21,23],"h2",{"id":22},"when-hiring-engineers-becomes-deeply-human","When Hiring Engineers Becomes Deeply Human",[25,26,27],"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.",[25,29,30],{},"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.",[20,32,34],{"id":33},"why-this-story-matters-now","Why This Story Matters Now",[25,36,37],{},"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.",[25,39,40],{},"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:",[42,43,44,48,51],"ul",{},[45,46,47],"li",{},"Can a virtual hackathon function as a genuine talent engine, not just a marketing event?",[45,49,50],{},"What behavioural signals emerge during collaborative problem-solving that a CV can never show?",[45,52,53],{},"How do you design an experience that benefits the organisation, the hiring team and the participating engineers equally?",[20,55,57],{"id":56},"a-quick-look-at-the-scale","A Quick Look at the Scale",[25,59,60,61,65],{},"A prize pool of ",[62,63,64],"strong",{},"R50,000"," drew a large, engaged field, which then concentrated stage by stage into a small group of high-signal finishers:",[42,67,68,73,79,84,90,96,102],{},[45,69,70,72],{},[62,71,8],{}," applications",[45,74,75,78],{},[62,76,77],{},"600+"," candidates shortlisted",[45,80,81,83],{},[62,82,11],{}," finalists invited",[45,85,86,89],{},[62,87,88],{},"130+"," participants who took part",[45,91,92,95],{},[62,93,94],{},"50+"," teams formed",[45,97,98,101],{},[62,99,100],{},"40+"," demos delivered",[45,103,104,106],{},[62,105,14],{}," completion rate—well above the ±60% typical of open public hackathons",[25,108,109],{},"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.",[20,111,113],{"id":112},"the-partners-behind-the-weekend","The Partners Behind the Weekend",[25,115,116],{},"The weekend worked because no single organisation had to carry it alone.",[25,118,119,122,123,126],{},[62,120,121],{},"Otinga"," provided the platform infrastructure—handling applications, screening, team formation, judging and the capture of soft-skill signals—and built the virtual venue in ",[62,124,125],{},"Gather.town",". That let BET Software's people spend the weekend mentoring and deciding, not administrating.",[25,128,129,132,133,136,137,140,141,144],{},[62,130,131],{},"OfferZen"," brought developer-community reach and contextualised outreach, connecting the event to engineers who were genuinely a fit. ",[62,134,135],{},"Couchbase",", ",[62,138,139],{},"Confluent"," and ",[62,142,143],{},"Red Hat"," joined as technology and prize partners, grounding the challenges in real production stacks rather than toy problems.",[20,146,148],{"id":147},"the-talent-challenge-standing-out-in-a-noisy-market","The Talent Challenge: Standing Out in a Noisy Market",[25,150,151],{},"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.",[25,153,154],{},"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.",[20,156,158],{"id":157},"what-we-built-a-virtual-fintech-talent-hackathon","What We Built: A Virtual FinTech Talent Hackathon",[25,160,161],{},"The answer was a virtual FinTech hackathon built around four deliberate design choices:",[42,163,164,170,176,182],{},[45,165,166,169],{},[62,167,168],{},"Time-boxed focus:"," 36 hours of concentrated, high-energy work.",[45,171,172,175],{},[62,173,174],{},"Real-world payments challenges:"," problems that mirror the kind of work engineers would actually do at BET Software.",[45,177,178,181],{},[62,179,180],{},"Team-based collaboration:"," engineers built in teams, not in isolation.",[45,183,184,187],{},[62,185,186],{},"A clear demo finish line:"," every team worked toward a tangible demo.",[25,189,190],{},"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.",[20,192,194],{"id":193},"the-infrastructure-ai-powered-platform-virtual-venue","The Infrastructure: AI-Powered Platform & Virtual Venue",[25,196,197],{},"Two pieces of infrastructure did the heavy lifting.",[25,199,200,203],{},[62,201,202],{},"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.",[25,205,206,209],{},[62,207,208],{},"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.",[20,211,213],{"id":212},"a-talent-funnel-with-real-signal","A Talent Funnel with Real Signal",[25,215,216],{},"The real value was in what each funnel stage revealed.",[25,218,219,220,223],{},"Thousands of applications showed brand resonance. Shortlisting identified baseline technical fit. Finalist attendance showed genuine motivation. And the ",[62,221,222],{},"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.",[25,225,226],{},"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.",[20,228,230],{"id":229},"human-centred-hiring-and-the-secret-shopper-lens","Human-Centred Hiring and the \"Secret Shopper\" Lens",[25,232,233],{},"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.",[25,235,236],{},"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.",[20,238,240],{"id":239},"talent-experience-and-brand-moments","Talent Experience and Brand Moments",[25,242,243],{},"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.",[25,245,246],{},"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.",[20,248,250],{"id":249},"beyond-hiring-impact-for-organisations-participants-and-the-tech-ecosystem","Beyond Hiring: Impact for Organisations, Participants and the Tech Ecosystem",[25,252,253],{},"The impact reached well beyond a single round of hires.",[25,255,256,259,260,263,264,267],{},[62,257,258],{},"For organisations:"," a repeatable, scalable talent model with a richer pipeline grounded in demonstrated behaviour rather than CV claims. ",[62,261,262],{},"For participants:"," compressed learning, an expanded professional network, and a tangible portfolio piece for future conversations. ",[62,265,266],{},"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.",[20,269,271],{"id":270},"lessons-and-what-comes-next","Lessons and What Comes Next",[25,273,274],{},"Five lessons carry forward:",[276,277,278,284,290,296,302],"ol",{},[45,279,280,283],{},[62,281,282],{},"Design talent acquisition as an experience,"," not a pipeline.",[45,285,286,289],{},[62,287,288],{},"Let structure and technology create space for human contact,"," rather than replacing it.",[45,291,292,295],{},[62,293,294],{},"Treat behaviour as a first-class hiring signal,"," alongside technical scores.",[45,297,298,301],{},[62,299,300],{},"Build repeatable models"," that adapt to different roles, teams and regions.",[45,303,304,307],{},[62,305,306],{},"To innovate is human","—the best signals come from watching people do real work together.",[25,309,310],{},"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.",[312,313],"hr",{},[25,315,316,319,320,325],{},[62,317,318],{},"Want to turn hiring into a high-signal experience?"," ",[321,322,324],"a",{"href":323},"/contact","Start a conversation"," to learn how Otinga designs and runs innovation hackathons that reveal how people really work.",{"title":327,"searchDepth":328,"depth":328,"links":329},"",2,[330,331,332,333,334,335,336,337,338,339,340,341],{"id":22,"depth":328,"text":23},{"id":33,"depth":328,"text":34},{"id":56,"depth":328,"text":57},{"id":112,"depth":328,"text":113},{"id":147,"depth":328,"text":148},{"id":157,"depth":328,"text":158},{"id":193,"depth":328,"text":194},{"id":212,"depth":328,"text":213},{"id":229,"depth":328,"text":230},{"id":239,"depth":328,"text":240},{"id":249,"depth":328,"text":250},{"id":270,"depth":328,"text":271},"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 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