The NRL launches new Holden State of Origin Trivia Bot via VML to take on diehard fans

As the nation readies for Game 2 of the 2016 Holden State of Origin series, the NRL and VML, are spearheading the State of Origin Trivia Bot to challenge the most fanatical State of Origin fan.

Named after the event’s initials, SOO, the Holden State of Origin Trivia Bot is primed with its knowledge of Australia’s greatest sporting rivalry, delivering intense rounds of Origin trivia offset by cheeky one-liners. The NRL’s million-plus Facebook fans can step up to take on the bot across mobile and desktop by visiting https://m.me/StateOfOriginOfficial or searching for @StateOfOriginOfficial on Facebook Messenger to trigger the bot into action.

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The fully autonomous bot, is housed within the NRL’s State Of Origin Facebook Messenger account and utilises Facebook’s recent announcement of its bots for the Messenger Platform, which is currently in BETA, with the NRL quietly becoming the first sports code in the world to launch on the platform in late May.

Says Matt Henry, head of social media at the NRL: “The Origin Bot is part of an ongoing focus at the NRL to be on the forefront of digital and social media innovation. Working closely with Facebook and VML gives us a great opportunity to gather insights and work with emerging digital and social media technologies within the sporting landscape. In this example, we have the opportunity to work with Facebook’s Messenger platform through its BETA stage to test and learn while seeing what’s possible with the new technology.”

Says Aden Hepburn, managing director and ECD at VML: “SOO is the first entertaining phase of the NRL’s entry into the world of bots, opening up opportunities for a much deeper and more intelligent future on the horizon. Although this Bot is more trivia mogul, than an advanced Artificial Intelligence Chat Bot, it’s designed to engage NRL fans while providing an experimentation platform for the NRL to garner learnings and insights for future possibilities around customer service and information delivery.”

Says Jason Juma-Ross, head of technology at Facebook Australia and New Zealand: “We initially envisioned Bots to provide anything from automated subscription content like weather and traffic updates, to customised communications like receipts, shipping notifications, and live automated messages. The NRL’s innovation applies this technology several steps further by entertaining fans before and after the game.”

The NRL’s Messenger Bot, ‘SOO’, is expected to deliver hundreds of thousands of trivia rounds with fans around the world during the rest of the series. The Beta release of ‘SOO’ will see it continually evolve as fans interact and engage with the Bot.