No-Code Sports League Launches, Legal Tech Division Planned

Roll up, roll up, to the No-Code Sports League (NCSL) – a new competition for application building that takes place in front of a live audience. Plus, it hopes to launch a legal tech division.

NCSL is the brainchild of New York-based Houman Shadab, a Professor at New York Law School and director of its Innovation Center for Law and Technology. As Shadab explained to this site: ‘This is a League featuring live competitions where ‘no-code athletes‘ compete head-to-head by developing apps and solutions in real time.’

Shadab, who previously also helped to co-found smart contract pioneer, Clause, added: ‘I created the No-Code Sports League because no-code technology enables extremely rapid software development that is actually exciting to watch.

‘Creating software entails widely applicable skills that can be mastered over time, such as automating workflows and sorting data. I found myself really enjoying building software with tools like Bubble and Zapier and doubted I was alone. I do not know of anyone else doing anything like the League.’

Thus far revenue from ticket sales has been awarded to players. The goal is to continue to build out the League and its divisions, eventually adding cash prizes to the winners of the tournaments. A wide variety of no-code software is being used, and for the planned legal tech league, those companies from this side of the tracks are welcome to provide their systems for players to prove their skills with.

You could see this as a kind of collection of mini-hackathons twinned with eSports. As Shadab explained, winning conditions will depend upon the challenge. This could be a race to complete a no-code app to provide lawyers with a certain type of workable application in a given time, or perhaps with the players having to complete a legal tech application in the shortest time possible.

‘The purpose is for competitors to showcase and build their development skills, get paid through ticket sales and sponsorship funds, enable platforms and sponsors to get more attention, and provide entertainment and education for fans,’ he added.

The long-term goal of the No-Code Sports League is to be a bona fide professional sports competition. And all are welcome, young and old. As Shadab noted, a partner at a law firm may be just as good as a tech-savvy student at building a legal application via a no-code platform because the partner will be a tried and tested subject matter expert.

So far, the NCSL has held around 10 live events and the hope is that this will grow and grow as more people take part. People who miss the live events can also watch the recorded matches on demand.

All in all it’s a great way to show what people can do with no-code, but without the need for multiple hours of a hackathon. In fact, in some competitions, where the goal is to finish as fast as possible, the online battles may take place in under 20 minutes. In other cases they may run for an hour.

Either way, the goal is for the contestants and the audience to have a lot of fun.

In terms of the legal tech division of the NCSL, which Artificial Lawyer will be supporting, please get in contact with Houman in New York if you’d like to know more, take part, or allow your software to be used in the competition.

He can be contacted at houman@nocodesports.com

And may the best no-code athletes win! (Or just enjoy taking part.)