Software Vendors Score With World Cup Soccer Analysis and Wagering

Published: June 13, 2006

by Alex Woodie

In yet another example of the global appeal of the iSeries--and a sure sign of the negative impact that major sporting events have on programmer productivity--a couple of OS/400 software vendors have drawn up new Web applications that help fans follow the World Cup.

At worldcup.qliktech.com, Swedish-American business intelligence software vendor QlikTech has put together a slick Web site where soccer (or even football) fans can analyze the reams of World Cup data, including goals per team, assists per player, yellow cards per nation, and even bar fights per capita (OK, we made up the last metric, but rest assured--Americans are passionate about their soccer.) The tie-in to business is that the Web site was built with QlikView, QlikTech's Windows-based analysis suite.

Meanwhile, the Kiwis and the Germans have teamed up to provide us with an interactive wagering Web site at www.goering.de/wm2006/en/html/frame_index.htm. The Web site is hosted by Goering iSeries Solutions, a German software company, and uses looksoftware's Web enablement tools for iSeries servers. Participants who most closely guess the score of all the World Cup games can win an iPod. Now THAT'S something worth fighting for!