I would have preferred more detail on prize development, rather than catching headlines with the purse amount. I think McKinsey sums it up for me:

The traditional focus in creating a prize is the initial design—the topic, the judging criteria, and the reward—and the method for determining the winner. But our case studies and interviews with experts suggest that the most successful prize competitions place an equal emphasis on other elements, such as the broader change strategy, the competition itself, and post-award activities designed to enhance the impact of the prize.

Successful prize sponsors think strategically by investing significant resources in prize development long before announcing a purse. The $10 million Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, for example, went through a year-long design phase that involved extensive input from outside experts and potential competitors. Ashoka’s Changemakers competitions solicit input from hundreds of Ashoka fellows and past entrants to create a detailed “discovery framework” that defines the problems to be solved. In both cases, a generous investment of time and resources improves the odds that later investments, by the sponsors and the participants alike, will pay off in social benefits.

While they recognise the power of competition to drive innovation they note such competitions should also recognise the benefits of collaboration:

A great deal of research suggests that collaboration can promote innovation substantially and some prizes actively encourage it. Changemakers, for example, encourages publication of submissions during the competition, generating conversations that often inspire participants to improve their entries before the competion closes.

Hopefully we’ll see some element of this in the competition design.