WO2010134983A1 - Pointage de competition multiple avec prediction souple - Google Patents

Pointage de competition multiple avec prediction souple Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2010134983A1
WO2010134983A1 PCT/US2010/001480 US2010001480W WO2010134983A1 WO 2010134983 A1 WO2010134983 A1 WO 2010134983A1 US 2010001480 W US2010001480 W US 2010001480W WO 2010134983 A1 WO2010134983 A1 WO 2010134983A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
participant
computer
tournament
competition
instructions
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Application number
PCT/US2010/001480
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English (en)
Inventor
Michael Scott Ehrlich
Original Assignee
Betterofficepool Corporation
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Betterofficepool Corporation filed Critical Betterofficepool Corporation
Priority to US13/321,043 priority Critical patent/US20120244947A1/en
Priority to EP10778044.7A priority patent/EP2433237A4/fr
Publication of WO2010134983A1 publication Critical patent/WO2010134983A1/fr

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/04—Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem"
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q50/00—Information and communication technology [ICT] specially adapted for implementation of business processes of specific business sectors, e.g. utilities or tourism
    • G06Q50/34—Betting or bookmaking, e.g. Internet betting

Definitions

  • Embodiments of the invention relate to computer-implemented competitions.
  • One embodiment of the invention is directed to a computer-implemented method of hosting a competition on at least one computer that permits an outcome prediction to be made for a winner between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing in a match of a tournament, the method comprising retrieving information from a database that stores team selection instructions for a participant in a competition, wherein the team selection instructions for the participant provide i) an initial outcome prediction for one or more matches of a tournament, and ii) a relative ranking of teams that were not initially picked to be playing in the one or more matches; and, computing, on the at least one computer, an adjusted prediction for a match between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing against each other.
  • the team selection instructions are based on a default ranking. In some embodiments, the participant modifies the default ranking. In some embodiments, one of the two teams playing against each other was not initially picked. In some embodiments, both teams playing against each other were not initially picked.
  • Another embodiment of the invention is directed to at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed on at least one computer, perform a method of hosting a competition on at least one computer that permits an outcome prediction to be made for a winner between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing in a match of a tournament, the method comprising retrieving information from a database that stores team selection instructions for a participant in a competition, wherein the team selection instructions for the participant provide i) an initial outcome prediction for one or more matches of a tournament, and ii) a relative ranking of teams that were not initially picked to be playing in the one or more matches; and, computing, on the at least one computer, an adjusted prediction for a match between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing against each other.
  • Another embodiment of the invention is directed to at least one computer comprising: at least one tangible memory for storing processor-executable instructions for hosting a competition on the at least one computer to permit an outcome prediction to be made for a winner between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing in a match of a tournament; and, at least one hardware microprocessor, coupled to the memory, that executes the processor-executable instructions to retrieve information from a database that stores team selection instructions for a participant in a competition, wherein the team selection instructions for the participant provide i) an initial outcome prediction for one or more matches of a tournament, and ii) a relative ranking of teams that were not initially picked to be playing in the one or more matches, and to compute an adjusted prediction for a match between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing against each other.
  • Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a method implemented on at least one computer of participating in a competition hosted on at least one server, wherein the competition permits an outcome prediction to be made for a winner between two teams that were not initially picked to be playing in a match of a tournament, the method comprising prompting, at the at least one computer, a participant to provide team selection instructions for a competition; receiving team selection instructions from the participant; and, sending the team selection instructions to the at least one server.
  • Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a computer-implemented method, comprising: entering participant instructions into a database, wherein the instructions specify predictions for each possible game in a tournament (before the start of the tournament), and after a game is completed, computing an adjusted prediction for each game based on the participant instructions and the game result(s).
  • Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a computer-implemented method, comprising: entering participant instructions into a database, wherein the instructions specify predictions for each possible game in a tournament, and after a game completed, computing allocated points to the participant wherein the points are based on both the game result(s) and the participant instructions.
  • Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a computer-implemented method, comprising: entering participant instructions into a database, (wherein the instructions specify predictions for each possible game in a tournament) (or wherein the instructions specify relative team rankings for all possible pair-wise games in a tournament), thereby providing a predicted bracket for each participant, computing, on at least one computer, points for each participant based on game outcomes, wherein if a game includes at least one non-predicted team, the points for the game are computed by accessing the participant instructions that specify the relative rankings of the two teams in the game.
  • a single participant may be used for a plurality of participants in a single competition and thereby may be used to provide scores, statistics, and/or identify winners of a competition.
  • certain embodiments relate to a method of running a competition, and/or a method of determining a competition winner.
  • Some embodiments relate to a competition wherein each participant has a chance to score points for each game of a tournament regardless of the outcome of all previous games, wherein each participant selects, prior to the start of the first game, a relative ranking for each team in the tournament, such that any pair-wise combination of teams has a predicted outcome.
  • the relative ranking is a default ranking.
  • the default ranking is provided by the contest organizer.
  • a participant selects a ranking for each team in the tournament.
  • a participant selects a ranking for at least one team and the remainder of the rankings are provided by the default ranking.
  • a participant selects at least one team ranking by filling out a bracket, wherein.
  • Some embodiments are directed to a method of running a competition to accumulate the most points by predicting the outcome of each match in a multi-match sports tournament, wherein the entrants in the competition are not required to provide any information after the start of the tournament's first match, wherein the number of points accumulated by an entrant regarding any particular match is always in question until the particular match has been played, wherein each participant provides, at the outset, instructions that specify a prediction for any possible match.
  • the instructions are default instructions (e.g., select default ranking). In some embodiments, the instructions are modified default instructions. In some embodiments, the instructions include exceptions to the default instructions.
  • Some embodiments are directed to a method of running a bracket-based single elimination tournament prediction contest wherein the entrant's bracket is adjusted after each round using information provided by the entrant before commencement of the tournament. Some embodiments are directed to a method comprising: prompting a user for team ranking selections, wherein the selections are provided prior to the first game in a tournament, and sending the selections to a database that maintains the selections during the tournament. Some embodiments are directed to a method wherein the prompting comprises: displaying an interface wherein the user enters information to provide the selections.
  • One embodiment is directed to a method of hosting a network-based competition comprising acts of computing and/or awarding points based on actual match results and team ranking information provided by a participant, wherein the team ranking information provides predicted match outcomes and also rules for selecting match outcomes in the event the initially predicted matches do not occur.
  • Another embodiment is directed to a method of administering a network-based competition comprising acts of prompting a participant to provide ranking information prior to the start of a tournament.
  • Another embodiment is directed to a method of competing in a network-based competition comprising acts of accessing a server and retrieving prompts for participant ranking instructions. Another embodiment is directed to a method of awarding points to a participant in a network-based competition.
  • Another embodiment is directed to a method for displaying points for a participant in network-based competition.
  • Another embodiment is directed to a method for a participant to access results and/or points in a network-based competition.
  • Another embodiment is directed to a computer system configured to implement a competition software as described herein.
  • Another embodiment is directed to computer-readable medium comprising instructions for implementing a competition software as described herein. Accordingly, a user may provide a first round of predictions that provide a higher score, but a subsequent round of predictions that provide at least some score if one or more first predictions are not met.
  • a primary outcome of teams and or matches will be awarded a higher number of points, but if one or more teams are not present for certain matches, predictions will be used to generate lower points for alternative winning teams if they were predicted to win based on the participant's team selection rules.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a networked computing environment in which one or more participants can access a server capable of running a competition with flexible predictions;
  • FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method of operation of a competition with flexible prediction, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • a competition e.g., an office pool
  • participants are awarded points for correctly predicting the outcome of one or more contests in an external event (e.g., games or matches in a sport tournament)
  • additional opportunities for the participants to win can be provided by obtaining information that can be used to award points for contest outcomes (e.g., match winners) that the participants did not predict.
  • This allows a participant in a sports pool, for example, to retain a stake in the pool even if many of the teams predicted to be winners by the participant are actually eliminated early in the tournament.
  • Some embodiments provide a method of competition where players predict the outcome of multiple contests where for at least some of the contests the exact participants are not yet determined at the time of prediction. Each player assigns some ranking to all of the possible participants such that for any future contest, that player's choice for winner of the contest can be determined as the contest participant to which the player initially gave the highest ranking.
  • Some embodiments may employ a human interface that allows players familiar with the traditional procedure for running such competitions to easily compete using the new method of competition, the player able to compete without any additional effort, but also able to further customize his entry with some small amount of additional effort.
  • Some embodiments may be implemented as a software application that can be downloaded over the internet.
  • Applicant has recognized that most players lose interest in an office competition when they no longer have any chance to win, and also tend to lose interest in the tournament or in watching additional tournament games on television. This is undesirable from the point of view of game sponsors (advertisers) and so there is a need for a new method of running office competitions that allows players to remain "alive” (still with a chance to win) longer yet still does not require action subsequent to the initial entry submission.
  • Applicant has recognized that typical competitions (e.g., office pools) relating to events such as sport tournaments are based on participants making predictions for a series of matches, where the predicted results for initial matches define the options for subsequent matches. For example, a participant is asked to predict a first set of winners of a first round of matches, and then predict a second set of winners of a second round of matches amongst the first set of winners, and so on until a final prediction is made for the final match. A participant is awarded points based on the number of correct winners predicted in each round, typically with more points awarded for each correct prediction in later rounds.
  • typical competitions e.g., office pools
  • relating to events such as sport tournaments are based on participants making predictions for a series of matches, where the predicted results for initial matches define the options for subsequent matches. For example, a participant is asked to predict a first set of winners of a first round of matches, and then predict a second set of winners of a second round of matches amongst the first set of winners, and so on
  • a participant can stay in the competition for a longer period (e.g., through more rounds of matches) if the participant provides information that can be used (e.g., by the computer system) to select a winner for a match of a later round of the tournament even if the participant had not predicted either team to be playing in the later match.
  • This allows points to be awarded to the participant for a later match even if both teams predicted by the participant to be playing in the later match were knocked out before reaching that match.
  • the computer system can award one or more points to a participant for every match being played in the tournament, regardless of the outcome of the prior matches.
  • the number of points awarded for the outcome of a match may be lower for matches where neither team was predicted to be playing by the participant than for matches where one or both teams were predicted to be playing.
  • embodiments of the invention may be used in connection with competitions (e.g., computer-implemented competitions) based on predictions of the outcomes for any tournament having two or more rounds of elimination (of teams or individuals depending on the sport).
  • the tournament may be a sports tournament, for example, a soccer, basketball, football, hockey, baseball, tennis, badminton, or other tournament.
  • a tournament may be an elimination tournament where two teams play one or more games and the winner proceeds to the next round whereas the loser is eliminated.
  • a "match" as used herein refers to the number of games required to obtain a winner and a loser.
  • a match may be a single game (e.g., a single basketball game) at the end of which the winner proceeds to the next round and the loser is eliminated.
  • a match may include two or more games (e.g., a number of games for a tennis match, or a series of games such as a best of three, a best of five, or a best of seven game series, e.g., for basketball or hockey, etc.).
  • a tournament may be represented by an elimination bracket (a diagrammatic representation of the series of games played during a tournament), leading to a final match.
  • a tournament may include an initial qualifier round to determine which teams proceed to the elimination bracket.
  • the initial qualifier round may include round-robin play in groups where teams or individuals within each group play one another and the team(s)/individual(s) with the highest (or two highest, three highest, etc.) number(s) of points are selected to proceed to the elimination bracket.
  • the winner of a match may be determined using any suitable metric.
  • the winner may be the team that scores the most points.
  • any suitable tie-breaker may be used to determine a winner. For example a "shoot out" at the end of a tied soccer match where players take turns shooting against the opposing team's goal-keeper, or "most goals scored" (e.g., during all three First Round matches for two teams having the same win loss-draw record during the First Round of the World Cup Soccer Tournament).
  • any number of approaches can be used to configure a computer system to obtain and/or use participant instructions so that each participant has a stake in the outcome of each match in a tournament, with the possibility of being awarded at least one or a few points for each match.
  • a participant provides sufficient instructions, prior to the first match in the tournament, to rank each team in the tournament. This information is then used to compute participant points as the tournament progresses. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide more options for awarding points to participants than a traditional pool or other competition based on predicting match outcomes.
  • a traditional approach involves making a predictions for each match in a tournament, wherein the winner of a match in a first round plays in a subsequent match against a winner of another match in the first round.
  • embodiments of the invention allow a substitute prediction for a subsequent match if a team that was initially predicted to win that match was knocked out in an earlier round.
  • the participant in addition to providing instructions that identify an initial series of winners for the matches in a bracket, the participant also provides instructions that allow points to be awarded for substitute teams in the event that one or more of the initially predicted winners were knocked out earlier than initially predicted. It should be appreciated that this additional information may be provided in any suitable form. Accordingly, a participant may use any suitable format to provide team selection rules that can be used to predict a winner for any possible match that could be played during a tournament.
  • a participant i) fills out a traditional or typical bracket representing an initial set of predicted winners, and ii) provides relative rankings of the teams that could play against each other in the event one or more of the initial set of predicted winners is knocked out earlier than predicted.
  • a participant provides only a team rank from first to last for all the teams in the tournament. This set of rankings can be used to generate a set of initial picks (and these could be displayed in some embodiments).
  • a participant may provide a prediction for the winner of each possible pair-wise match in a tournament.
  • this may provide more flexibility than a relative rank for all teams, because a participant may select match outcomes for certain combinations of teams that are not consistent with other outcomes based only on a simple ranking system (e.g., A beats B, B beats C, but C beats A).
  • a participant may provide a set of exceptions in addition to providing a relative team rank (form first to last). In this way, an outcome of an alternative match may be predicted based on the team rank (i.e., with the higher ranked team predicted to beat the lower ranked team in any match) unless an exception is provided to specifically identify a winner for a defined match regardless of the relative rankings of the two teams.
  • a participant may use a default ranking (e.g., provided by a competition organizer).
  • the default ranking may be based on team seeds from any source.
  • a participant may modify the default ranking by rearranging the relative ranking of one or a few teams in the default ranking.
  • a participant may provide exceptions as described above.
  • the participant may provide team selection rules in any form, provided the selection rules allow a program to identify a predicted winner for any match that could theoretically be played during the tournament.
  • embodiments of the invention may be used for elimination tournaments, group play tournaments (e.g., round robin format), other suitable formats, or any combination thereof.
  • team selection rules may be provided prior to the beginning of a first match of a second part of a tournament and after the conclusion of a first part of a tournament (e.g., after preliminary qualifier rounds).
  • team selection rules are provided prior to the start of the first match in a tournament, even if the tournament has one or more initial rounds (e.g., group rounds) prior to an elimination round.
  • a participant's team selection rules may be used to compute the participant's predictions for alternative games that actually occur when one or more of the initially predicted winners are knocked out early. Accordingly, a participant may be awarded points for a winner that was predicted based on team selection rules even if the initially predicted winners (the predicted winners before the start of the first match) lose earlier than predicted. However, it should be appreciated that a participant may be awarded fewer points for a winner of a match that was not one of the initially predicted winners, but that was predicted using the selection rules in view of the actual teams that played the match.
  • the number of points awarded for matches at different stages in the tournament and the relative number of points awarded for each match depending on whether the winner was an initially predicted winner or an alternative winner predicted using the participant instructions can be varied from competition to competition (e.g., by a competition organizer, a competition administrator, etc.) depending on different factors that may be adjusted to impact the extent to which participants still have a chance to win as a tournament progresses.
  • a participant may be awarded points for correctly predicted outcomes.
  • a participant is awarded a first number of points for a winning team in an identified match, if that team was included in participant's initial picks for winning teams.
  • a participant is awarded a second number of points, if the team that won the match was not one of participant's initial picks, but was nonetheless predicted to win that match based on participant's relative ranking of the two teams playing the match.
  • the second number of points is typically lower than the first number of points to reflect the fact that the winning team was essentially a backup team based on participants rankings, rather than the participant's initial pick for that match.
  • a program for running a competition may be implemented in any suitable computer environment.
  • a competition may be implement on a participants computer.
  • a competition may be implement on a computer or server in a networked set of computers (e.g., a private, company, or other organization network).
  • a competition may be web-based and participants access a remote server (e.g., using a web browser) to enter information (e.g., identifier information and/or team selection rules), retrieve information (e.g., personal predictions, statistics, and/or results), download a program or part of a program to run aspects of the competition (e.g., to enter information and/or to run statistical predictions based on results at any stage in the competition and participants selections).
  • information e.g., identifier information and/or team selection rules
  • retrieve information e.g., personal predictions, statistics, and/or results
  • download a program or part of a program to run aspects of the competition (e.g., to enter information and/or to run statistical predictions based on results at any stage in the competition and participants selections).
  • a remote server e.g., using a web browser
  • a computer may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer.
  • the remote computer may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements associated with a computer, including a memory storage device.
  • the logical connections may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and/or other networks.
  • LAN local area network
  • WAN wide area network
  • Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.
  • FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment that may be used in implementing some embodiments of the invention.
  • the computing system environment is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention.
  • the non-limiting networked computing environment of FIG. 1 includes a network
  • Network 100 which may be an unsecured network (e.g., the world wide web or Internet), a local network, a secured network (e.g., a corporate intranet), or include a combination of two or more thereof.
  • Network 100 may include networked computing devices that are physically connected. The physical connection of networked computing devices may be made over any suitable computer communications medium (e.g., wired or wireless communication), as the invention is not limited in this respect.
  • computing devices within the network and/or accessing the network may be connected to the LAN through a network interface or adapter.
  • computing devices within the network and/or accessing the network When used in a WAN networking environment, computing devices within the network and/or accessing the network typically include a modem or other means for establishing communications over the WAN, such as the Internet.
  • the modem which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus via a user input interface, or other appropriate mechanism.
  • program modules, or portions thereof may be stored in a remote memory storage device.
  • a computing device 1 10 may be connected to the network and act as a server running the competition.
  • the server 1 10 may be connected to the network via any suitable computer communications medium (e.g., wired or wireless communication). It should be appreciated that any of the connections described herein may use encrypted and/or unencrypted communications.
  • a system may include a combination of encrypted and unencrypted communications.
  • a server may be any computer that can be programmed to run the software and that can be accessed by the users (e.g., over the internet, or over the company intranet if all the users are in one location, or possibly no inter-computer communication if all users are going to use the same computer to make their entries).
  • a database 120 may be connected to server 110 and be available to store participant instructions regarding team selection rules for a competition.
  • the database is directly connected to the server as shown in FIG. 1.
  • the database is not directly connected to the server, but may be accessed via a network (e.g., network 100).
  • the database is not a separate device, but instead may be integral to the server (e.g., stored in a non-volatile storage medium such as a hard disk drive).
  • a system includes a plurality of databases for storing participant instructions.
  • Databases may be connected to each other, network 100, server 1 10, or any combination thereof via any suitable computer communications medium (e.g., wired or wireless communication).
  • one or more devices of server 1 10 and/or database 120 may include public or private portals.
  • a competition administrator may access the server from an administrator computing device 130. It should be appreciated that any suitable computing system may be used by an administrator. An administrator may establish an administrator account and configure a local competition (e.g., an office pool). An administrator may chose a username and password that allows the administrator to perform administrative functions from any suitable computer.
  • computing device 130 is connected to a network as shown in FIG. 1. However, it should be appreciated that computing device 130 may be directly connected to the server, as aspects of the invention are not limited in this respect. It also should be appreciated that a competition administrator may interface directly with the server and not need a separate computing device. Administrator computer 130 may be connected to the network and/or server via any suitable computer communications medium (e.g., wired or wireless communication). In some embodiments, an administrator may configure scoring rules (e.g., the number of points awarded for each match for each round) and tie breakers if any. In some embodiments, an administrator can maintain an access list for participants (e.g., email addresses or other contact information) and may contact participants to address any administrative issues (e.g., the strength of the group password).
  • participants e.g., email addresses or other contact information
  • any administrative issues e.g., the strength of the group password
  • Non-limiting examples of statistical information that may be provided include the likelihood of winning and/or the amount that the participant is likely to win.
  • a quality coverage may be calculated to represent the expected value of the player's entry. For example, 25% might mean a 50% chance to win half the pot.
  • a raw coverage may be calculated. A raw coverage is the same as quality coverage except that every game is considered a toss-up (meaning the experts' perception of the strength of the teams is not taken into account).
  • an administrator may run software on an administrator computer to provide further enhanced statistics.
  • an administrator may host a competition results page on an administrator server while receiving match results, new advertisement placement, and/or other information from a host server.
  • a group password may be sent by an administrator to provide access. The administrator may set up a separate password protected account for each participant and for the administrator.
  • an administrator e.g., a private office pool administrator
  • desiring further enhanced statistics generation for example, to determine that a first player has a certain percentage chance, for example more or less than 50%, for example 43.5%, to finish higher or lower than a second player
  • an administrator may obtain further enhanced statistics for display by a host server portal.
  • a competition program may determine when a participant no longer has a chance of winning a tournament (e.g., based on the actual results at that point in the tournament, the rounds/matches left to play, the participant points and predictions, and the point totals and predictions of other participants).
  • a participant who no longer can win automatically may be informed that they are "out" of the tournament in some embodiments (e.g., by e-mail).
  • a participant can set up a submission (e.g., of picks and predictions) and optionally save it in an account (e.g., a password protected account).
  • changes to the submission can be made until the first game of the tournament starts.
  • an administrator runs a competition program from a server.
  • an administrator organizes a competition on his own computer and interacts with a host server.
  • a database may be managed on the administrator's computer.
  • the reason for distributing and/or implementing different parts of a competition program on different computers is to capture additional computer power. This may be important if large numbers of participants enter a competition (e.g., 500- 1,000; 1,000-10,000; 10,000-100,000; 100,000-500,000; 500,000-1,000,000; or more); large numbers of competitions are being implemented separately; and/or sophisticated statistical features are provided.
  • the tournament will be run on a host server, but an administrator may periodically download data to the administrator's computer, run the simulations, and then upload the results back to the server for display.
  • Participants may access the competition on the server from any suitable remote computing device.
  • a plurality of participants may use different remote computing devices 140a, 140b ... 14On.
  • Each device independently may be a personal computer, a work computer, a publicly accessible computer, a laptop, or any other computing device as aspects of the invention are not limited in this respect.
  • Remote computing devices 140a- 14On may be connected to the network via any suitable computer communications medium (e.g., wired or wireless communication). Regardless of the specific hardware used to implement participant access to server
  • server 1 10 the environment illustrated by FIG. 1 may include multiple devices, any of which may be connected to server 110 via a network.
  • server 1 10 itself may include a network of devices. Any one or more server devices may be part of a secured network (e.g., protected by a firewall) in some embodiments.
  • any of the computer communications media referred to herein may include (whether via a wired connection, a wireless connection or connection over any other suitable media) one or more access points, routers, switches, hubs, secure tunnels or other network elements to other devices on a network (some or all of which may be secured).
  • networked computing devices may communicate with each other by unidirectional or bi-directional network links, or a combination thereof.
  • FIG. 2 illustrates a non-limiting embodiment of a flow chart of a method of operation of a computer implemented (e.g., network-based) competition that provides scoring opportunities for a participant even if the participant's initial picks are knocked out of a tournament earlier than predicted.
  • the left side of the dashed line include acts on a participant computer (e.g., a user or client). Acts on the right side of the dashed line include acts on a server (e.g., a host server or an administrator server).
  • participant 140 contacts a competition server in act 200 (e.g., downloads a page from the URL) and receives a prompt in act 205 requesting team selection rules to be submitted prior to the tournament beginning.
  • a competition server in act 200 e.g., downloads a page from the URL
  • a prompt in act 205 requesting team selection rules to be submitted prior to the tournament beginning.
  • Participant enters the rules in act 210 and submits the rules to the tournament server in act 215. It should be appreciated that this process may be repeated for a plurality of participants (e.g., all the participants in a competition). Depending on the size of the tournament, the number of participants may range from about 5-10 to more than one million. However, any number may participate as aspects of the invention are not limited in this respect.
  • the rules define the participant's initial picks for each match, and also provide predictions for alternative team matchups if the participant's initial picks are knocked out earlier than predicted.
  • the tournament server 1 receives the participant rules in act 220.
  • the participant rules may be maintained on the server (e.g., in memory or other database on the server) or sent to a separate database (e.g., on a separate computing device) for storage and/or later retrieval.
  • the competition server checks for match results in act 225. When a match is finished and a winner is determined, the information is received by the server in act 230 and compared to the participant's team selection rules in act 235. In 235, if the winner of the match was correctly predicted (e.g., either as an initial pick or as a recalculated prediction) by the participant, points are awarded in 240 and the participant's initial prediction is not altered for subsequent matches.
  • the winner of the match is determined in 235 to be different from the participant's prediction (e.g., either initial pick or recalculated prediction) then i) no points are awarded (or fewer points are awarded depending on how the scoring system is set up), and ii) the participant's predictions are recalculated in 245 using the participant's team selection rules for the teams that will be playing next instead of participant's prior prediction. For each participant, this procedure is repeated after each match (or after each round of matches, or other parameter) until the final match is played. At that point a winner, or set of winners may be determined in act 250.
  • a user in act 205, is instructed to enter one or more team selection rules (e.g., to use the left mouse button to drag a team to where he or she wants to place it in a bracket or a ranking table, and is told that not all sections of the entry form are required).
  • only rankings are required, and other sections (e.g., visual prompts) may be used to help in producing the rankings.
  • the user may be notified that he/she can click on a link to be shown how the entry will be scored.
  • a user ranks the teams from 1 to N where N is the number of teams in the tournament and "1" corresponds to the best team.
  • Software running in the user's browser assists the user in creating the rankings using zero, one, or more alternate representations, for example an elimination bracket which displays one possible prediction of tournament results which is consistent with the user's current choice of rankings.
  • the team selection rules may be entered in any suitable form as described herein provided they provide rules for selecting an initial set of winners and alternative winners for matches that may occur if one or more of the initially predicted winners in eliminated earlier than predicted.
  • the instructions to the user may be in the form of visual prompts (e.g., generated by the browser having accessed appropriate instructions from a host server).
  • a browser e.g., Javascript running in the browser maintains consistency between different sections of the entry form.
  • the user can fill out a traditional bracket, while doing so making implications regarding his ranking of the teams.
  • the browser updates rankings when the user alters the bracket and updates the bracket (by removing inconsistent portions) when the user alters rankings.
  • a user submits the selection to the database and/or server (e.g., clicks on a "Submit” button which posts data to a PHP script, or PERL script, or other type of software running on the server).
  • the server acquires user instructions (e.g., a lock on the database so that entry of the user data is atomic).
  • the script sends an email to the user as confirmation of entry.
  • the server stores the information on a server database. In some embodiments, the information is sent to a separate database.
  • user entries are stored in a text file on the server (e.g., the text file is written by a script running on the server).
  • a database such as an SQL database may be used in some embodiments.
  • the data may be stored on a hard disk drive either on the server that runs the script or on an associated file server elsewhere.
  • the server monitors and/or downloads match information from any suitable source (e.g., an RSS feed from a news organization or a sports organization, for example the FIFA, FIFA, etc.).
  • the server stores match results in the database.
  • software running on the server scores user entries and updates the database. It should be appreciated that in some embodiments this process of scoring (e.g., awarding points) and updating the database may be performed automatically (e.g., at predetermined time intervals, after a match result is known, after a round of matches) or when prompted by an administrator and/or user (e.g., participant), as aspects of the invention are not limited in this respect.
  • statistical information may be computed (e.g., all possible endings are analyzed to produce statistics, for example identifying who still has a chance to win).
  • participant may be informed of final results (e.g., by receiving a message such as "Tournament is over, please check the results, and thanks for playing" or other message).
  • This message may be sent out by e-mail to all participants, participants who have not previously be knocked out, or any combination of participants, as aspects of the invention are not limited in this respect.
  • a "user” as described herein may be a participant in a competition regardless of whether it is a private, company, or publicly accessible, or other web-based tournament.
  • the server may generate a bracket or other display for the participant to review. This may be done at any stage, for example as part of the prompt, or later after the selections are made and the first set of winners are picked.
  • different parts of a competition program may be implemented on different computing devices.
  • the following scenarios are non-limiting embodiments and other configurations also may be used as aspects of the invention are not limited in this respect.
  • Scenario 1 A server handles everything except entry form running in the player's browser. In an open pool where the host is the administrator, the only action happening on some other computer is when the player enters rankings. The player would download the form from the host server, fill it out while assisted by the downloaded Javascript, then submit which calls a script on the server which saves the entry. Viewing the results would be downloading a page from the host server.
  • Scenario 2 Same as scenario 1 except that the administrator configures the private pool before players can enter. The administrator assigns the "goodness criterion" (1 st place is 60%, 2 nd place is 30%, etc) and creates a group password. Optionally, the administrator creates a restricted access list.
  • Scenario 3 Same as scenario 2 except that the administrator periodically runs software on the administrator computer to create further enhanced statistics and then uploads the statistics to the host server for display.
  • Scenario 4 The administrator downloads software and hosts the pool on the administrator server. After the initial download, the administrator's server need only communicate with the host server to obtain match results and/or to update advertisement placement.
  • a host server in a commercial setting may provide advertisements and/or updated advertisements whenever an administrator and/or participant computer communicates with the host server.
  • a competition program For example, different parameters may be selected to tailor a program for a particular tournament. For example, different programs may be designed for March Madness than for the World Cup. However, in some embodiments a core program may be designed to be readily tailored for different tournaments. In some embodiments, a designer may tailor the number of teams, points per match, definition of a match (for example the First Round of the World Cup may be defined to be two matches for each team where the teams making it to the Round of 16 "beat" the two teams in their group that don't make the Round of 16, and the teams that didn't make the Round of 16 "lost” to the teams that did make it).
  • the First Round of the World Cup may be defined to be two matches for each team where the teams making it to the Round of 16 "beat" the two teams in their group that don't make the Round of 16, and the teams that didn't make the Round of 16 "lost” to the teams that did make it).
  • software may be distributed over the internet.
  • an application may be installed on a host servers.
  • a CD, DVD or other computer-storage medium may be distributed with the application, for example if statistical analyses are to be performed on an administrator's computer.
  • March Madness tournament starts with 65 participants (teams), a pair of teams playing for the right to continue in the tournament a couple of days before the rest of the games begin; for this example that pair of teams is considered to be a single team in a 64 team tournament.
  • the employee downloads a software application that implements an embodiment of a competition program.
  • the software application sets up an internal company web page that other employees of the company can access, the web page optionally implementing password protection giving access only to players who have been invited to join the competition.
  • GUI graphical user interface
  • the top half of the computer screen presented by the GUI shows the bracket, which represents the single elimination format of March Madness.
  • the bottom half of the computer screen shows the player's team rankings, showing 64 teams in order (multiple columns) from top-ranked (# 1, best team) to bottom ranked (#64, worst team).
  • the bracket is initialized with blank inputs for all game winners and the rankings are initialized as per the NCAA Coaches Poll rankings.
  • the software application will update the player's bracket to remove the inconsistencies if any (teams predicted to win games over another team which is above them in the rankings will be removed from the appropriate positions in the bracket).
  • the player When the player is satisfied with his team rankings he clicks on a submit button which enters his team rankings in the office competition. He can choose to submit his rankings after filling out the bracket as he has done in previous years (without using his mouse to directly alter the rankings on the bottom half of his computer screen) and the rankings submitted will not in any way contradict the information contained in his bracket.
  • the software application will stop accepting player entries when the first game of the tournament begins.
  • a player's prediction for any particular game is that the team he ranked higher of the two teams playing will win the game.
  • using this method of scoring the player always has a chance to be correct until the game is played.
  • Players get points for each correct prediction (one point per game in the first round, two points per game in the second round, four points per game in the third round, eight points per game in the fourth round, sixteen points per game in the fifth round, and thirty-two points for the sixth round game for a maximum total of 192 points) and the player with the most points at the end of the tournament is declared the winner of the competition.
  • the software application retrieves game results over the internet and publishes office competition standings with various statistics including which of the players still have a chance to win the competition.
  • Example 2 An employee of a company wishes to run a World Cup Soccer office competition.
  • the format of the World Cup Soccer championship is as follows: 32 teams are arranged into eight groups of four teams per group. In the first round of competition each team plays three games, one game against each of the other three teams in their group. Two teams from each group advance to the second round (referred to as "The Round of Sixteen").
  • the rest of the competition is a single elimination tournament which can be represented with a bracket similar to the one used for March Madness.
  • the initial positions in this bracket are determined by the results of the first round games.
  • the team in a group with the best first round record is placed at some predetermined position in the bracket and the team with the second-best first round record is placed at some other predetermined position in the bracket.
  • the employee downloads (from the internet) and initializes the software application (as in Example 1 above) except that the employee configures the software application to run in World Cup Soccer mode instead of in March Madness mode.
  • World Cup Soccer mode the GUI does not present a bracket, it only displays rankings for the teams.
  • the software application will stop accepting player entries when the first game of the tournament begins. Each player receives one point for each team he ranked in the top sixteen teams that in fact advances to the round of sixteen. For the single elimination portion of the tournament (round of sixteen until the end), a player's prediction for any particular game is that the team he ranked higher of the two teams playing will win the game. Players get points for each correct prediction (two points per game in the second round, the round of sixteen, four points per game in the third round, eight points per game in the fourth round, and sixteen points for the fifth round game for a maximum total of 80 points) and the player with the most points at the end of the tournament is declared the winner of the competition. Each game day during the tournament, the software application retrieves game results over the internet and publishes office competition standings with various statistics including which of the players still have a chance to win the competition.
  • a participant wishes to enter a web-based competition relating to the outcomes of a tournament.
  • the participant receives an email from the person in his office who has volunteered to run the company March Madness pool this year (the "administrator").
  • the participant clicks on a link in the email which brings up a browser prompting him to enter the group password contained in the email from the administrator.
  • the browser prompts him to create a password protected private account for himself.
  • the participant then proceeds to specify an ordering of the 65 tournament teams by dragging teams up or down in a list displayed by his browser, thus specifying rankings of the teams in the March Madness tournament.
  • the user can return to his private account at any time before the start of the tournament and make changes to his rankings.
  • the participant can view how he is doing in the competition by clicking on a link to the competition results page which was also included in the original email from the competition administrator.
  • the participant's entry is scored based on his or her team rankings and the actual results of games played in the tournament.
  • the prediction information and statistical calculations are stored and implemented on a host server. However, other configurations may be used as described herein.
  • the embodiments can be implemented in any of numerous ways.
  • the embodiments may be implemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof.
  • One or more acts described herein may be automated in a suitable computing environment.
  • the software code can be executed on any suitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in a single computer or distributed among multiple computers (e.g., general purpose computers).
  • any component or collection of components that perform the functions described above can be generically considered as one or more controllers that control the above-discussed functions.
  • the one or more controllers can be implemented in numerous ways, such as with dedicated hardware, or with general purpose hardware (e.g., one or more processors) that is programmed using microcode or software to perform the functions recited above.
  • a computer may be embodied in any of a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, a computer may be embedded in a device not generally regarded as a computer but with suitable processing capabilities, including a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone or any other suitable portable or fixed electronic device.
  • PDA Personal Digital Assistant
  • a computer may have one or more input and output devices. These devices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface. Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interface include printers or display screens for visual presentation of output and speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentation of output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a user interface include keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touch pads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receive input information through speech recognition or in other audible format. Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in any suitable form, including as a local area network or a wide area network, such as an enterprise network or the Internet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and may operate according to any suitable protocol and may include wireless networks, wired networks or fiber optic networks.
  • the various methods or processes outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one or more processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems or platforms. Additionally, such software may be written using any of a number of suitable programming languages and/or programming or scripting tools, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code or intermediate code that is executed on a framework or virtual machine.
  • the invention may be embodied as a computer readable medium (or multiple computer readable media) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compact discs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuit configurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductor devices, or other tangible computer storage medium) encoded with one or more programs (e.g., a plurality of instructions) that, when executed on one or more computers or other processors, perform methods that implement the various embodiments of the invention discussed above.
  • the computer readable medium or media can be transportable, such that the program or programs stored thereon can be loaded onto one or more different computers or other processors to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above.
  • one implementation of the above- described embodiments comprises at least one computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program (e.g., a plurality of instructions), which, when executed on a processor, performs some or all of the above-discussed functions of these embodiments.
  • a computer program e.g., a plurality of instructions
  • the term "computer-readable medium" encompasses only a computer-readable medium that can be considered to be, a machine or, a manufacture (i.e., article of manufacture).
  • a computer-readable medium may be, for example, a tangible medium on which computer-readable information may be encoded or stored, a storage medium on which computer-readable information may be encoded or stored, and/or a non-transitory medium on which computer-readable information may be encoded or stored.
  • Computer-readable media include a computer memory (e.g., a ROM, a RAM, a flash memory, or other type of computer memory), a magnetic disc or tape, an optical disc, and/or other types of computer-readable media that can be considered to be a process, a machine, a manufacture, and/or a composition of matter.
  • Computing devices and systems described herein may include a variety of computer readable media.
  • computer readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by computer and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media.
  • a system memory may include computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM).
  • BIOS basic input/output system
  • ROM read-only memory
  • RAM typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by the processing unit.
  • Device drives and their associated computer storage media discussed described herein provide storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for a computing device.
  • a hard disk drive may store an operating system, application programs, other program modules, and program data.
  • a user may enter commands and information into a computing device through input devices such as a keyboard and pointing device, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball or touch pad.
  • Other input devices may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like.
  • These and other input devices are often connected to a processing unit through a user input interface that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB).
  • USB universal serial bus
  • a monitor or other type of display device also may be connected to the bus via an interface, such as a video interface.
  • computers may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers, and printers, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface.
  • the reference to a computer program which, when executed, performs the above-discussed functions is not limited to an application program running on a host computer. Rather, the term computer program is used herein in a generic sense to reference any type of computer code (e.g., software or microcode) that can be employed to program a processor to implement the above- discussed aspects of the present invention.
  • the computer implemented processes may, during the course of their execution, receive input manually (e.g., from a user).
  • program or “software” are used herein in a generic sense to refer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executable instructions that can be employed to program a computer or other processor to implement various aspects of the present invention as discussed above. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to one aspect of this embodiment, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methods of the present invention need not reside on a single computer or processor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a number of different computers or processors to implement various aspects of the present invention.
  • Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices.
  • program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that performs particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.
  • functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.
  • data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in any suitable form.
  • data structures may be shown to have fields that are related through location in the data structure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigning storage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium that conveys relationship between the fields.
  • any suitable mechanism may be used to establish a relationship between information in fields of a data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or other mechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.
  • Various aspects of the present invention may be used alone, in combination, or in a variety of arrangements not specifically discussed in the embodiments described in the foregoing and is therefore not limited in its application to the details and arrangement of components set forth in the foregoing description or illustrated in the drawings. For example, aspects described in one embodiment may be combined in any manner with aspects described in other embodiments.
  • the invention may be embodied as a method, of which an example has been provided.
  • the acts performed as part of the method may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments may be constructed in which acts are performed in an order different than illustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, even though shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

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Abstract

Selon certains modes de réalisation, la présente invention concerne l'hébergement d'une compétition sur un dispositif informatique, la compétition permettant aux participants de sélectionner un premier ensemble de gagnants prédits pour une série prédéterminée de rencontres dans un tournoi et un second ensemble de prédictions pour des gagnants si un ou plusieurs gagnant(s) du premier ensemble de gagnants prédits est/sont éliminé(s) plus tôt que prévu. La compétition peut être mise en œuvre dans n'importe quel environnement de système informatique approprié, comprenant, entre autres, une compétition basé sur le Web hébergée sur un serveur éloigné, une compétition privée ou d'entreprise hébergée sur un ordinateur privé ou d'entreprise.
PCT/US2010/001480 2009-05-18 2010-05-18 Pointage de competition multiple avec prediction souple WO2010134983A1 (fr)

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EP10778044.7A EP2433237A4 (fr) 2009-05-18 2010-05-18 Pointage de competition multiple avec prediction souple

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