leeanna.maharaj@guardian.co.tt
For many avid football fans, nothing compares to the bragging rights that come with correctly predicting the outcome of a match. That is the concept behind the new social football prediction app, Bantryx.
Senior AI consultant at Ernst & Young and avid football fan, 26-year-old Vindev Oudit, said the idea emerged from conversations with his colleagues.
“I created the app, because it’s the kind of thing I would use, and my friends would use. I was talking to a few of my colleagues at work, and we said we wanted something where we could have a social football prediction, and I decided to add my own twist to really capture a wider market and to add a little more strategy into how you make your picks.
“Actually, the name Bantryx comes from banter and picks. So, you have your football banter and then you’re making picks on games,” he explained.
On the app, users can browse upcoming fixtures and predict the winners of each match. Every correct pick earns points, allowing players to climb the leaderboard and compete for bragging rights among friends and fellow football fans.
Oudit noted that while there are numerous sports betting platforms, there is not really one that caters to people who do not want to wager money but still want to banter and make predictions purely for the love of the game. Besides the absence of financial stakes, the app also includes another incentive for users.
“You get more points for picking the underdog rather than the favourite. In most of the common football prediction apps out there, if you pick the underdog, you’re not getting rewarded more in the event they win than if you pick the favourite. That’s why you end up in a situation where everybody just always picks the favourite on those apps. So, this app kind of incentivises a bit more diversity of strategy, and for people to try different things, like if they have a gut feeling, to follow it,” he added.
Oudit said the app had been in development for several years, originally beginning as a prediction algorithm.
“In 2022 for the World Cup I did just a predictor, and in 2024 I modified the predictor, but the thing about just building predictions is that people can’t really interact with that. They look at it and they say okay, cool, that’s about it. Now with the app people can actually interact with it, people can make groups and really bring people together now into a community. It also uses a statistical prediction model in the back end to calculate the scores that users are going to get when they make their picks,” he said.
Oudit stressed that Bantryx is not strictly for football fanatics, but he encourages even non-football fans to join in.
“I know two people that tested the app, who are husband and wife, and the husband watches a lot of football, while the wife doesn’t. She was actually beating him with her picks. So, the way the scoring is set up, there’s actually not as much advantage if you’re really into football.
“I designed it in such a way that non-football fans can also come on and follow along. A lot of the non-football fans are performing quite well. So I’m really hoping to see that carry over so that it’s a really inclusionary space for everyone,” he remarked.
Just two weeks after its launch, the app has already attracted more than 200 users, but Oudit has ambitions for further growth.
“I’m hoping to expand it to other sports. I’ve been consulting with my friends who are cricket fans, Formula One fans, all these other sports, basketball. So, I’m looking at how we can probably adjust that to suit. Alternatively, it would just be to focus on growing it in the football space and potentially adding more features, additional leagues and similar enhancements,” he said.
