WO2011143492A2 - Systèmes et procédés pour présenter une opportunité de pari relative à une compétition d'athlétisme diffusée à un utilisateur - Google Patents

Systèmes et procédés pour présenter une opportunité de pari relative à une compétition d'athlétisme diffusée à un utilisateur Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2011143492A2
WO2011143492A2 PCT/US2011/036337 US2011036337W WO2011143492A2 WO 2011143492 A2 WO2011143492 A2 WO 2011143492A2 US 2011036337 W US2011036337 W US 2011036337W WO 2011143492 A2 WO2011143492 A2 WO 2011143492A2
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
user
wagering
wagering opportunity
fantasy sports
user equipment
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Application number
PCT/US2011/036337
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English (en)
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WO2011143492A3 (fr
Inventor
Zachary Hays
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United Video Properties, Inc.
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Publication date
Application filed by United Video Properties, Inc. filed Critical United Video Properties, Inc.
Publication of WO2011143492A2 publication Critical patent/WO2011143492A2/fr
Publication of WO2011143492A3 publication Critical patent/WO2011143492A3/fr

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
    • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
    • G07F17/32—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for games, toys, sports, or amusements
    • G07F17/3286—Type of games
    • G07F17/3288—Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking

Definitions

  • a fantasy sports contestant selects a roster, a team, a particular individual, or a group of
  • Fantasy sports contests are typically based on real- life team athletic competitions (e.g., football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, rugby, etc.), real-life athletic competitions in which individuals compete (e.g., golf, tennis, automotive racing, etc.), and real-life sporting events involving animals (e.g., horse and dog racing) .
  • the user is given the ability to take on the role of a fictional general manager with powers that may include the ability to draft, trade, dismiss and otherwise manage the user's fantasy sports contest team selections.
  • Known fantasy sports contest systems provide services that include providing statistical information for real-life athletic competition and tracking users' standings (i.e., rankings) in fantasy sports contests.
  • Known fantasy sports contest systems typically provide services that include providing statistical information for real-life athletic competition and tracking users' standings (i.e., rankings) in fantasy sports contests.
  • Known fantasy sports contest systems typically provide services that include providing statistical information for real-life athletic competition and tracking users' standings (i.e., rankings) in fantasy sports contests.
  • Known fantasy sports contest systems typically
  • fantasy sports contest system might award five fantasy sports contest points to the user for every goal scored in real-life by a member of the user's fantasy sports contest soccer team.
  • the user who has accumulated the most fantasy sports contest points by the conclusion of a fantasy sports contest e.g., the end of a real-life athletic season
  • the overall winner of that fantasy sports contest is the overall winner of that fantasy sports contest.
  • Fantasy sports contestants may find it desirable to wager with one another based on, for example, which of the fantasy sports contestants accumulates the most fantasy sports contest points in a fantasy sports contest (e.g., for a particular week of the fantasy sports contest, over the entire fantasy sports contest, etc.). Fantasy sports contestants may also find it desirable to wager based on real-life athletic events (e.g., real-life athletic events that are related to the contestants' fantasy sports
  • fantasy sports contestants typically closely track real-life athletic events (e.g., to plan favorable trades of the
  • fantasy sports contestants may find it desirable to wager (e.g., with other fantasy sports contestants, through a wagering service) based on the outcomes of these real-life athletic events.
  • Systems and methods for providing opportunities for fantasy sports contests are described in Hughes et al . U.S. Patent Application No. 12/633,020, filed December 8, 2009, and Barber U.S. Patent Application No. 10/234,349, filed August 30, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
  • Systems and methods may be provided for presenting a wagering opportunity related to an
  • a "wagering opportunity" may include not only an opportunity to participate in a wager that has been generated by a system or an
  • a substantially realtime status of the athletic competition may be
  • the monitored status may include parameters such as the current inning and score, which defensive players are covering various positions on the field, which
  • offensive players are currently on base (if any) , the expected batting lineup for the remainder of the inning, who is currently at bat, how many strikes and balls have been recorded against the current batter, which plays have been attempted and the status of those plays, the types of pitches being thrown, and any other suitable information.
  • an upcoming event of a pre-determined type may be detected based on the monitored real-time status. For instance, it may be detected that a player belonging to the user's fantasy baseball team is expected to come up to bat in the relatively near future. A wagering opportunity may then be generated relating to an outcome of the
  • a wagering opportunity may be generated relating to whether the player
  • the generation of the wagering opportunity may include retrieval of a
  • the wagering opportunity template corresponding to the upcoming event of interest and configuration of the template based on parameters of the upcoming event.
  • the configuration may include, for example,
  • the determined odds may affect the decision of whether a particular wagering opportunity is suitable for presentation to the user, the expected payout of a successful wager on the upcoming event, or any other suitable aspects of the wagering opportunity.
  • FIG. 1 shows an illustrative media guidance screen in accordance with embodiments of the invention
  • FIG. 2 shows a second illustrative media guidance screen in accordance with embodiments of the invention
  • FIG. 3 shows an illustrative user equipment device in accordance with embodiments of the invention
  • FIG. 4 shows an illustrative content delivery system in accordance with embodiments of the invention
  • FIG. 5 shows an illustrative fantasy sports configuration screen in accordance with embodiments of the invention
  • FIG. 6 shows an illustrative table of wager templates in accordance with embodiments of the
  • FIG. 7 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen in accordance with
  • FIG. 8 shows an illustrative fantasy sports options screen in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 9 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wagering unavailability screen in accordance with embodiments of the invention
  • FIG. 10 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wagering participants screen in accordance with
  • FIG. 11 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wager outcome screen in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 12 shows another illustrative fantasy sports wager outcome screen in accordance with
  • FIG. 13 shows an illustrative flow chart of a first part of a process for presenting a wagering opportunity related to an athletic competition in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • FIG. 14 shows an illustrative flow chart of a second part of a process for presenting a wagering opportunity related to an athletic competition in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • a substantially real-time status of the athletic competition may be monitored while it is being broadcast to a user on user equipment.
  • An upcoming event of a pre-determined type in the athletic competition may be detected based on the monitored real-time status. For instance, it may be determined that a player that is being tracked in the user's fantasy sports league may be expected to execute a play in the relatively near future.
  • a wagering opportunity related to a possible outcome of the event may then be generated based on the type of the event . For
  • a wagering opportunity may be generated for that outcome, where the expected payout if the user wins the wager may be based on the determined likelihood.
  • the wagering opportunity may then be presented to the user via the user equipment on which the athletic competition is being broadcast.
  • embodiments of the invention may permit a user to engage in wagers with other individuals that are not connected to any fantasy sports contest or league, wagers on athletes not on any of the user's fantasy sports teams, wagers on sports for which the user does not belong to any fantasy sports leagues, or wagers on events that take place in any programs (e.g., non-sports programs).
  • any programs e.g., non-sports programs
  • an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or a guidance application.
  • Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms depending on the media for which they provide guidance.
  • One typical type of media guidance application is an interactive television program guide.
  • Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of media content including conventional
  • television programming (provided via traditional broadcast, cable, satellite, Internet, or other means) , as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems) , Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, Webcasts, etc.), and other types of media or video content.
  • VOD video-on-demand
  • Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate content related to the video content including, for example, fantasy sports, video clips, articles, advertisements, chat sessions, games, etc.
  • Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate multimedia content. The term
  • Multimedia is defined herein as media and content that utilizes at least two different content forms, such as text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms. Multimedia content may be recorded and played, displayed or accessed by
  • PCs personal computers
  • other devices on which they traditionally did not, such as hand-held computers, personal digital assistants
  • PDAs mobile telephones
  • mobile telephones mobile telephones
  • mobile devices On these devices users are able to navigate among and locate the same media available through a television. Consequently, media guidance is necessary on these devices, as well.
  • the guidance provided may be for media content available only through a television, for media content available only through one or more of these devices, or for media content available both through a television and one or more of these devices.
  • the media guidance applications may be provided as online applications (e.g., provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients on hand-held computers, PDAs, mobile telephones, or other mobile devices.
  • online applications e.g., provided on a web-site
  • stand-alone applications or clients on hand-held computers PDAs, mobile telephones, or other mobile devices.
  • FIGS . 1 - 2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to provide media guidance, and in particular media listings.
  • the display screens shown in FIGS . 1 - 2 , 5 , and 7 - 12 may be implemented on any suitable device or platform. While the displays of FIGS . 1 - 2 and 5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over media content being displayed.
  • a user may indicate a desire to access media information by selecting a selectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user input interface or device.
  • a selectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user input interface or device.
  • a dedicated button e.g., a GUIDE button
  • time and channel in a grid may be organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by media type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of programming) , or other predefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.
  • category e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of programming
  • FIG . 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different types of media content in a single display.
  • Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1) a column of channel/media type
  • Grid 102 also includes cells of program listings, such as program listing 108 , where each listing provides the title of the program provided on the listing's associated channel and time.
  • Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, the program description, the time the program is provided (if applicable) , the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.
  • Non- linear programming may include content from different media sources including on-demand media content (e.g., VOD) , Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored media content (e.g., video content stored on a digital video recorder (DVR) , digital video disc (DVD) , video
  • on-demand media content e.g., VOD
  • Internet content e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.
  • locally stored media content e.g., video content stored on a digital video recorder (DVR) , digital video disc (DVD)
  • DVR digital video recorder
  • DVD digital video disc
  • On-demand content may include both movies and original media content provided by a particular media provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing "The Sopranos" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm") .
  • HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L . P . et al . and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc.
  • Internet content may include web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or content available on- demand as streaming media or downloadable media through an Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP) .
  • Grid 102 may provide listings for non-linear programming including on-demand listing 114, recorded media listing 116, and Internet content listing 118.
  • a display combining listings for content from different types of media sources is sometimes referred to as a "mixed-media" display.
  • the various permutations of the types of listings that may be displayed that are different than display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.) .
  • guidance application definition e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.
  • listings 114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In other embodiments, listings for these media types may be included directly in grid 102. Additional listings may be displayed in response to the user selecting one of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similar manner as selecting navigational icons 120.)
  • Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, and options region 126.
  • Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs that are currently available, will be available, or were available to the user.
  • the content of video region 122 may correspond to, or be
  • Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referred to as picture-in-guide (PIG)
  • PIG displays and their functionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al . U.S. Patent No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al . U.S. Patent No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the present invention.
  • Advertisement 124 may provide an
  • Advertisement 124 may also be for products or services related or unrelated to the media content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may be selectable and provide further information about media content, provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing of media content, a product, or a service, provide media content relating to the advertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user's profile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of display provided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.
  • advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped, advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and location in a guidance application display. For example,
  • advertisement 124 may be provided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid 102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement.
  • advertisements may be overlaid over media content or a guidance application display or embedded within a display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other types of media content. Advertisements may be stored in the user equipment with the guidance application, in a database connected to the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming media servers) , or on other storage means or a combination of these
  • Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types of media content, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidance application features. Options region 126 may be part of
  • selectable options within options region 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102 or may include options available from a main menu display.
  • Features related to program listings may include searching for other air times or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling series recording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,
  • Options available from a main menu display may include fantasy sports options, search options, VOD options, parental control options, access to various types of listing displays, subscribe to a premium service, edit a user's profile, access a browse overlay, or other options.
  • the media guidance application may be any media guidance application.
  • personalized media guidance application allows a user to customize displays and features to create a
  • This personalized experience may be created by allowing a user to input these
  • Customization of the media guidance application may be made in accordance with a user profile.
  • customizations may include varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.), aspects of media content listings displayed (e.g., programming related to fantasy sports, only HDTV programming, user- specified broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of channels, recommended media content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g., recording or series
  • presentation schemes e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.
  • aspects of media content listings displayed e.g., programming related to fantasy sports, only HDTV programming, user- specified broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of channels, recommended media content, etc.
  • desired recording features e.g., recording or series
  • the media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profile information or may
  • the media guidance application may, for example, monitor the media the user accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with the guidance application.
  • the media guidance application may obtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to a particular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such as www.tvguide.com, from other media guidance applications the user
  • Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 for media content information organized based on media type, genre, and/or other organization criteria.
  • television listings option 204 is selected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcast program listings.
  • the listings in display 200 are not limited to simple text (e.g., the program title) and icons to describe media. Rather, in display 200 the listings may provide
  • graphical images including cover art, still images from the media content, video clip previews, live video from the media content, or other types of media that
  • listing 208 may include more than one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.
  • Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to view video in full-screen or to view program listings related to the video displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channel that the video is displayed on) .
  • the listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 is larger than listings 208, 210, and 212) , but if desired, all the listings may be the same size.
  • Listings may be of different sizes or graphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user or to emphasize certain content, as desired by the media provider or based on user preferences .
  • Users may access media content and the media guidance application (and its display screens described above and below) from one or more of their user
  • FIG . 3 shows a generalized
  • User equipment device 300 may receive media content and data via input/output (hereinafter "I/O") path 302.
  • I/O path 302 may provide media content (e.g., broadcast programming, on-demand programming, fantasy sports content, Internet content, and other video or audio) and data to control circuitry 304, which includes processing circuitry 306 and storage 308.
  • Control circuitry 304 may be used to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 302.
  • I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (and specifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communications paths (described below) .
  • I/O functions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG . 3 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
  • Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry 306 such as processing circuitry based on one or more microprocessors,
  • microcontrollers digital signal processors
  • control circuitry 304 executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e., storage 308) .
  • control circuitry 304 may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidance application server or other networks or servers.
  • Communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment.
  • ISDN integrated services digital network
  • DSL digital subscriber line
  • Such communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths (which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4) .
  • communications circuitry may include circuitry that enables peer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communication of user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (described in more detail below) .
  • Memory e.g., random-access memory, read-only memory, or any other suitable memory
  • hard drives e.g., hard drives, optical drives, or any other suitable fixed or
  • Storage 308 may include one or more of the above types of storage devices.
  • user equipment device 300 may include a hard drive for a DVR (sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR) and a DVD recorder as a secondary storage device.
  • Storage 308 may be used to store various types of media described herein and guidance application data, including program
  • Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG- 2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of such circuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over- the-air , analog, or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting media into the preferred output format of the user equipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital- to-analog converter circuitry and analog- to-digital converter circuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment to receive and to
  • the tuning and encoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data.
  • tuning and encoding circuitry may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple- tuner recording, etc.) . If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from user equipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 308.
  • simultaneous tuning functions e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple- tuner recording, etc.
  • storage 308 is provided as a separate device from user equipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 308.
  • a user may control the control circuitry 304 using user input interface 310.
  • User input interface 310 may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touch pad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces.
  • Display 312 may be provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300.
  • Display 312 may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.
  • display 312 may be HDTV-capable .
  • Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component of videos and other media content displayed on display 312 may be played through
  • the audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown) , which processes and outputs the audio via speakers 314.
  • the guidance application may be implemented using any suitable architecture.
  • it may be a stand-alone application wholly implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,
  • the instructions of the application are stored locally, and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from the VBI of a television channel, from an out-of-band feed, or using another suitable approach) .
  • the media guidance application is a client-server based
  • control circuitry 304 runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server.
  • the media guidance application is downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by control circuitry 304) .
  • the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) , received by control
  • circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed
  • the guidance application may be a EBIF widget.
  • the guidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 304.
  • the guidance application may be, for example, encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio and video packets of a program .
  • User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 of FIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of user equipment suitable for accessing media, such as a non-portable gaming machine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to herein collectively as user equipment or user equipment devices .
  • User equipment devices, on which a media guidance application is implemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of a network of devices .
  • Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and are discussed in more detail below.
  • User television equipment 402 may include a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a television set, a digital storage device, a DVD recorder, a video- cassette recorder (VCR) , a local media server, or other user television equipment.
  • IRD integrated receiver decoder
  • VCR video- cassette recorder
  • User computer equipment 404 may include a PC, a laptop, a tablet, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV) , a PC media server, a PC media center, or other user computer equipment.
  • WEBTV is a trademark owned by Microsoft Corp.
  • Wireless user communications device 406 may include PDAs, a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable music player, a portable gaming machine, or other wireless devices .
  • each of user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406 may utilize at least some of the system features described above in connection with FIG. 3 and, as a result, include flexibility with respect to the type of media content available on the device.
  • user television equipment 402 may be Internet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content
  • user computer equipment 404 may include a tuner allowing for access to television programming.
  • the media guidance application may also have the same layout on the various different types of user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of the user equipment. For example, on user computer equipment, the guidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled down for wireless user communications devices.
  • each user may utilize more than one type of user equipment device (e.g., a user may have a television set and a computer) and also more than one of each type of user equipment device (e.g., a user may have a PDA and a mobile telephone and/or multiple television sets) .
  • the user may also set various settings to maintain consistent media guidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and program favorites, programming preferences that the guidance application utilizes to make programming recommendations, fantasy sports preferences, display preferences, and other desirable guidance settings.
  • the same channel would appear as a favorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, if desired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless of whether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device. In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user, as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.
  • the user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414. Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and
  • Wireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communications network 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.
  • Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile device (e.g., Blackberry) network, cable network, public switched telephone network, or other types of communications network or combinations of communications networks.
  • BLACKBERRY is a service mark owned by Research In
  • Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include one or more
  • communications paths such as, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV) , free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals) , or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths.
  • IPTV Internet communications
  • free-space connections e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals
  • Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is a wireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicate they are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, if desired) .
  • Communications with the user equipment devices may be provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
  • communications paths are not drawn between user equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each other via communication paths, such as those described above in connection with paths 408, 410, and 412, as well other short-range point-to-point communication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-llx, etc.), or other short-range communication via wired or wireless paths.
  • BLUETOOTH is a certification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC.
  • the user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly through an indirect path via communications network 414.
  • System 400 includes media content source 416, media guidance data source 418, and sports data source 424 coupled to communications network 414 via
  • Paths 420, 422, and 426 may include any of the
  • media content source 416, media guidance data source 418, and sports data source 424 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.
  • any two or more of media content source 416, media guidance data source 418, and sports data source 424 may be integrated as one source device.
  • sources 416, 418, and 424 may communicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 via communication paths (not shown) such as those described above in connection with paths 408, 410, and 412.
  • Media content source 416 may include one or more types of media distribution equipment including a television distribution facility, cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other media content providers.
  • programming sources e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.
  • intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers e.g., Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other media content providers.
  • NBC is a trademark owned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc.
  • ABC is a trademark owned by the ABC, INC.
  • HBO is a trademark owned by the Home Box Office, Inc.
  • Media content source 416 may be the originator of media content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) or may not be the originator of media content (e.g., an on-demand media content provider, an Internet provider of video content of broadcast
  • Media content source 416 may include cable sources, satellite providers, on- demand providers, Internet providers, or other sources.
  • Media content source 416 may also include a remote media server used to store different types of media content (including video content selected by a user) , in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices .
  • a remote media server used to store different types of media content (including video content selected by a user) , in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices .
  • Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such as media listings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, media titles, media descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, etc.), advertisement information
  • media-related information e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, media titles, media descriptions
  • ratings information e.g., parental control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.
  • genre or category information e.g., actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.
  • logo data e.g., logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.
  • advertisement information e.g., standard definition, high definition, etc.
  • Media guidance application data may be provided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach.
  • the guidance application may be a stand-alone interactive television program guide that receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed, trickle feed, or data in the vertical blanking interval of a channel) .
  • Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on a television channel sideband, in the vertical blanking interval of a television channel, using an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitable data transmission technique.
  • Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels.
  • Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment with any suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specified period of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to a request from user equipment, etc.) .
  • guidance data from media guidance data source 418 may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. For example, a guidance application client residing on the user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtain guidance data when needed.
  • Media guidance data source 418 may provide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidance application itself or software updates for the media guidance application.
  • Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices.
  • guidance applications may be client-server applications where only the client resides on the user equipment device.
  • media guidance applications may be implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 418) .
  • the guidance application displays may be generated by the media guidance data source 418 and transmitted to the user equipment devices.
  • the media guidance data source 418 may also transmit data for storage on the user
  • Sports data source 424 may provide data of any of the types that may be provided by media content source 416 and media guidance data source 418. Sports data source 424 may include any equipment that may be included in media content source 416. In accordance with embodiments of the invention, sports data source 424 may provide data used in various sports-related applications that may run at least partially on user equipment 300 or remotely, including applications that allow a user to participate in fantasy sports contests and place wagers related to fantasy sports.
  • sports data source 424 may provide rules relating to administration of fantasy sports teams and leagues, statistics related to past sporting events and individual player performance, substantially real-time status updates for ongoing athletic competitions, profiles of users participating in fantasy sports leagues (including point totals, standings, players included in users' fantasy sports teams, information on other individuals in each user's fantasy sports league, and other suitable information) , rules governing potential wagering opportunities that may be presented to or proposed by the user, the status of past or pending wagers, or any other suitable information or combinations thereof.
  • the data provided by sports data source 424 may be created and updated in any suitable way. For instance, sports data source 424 may exchange information with providers of substantially real-time sports competition status and statistics, with
  • Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number of approaches, or network
  • the present invention may be applied in any one or a subset of these approaches, or in a system employing other approaches for delivering media and providing media guidance.
  • the following three approaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example of FIG. 4.
  • user equipment devices may communicate with each other within a home network.
  • User equipment devices can communicate with each other directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemes describe above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.
  • multiple individuals in a single home may operate different user equipment devices on the home network.
  • a user may transmit media content from user computer equipment to a portable video player or portable music player.
  • users may have multiple types of user equipment by which they access media content and obtain media guidance.
  • some users may have home networks that are accessed by in- home and mobile devices.
  • Users may control in-home devices via a media guidance application implemented on a remote device.
  • users may access an online media guidance application on a website via a personal computer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile telephone.
  • the user may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidance application to control the user's in-home equipment.
  • the online guide may control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with a media guidance application on the user's in-home equipment.
  • users of user equipment devices inside and outside a home can use their media guidance application to communicate directly with media content source 416 to access media content.
  • users of user television equipment 404 and user computer equipment 406 may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locate desirable media content. Users may also access the media guidance application outside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 to navigate among and locate desirable media content.
  • FIG. 5 shows an illustrative fantasy sports configuration screen 500 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Fantasy sports configuration screen 500 may be accessed in any suitable way, such as via navigation of menus and options provided in an
  • Fantasy sports configuration screen 500 may enable a user to customize various options affecting how she interacts with various fantasy sports leagues using user equipment 300. For instance, options 502, 503, and 504 may allow the user to configure options regarding how a fantasy sports team roster is created, how fantasy sports team members are traded with other participants in the fantasy sports league, and how current standings in the league are updated and reported, respectively.
  • option 506 may allow the user to configure aspects of how real-time wagering on athletic
  • buttons 508 may allow the user to select whether real-time wagering
  • turning realtime wagering “Off” may hide or gray out options 510, 512, 514, 516, 518, 520, and 522, or otherwise make them inaccessible until the "Auto” or "Manual” option is selected.
  • Option 510 may allow a user to select one or more sports for which real-time wagering will be enabled, using any suitable interface.
  • option 510 is shown with a drop-down menu allowing only a single sport to be selected, but it will be
  • options 512, 514, 516, 518, 520, and 522 may be selected.
  • option 512 may allow the user to select a league corresponding to the sport selected in option 510, as the user may
  • Fantasy sports configuration screen 500 may also allow a user to input account login information in username field 514 and password field 516, using any suitable techniques (e.g., a graphical keyboard that appears when the user selects either of those fields) .
  • the application performing real-time wagering to receive and update information on the user's fantasy sports team, such as the athletes on the user's team roster, the fantasy sports points that the user has accrued during the current season, information on the other individuals currently engaged in a particular fantasy sports contest with the user (which may be much smaller than the universe of individuals participating in the overall league, which in this example is Yahoo! Fantasy baseball), the user's standing within the contest she is participating in, or any other suitable information.
  • the application may prompt the user for account login information when a wagering opportunity is first presented to the user.
  • Options 518, 520, and 522 may be used to configure default wagering options for the user.
  • option 518 may be used to select what type of rewards the user would like to wager on.
  • the user has indicated in option 518 that she would like to win or lose contest points, which will affect the user's standing in the fantasy baseball league.
  • the user may also indicate, for example, that she would like to wager for money, specific merchandise, rewards points that may be redeemed for merchandise, or any other suitable type of reward. If the reward selected includes money, the user may also be asked for credit card or other payment information, in order to
  • the user may change the type of rewards being wagered on each time a wagering opportunity is accepted.
  • Option 520 may allow the user to enter a default bet corresponding to the type of reward
  • the user may choose to bet a default amount of 100 points, or five dollars, depending on whether points or cash was selected in option 518.
  • the user may change the amount wagered each time a wagering opportunity is accepted.
  • Option 522 may allow the user to select who may participate in any given wager. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the user has chosen to open up
  • the user may also choose, for example, to engage in wagers only with members in a specific contest, or with a select group of friends or other individuals.
  • real-time wagering may be performed using a pari-mutuel approach, where the payout for a successful wager may be determined based on the number and disposition of other bets for the same wager.
  • the user may opt to perform wagers only with the
  • the data may be registered by selecting "OK" option 524 (e.g., using a soft key "A" in user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) .
  • "OK” option 524 e.g., using a soft key "A” in user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)
  • the user may return to the
  • FIG. 6 shows an illustrative table 600 of wager templates in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Table 600 may be stored in any suitable location, such as storage 308 on user equipment 300 (FIG. 3) or in any of sources 416, 418, and 424 (FIG. 4) , in any suitable data structures, such as arrays or hash tables.
  • table 600 may map particular events, listed in column 602, that may occur during any athletic competition with a set of potential wagers, listed in column 604, corresponding to that event.
  • a particular set of potential wagers corresponding to an event may be referred to herein as a "template" for a wagering opportunity.
  • Table 600 may be used to generate wagering opportunities for the user when it is determined that one of the events listed in column 602 is expected to occur in the relatively near future in an athletic competition that is being broadcast to the user, as explained in greater detail below.
  • event 606 may correspond to a batter being up to bat, with no players currently on base. In some embodiments, this event will only trigger a potential wagering opportunity if the batter in question belongs to a fantasy sports team of the user. In other embodiments, the athlete being wagered on need not belong to the user's fantasy sports team. For instance, the user may choose to be
  • Potential wagers 608 may indicate wagers that the user may engage in when event 606 occurs. For example, the user may choose to wager that the batter will obtain a hit, strike out, or walk. In some embodiments, potential wagers 608 may be organized in a hierarchical fashion. For instance, not only may the user place a wager on the batter getting a hit, but the user may also wager on the particular type of hit expected (e.g., single, double, triple, or home run) . In accordance with embodiments of the invention, potential wagers may be qualified before being
  • event 610 may correspond again to a batter being up, but this time with at least one man on base.
  • potential wagers 612 include all potential wagers 608, which may be available for any at-bat. The inclusion of wagers 608 is indicated by the entry labeled " [At bat, no one on base] ,” corresponding to event 606. In practice, such cross- referencing may be accomplished in any suitable way, such as by storing a pointer to potential wagers 608.
  • Potential wagers 612 may additionally include other potential wagers corresponding to the possibility that a hit is obtained, namely, that the hit results in a double play or a run batted in. These potential wagers may be sub-categories of the general wager
  • Potential wagers 612 may also include a new category that is only possible when there is at least one man on base, that is, that a player on base will attempt to steal a base, an attempt that may be successful or unsuccessful. Thus, the user may be presented with an opportunity to wager that such an attempt will occur, and may also wager on the expected outcome of that attempt .
  • a wagering opportunity template may include not only a set of potential wagers, but also information on graphics, formatting, layout, menus, and other information that may be helpful in presenting a wagering opportunity to a user with user equipment 300 ( FIG . 3 ) .
  • FIG . 7 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Program region 702 may be used to display an athletic competition that is currently being broadcast to a user on user equipment 300 ( FIG . 3 ) .
  • a baseball game may be shown in program region 702 , and a media guidance application or other
  • an upcoming event may be of interest to the user and present wagering opportunities for that event to the user. For instance, it may be determined that an athlete on the user's fantasy baseball team (in this case, Arthur Jeter) , is expected to come up to bat relatively soon, and may present fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 to allow the user to place wagers on potential outcomes of the athlete's at -bat.
  • the player of interest need not belong to a fantasy sports team managed by the user, but may simply be an athlete that the user has indicated interest in.
  • Fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 may be presented to the user at any suitable time, for example, a pre-determined time period (e.g., ten minutes) before the event of interest (e.g., Arthur Jeter's at-bat) is expected to occur, at a certain milestone like the beginning of an inning, as soon as the information on the expected upcoming event is available, or any other suitable time.
  • a pre-determined time period e.g., ten minutes
  • the event of interest e.g., Derek Jeter's at-bat
  • a certain milestone like the beginning of an inning e.g., as soon as the information on the expected upcoming event is available, or any other suitable time.
  • fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 may be manually invoked by user selection of suitable options, as explained in greater detail below. Although fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 is depicted as an overlay bar in FIG. 7, in some embodiments it may occupy different portions or all of display 700. Similarly, any of the wagering screens depicted in FIGS. 8-12 may occupy different portions or all of their respective displays.
  • the 703 may retrieve a template containing potential wagers corresponding to the upcoming event from table 600 (FIG. 6) or a similar data structure. In this case, assuming that Arthur Jeter is expected to come up to bat with no one on base, the application may retrieve a template containing potential wagers 608 (FIG. 6) .
  • the potential wagers may be qualified before being presented to the user. For instance, statistical odds of each potential outcome occurring may be used.
  • a potential wager may be presented to the user only if the odds of an examined outcome are greater than a certain threshold.
  • the application may determine that Derek Jeter's hit rate is approximately 0.282 (e.g., by retrieving such information from sports data source 424 (FIG. 4) ) , which is sufficiently high to present to the user a wager on whether Derek Jeter will obtain a hit on his next at-bat. Similar statistics may be obtained for other potential wagers, including wagers for a strike out, a walk, and various types of hits such as a single, double, triple, and home run.
  • Wagers that are determined to be suitable may be presented to the user in wager options 708.
  • it may be determined that the statistical likelihood of Derek Jeter hitting a home run are so low (e.g., lower than a certain threshold, which may be fixed or vary by type of outcome being examined) that a wager on that potential outcome is not suitable for presentation to the user.
  • Wager options 708 presented to the user may include indications of the likelihood of each event occurring in parentheses .
  • these likelihoods may be used to determine the expected payout should a user accept and win a particular wager. For example, if user accepts and wins the wager that Derek Jeter will get a hit, his expected payout will be 1/0.282 or approximately 3.55 times her wagered amount.
  • information on expected awards may be indicated in other ways. For instance, instead of listing the likelihood of an outcome occurring, the expected payout multiplication factor or payout amount may be listed directly, or information indicative of payment may be omitted entirely to save space.
  • the user may select any of options 706 to place a wager on the corresponding event, so that she may bet not only on whether Derek Jeter will get a hit, but also on the type of hit he is expected to get.
  • the likelihood of a particular type of hit occurring is lower than the likelihood of Derek Jeter getting a hit in general, so the potential payout of the former wager will be higher.
  • potential wagers 612 may be examined and presented to the user if they are deemed suitable.
  • Potential wagers 612 may include potential wagers 608 ( FIG . 6 ) along with additional wagers corresponding to the fact that a player is on base, such as a wager on whether a base will be stolen.
  • additional wagers corresponding to the fact that a player is on base such as a wager on whether a base will be stolen.
  • a statistical likelihood of the base- stealing attempt may be examined to determine the suitability of the base- stealing wager. So, for example, if a player who is a relatively good hitter but a relatively slow runner, and consequently almost never attempts to steal a base, happens to be on first base, potential wagers corresponding to a base-stealing attempt may be disqualified from presentation.
  • the likelihoods may also be tailored in any suitable way, such as by examining not only stolen-base statistics for a particular player, but stolen-base statistics for when that particular player is on a particular base.
  • potential wagers may be tailored based on factors such as how many pitches a pitcher has thrown in the game currently being watched, or whether the pitcher played for a substantial amount of time in a previous game. Any other suitable statistics that may be provided by sports data source 424 may be used.
  • wagering options 708 may indicate the desired amount to be wagered using wagered-amount options 710.
  • wagered-amount options 710 may be pre-populated with default wager options previously indicated by the user (e.g., in fantasy sports configuration screen 500 (FIG. 5) , but the user may be provided with an opportunity to change details of the wager. In this example, the user has selected to bet 100 points in her fantasy baseball league. It will be appreciated that wagers may be placed for other types of rewards, such as cash, prizes, prize points, or any other suitable rewards or combinations thereof.
  • wagering opportunities may only be accepted up to a certain time before the upcoming event to be wagered on actually occurs or is broadcast, to prevent wagering on an event whose outcome may already be publicly known or
  • FIG. 8 shows an illustrative fantasy sports options screen 803 in accordance with embodiments of the invention. Fantasy sports options screen 803 may permit a user to engage in various types of
  • transactions relating to fantasy sports may be displayed in response to any suitable action, such as selection of a dedicated button on user input interface 310 (FIG. 3) corresponding to fantasy sports,
  • Fantasy sports options screen 803 may allow the user to, for example, create a new fantasy sports team using option 806, trade players on existing fantasy sports teams using option 808, examine current standings in fantasy sports leagues or contests using option 810, or engage in real-time wagering using option 812.
  • the desired option may be selected by appropriately positioning highlight region 814 over the option and pressing an "OK, " "Enter, " or "Select” button in user input interface 310 (FIG. 3) , or in any other suitable way.
  • selecting real-time wagering option 812 may allow the user to request a wagering opportunity related to the athletic competition being broadcast in program region 802. If such an opportunity exists, the user may then be presented with suitable wagering options in any suitable manner, such as using fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 or a similar screen. If no such opportunity exists, the user may be presented with a screen informing her of that, such as the one shown in FIG. 9. In some embodiments, if the user manually requests wagering opportunities (e.g., using real-time wagering option 812), the qualification process described above in connection with FIG. 6 and 7 may be bypassed, such that potential wagers with very low-probability outcomes may still be presented to the user.
  • suitable wagering options in any suitable manner, such as using fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 or a similar screen. If no such opportunity exists, the user may be presented with a screen informing her of that, such as the one shown in FIG. 9.
  • the qualification process described above in connection with FIG. 6 and 7 may be bypassed, such that potential wager
  • a search for wagering opportunities may be expanded beyond athletes and events that would normally be focused on (e.g., those corresponding to athletes on the user's fantasy sports team) , in order to maximize the possibility that a user may be presented with a wagering opportunity when one is manually requested. If the user decides that she does not wish to select any of the options displayed in fantasy sports options screen 803, she may exit the screen by selecting "Back" option 816 (e.g., using a soft key "A" in user interface 310 (FIG. 3)).
  • FIG. 9 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wagering unavailability screen 903 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Fantasy sports wagering unavailability screen 903 may be displayed when a user attempts to initiate a real-time wager related to an athletic competition being broadcast in program region 902, but no real-time wagering opportunities are available.
  • Real-time wagering opportunities may be unavailable for any suitable reason, such as temporary hardware or software failure, because the athletic competition of interest is currently on a break, because upcoming events of interest are still too far away or are unlikely to occur, because of
  • fantasy sports options screen 803 (FIG. 8) to perform other transactions related to fantasy sports.
  • FIG. 10 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wagering participants screen 1003 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Fantasy sports wagering participants screen 1003 may be presented at any suitable time, for example, after a user accepts a wagering opportunity presented to her in fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 (FIG. 7) , in response to a selection of an appropriate menu option in a media guidance application, or at any other suitable times or combinations thereof.
  • Fantasy sports wagering may be presented at any suitable time, for example, after a user accepts a wagering opportunity presented to her in fantasy sports wagering opportunity screen 703 (FIG. 7) , in response to a selection of an appropriate menu option in a media guidance application, or at any other suitable times or combinations thereof.
  • participant screen 1003 may allow the user to choose groups or individuals to invite to join a particular wager or series of wagers. It will be noted that other individuals may be given opportunities to engage in some or all of the same wagers as the user even without specific invitations using fantasy sports wagering participants screen 1003 or a similar interface. Thus, in some embodiments, fantasy sports wagering
  • participants screen 1003 simply allows a user to send a specific wagering opportunity to an individual or group when that individual or group would not otherwise receive it (e.g., because they are not watching the same athletic competition at the same time, or because they have configured their own options to not present particular wagering opportunities) .
  • a specific wagering opportunity to an individual or group when that individual or group would not otherwise receive it (e.g., because they are not watching the same athletic competition at the same time, or because they have configured their own options to not present particular wagering opportunities) .
  • expected payouts or losses may be affected by the participation of others in a wager (e.g., if a pari-mutuel approach to computing payouts is used) .
  • Fantasy sports wagering participants screen 1003 may include a message 1006 asking the user if she would like to invite friends to participate. The user may choose to not invite anyone by selecting "No” option 1008, or may choose to invite one or more individuals by selecting "Yes” option 1010. If "Yes" option 1010 is selected, the user may be provided with any suitable ways to select individuals to invite to participate in the wager. For instance, option 1012 may allow the user to search for a particular user or group (e.g., using a graphical keyboard that appears if option 1012 is selected, or by directly using keys that are included in user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) .
  • option 1012 may allow the user to search for a particular user or group (e.g., using a graphical keyboard that appears if option 1012 is selected, or by directly using keys that are included in user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) .
  • option 1014 may allow a user to select friends from the user's buddy list, where the list may correspond to a fantasy sports league or contest, or may be imported from another application such as a social networking service, instant messaging platform, or e-mail address book.
  • option 1016 may allow the user to select one or more of various pre-defined groups, such as the group of participants in a particular fantasy sports league or contest. The user may select the desired option using highlight bar 1018. It will be noted that the layout depicted in FIG. 10 is merely illustrative, and other options and interfaces may be provided.
  • FIG. 11 shows an illustrative fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1103 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1103 may be displayed after it has been determined that a user has won a wager that she had accepted (e.g., after an outcome of the event wagered on becomes known and updated in sports data source 424 (FIG. 4) . The user may be presented with
  • the actual award that is credited to the user may be indicated in award field 1108.
  • the user had bet 100 fantasy sports points that Derek Jeter would get a hit in his next at-bat, an event that had a statistical likelihood of approximately 0.282. After it is determined that Derek Jeter did indeed get a hit, the payout may be calculated and displayed in field 1108.
  • Fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1103 may also display updated information corresponding to the user's account, reflecting the award just received.
  • the user may be notified in field 1110 that she now has a certain number of fantasy sports points (e.g., 2355 in FIG. 5) , resulting in a
  • fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1103 may acknowledge the information conveyed by fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1103 by selecting "OK" button 1114 (e.g., by using a soft key "A" in user input device 310 (FIG. 3)) .
  • FIG. 12 shows another illustrative fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1203 in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • Fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1203 may be displayed after it has been determined that a user has lost a wager that she had accepted (e.g., after an outcome of the event wagered on becomes known and updated, such as in sports data source 424 (FIG. 4) .
  • the user may be presented with message 1206, informing the user that she has lost.
  • the actual loss that has been deducted from the user may be indicated in loss field 1208.
  • loss field 1208 In this
  • the user had bet 100 fantasy sports points that Derek Jeter would get a hit in his next at-bat. After it is determined that Derek Jeter did not get a hit, the loss may be recorded and
  • Fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1203 may also display updated information corresponding to the user's account, reflecting the deduction of the recent loss.
  • the user may be notified in field 1210 that she now has a certain number of fantasy sports points left (e.g., 1900 in FIG. 5) , resulting in a particular standing (e.g., a ranking of 38 among 527 participants) in her fantasy baseball league or contest.
  • Other suitable information and options may be provided.
  • the user may acknowledge the information conveyed by fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1203 by selecting "OK" button 1214 (e.g., by using a soft key "A" in user input device 310 (FIG. 3)) .
  • FIG. 13 shows an illustrative flow chart of a first part 1300A of a process for presenting a wagering opportunity related to an athletic competition in accordance with embodiments of the invention.
  • real-time automatic wagering may be enabled in any suitable way, such as using fantasy sports
  • configuration screen 500 (FIG. 5) or a similar
  • real-time automatic wagering may be enabled automatically by a system, e.g., when a user performs certain transactions with a fantasy sports league through an interactive media guidance application or an application or service that communicates with the guidance application, thereby indicating a potential interest in sports wagering.
  • a real-time status of an athletic competition may be monitored.
  • the athletic competition may be broadcast to a user with user equipment 300 (FIG. 3) .
  • the monitoring may be
  • sports data source 424 (FIG. 4) , which may provide substantially real-time status updates on events occurring in an athletic competition.
  • the monitored status may indicate, for example, scores, player positions, plays executed, the outcomes of such plays, and any other suitable information or
  • the event of interest may be an event of a particular type that is maintained in a data structure such as table 600 (FIG. 6) .
  • an event of interest may correspond to a player that a user is tracking through a fantasy sports league or contest, or that the user has otherwise expressed an interest in. In other embodiments, the event of interest may not correspond to any particular player or players. If an event of interest is detected, the process may proceed to step 1308. If not, the process may loop back to step 1304 until such an event is detected.
  • a template corresponding to the type of the event of interest detected in step 1306 may be retrieved.
  • the template may indicate a set of potential wagers for the event, such as the
  • the potential wagers may be organized in a hierarchical structure, may include sets of potential wagers corresponding to other types of events, or both.
  • detection of one specific event may trigger retrieval of multiple templates and thus multiple sets of potential wagers.
  • templates may include not just information on potential wagers, but also information on layouts and graphics that may be used to present potential wagers to the user.
  • step 1310 it may be determined whether the probability of any particular outcome corresponding to each potential wager retrieved in step 1308 is greater than a certain threshold. For instance, if one potential wager relates to a base-stealing attempt in a baseball game, the probability that a particular player that is currently on base will try to steal a base may be compared to a particular numerical threshold. In some embodiments, the threshold may vary according to one or more factors, such as the player who would perform the play to be wagered on, the position of the player, overall information on the particular game being examined, or any other suitable factors or combinations thereof. The probability may be
  • the process may discard that potential wager without presenting it to the user and proceed back to step 1304. If, however, the outcome for the wager exceeds the threshold, the process may then proceed to link "A.”
  • FIG . 14 shows an illustrative flow chart of a second part 1300B of a process for presenting a
  • At step 1312 at least one wagering opportunity may be presented to the user with data indicating possible rewards associated with each opportunity.
  • the data indicating possible rewards may be presented in any suitable format, such as directly listing a likelihood of the outcome to be wagered on, listing a reward multiplier that will be applied to a wagered amount if the player wins, listing the exact amount of a reward to be received if the user wins the wager, indicating a current estimate of the expected reward based on pari-mutuel information received from other participants, or any other suitable format or combinations thereof.
  • the data indicating possible rewards may be omitted from the display.
  • step 1314 it may be determined whether the user accepts the wagering opportunity presented to her. For example, the user may accept a wagering opportunity by selecting the corresponding option 708 for the wager and selecting "OK" button 712 in sports wagering opportunity screen 703 ( FIG . 7 ) or a similar display. If the user does not accept the wagering opportunity (e.g., she selects "No Thanks” option 714 ( FIG . 7 ) ) , the process may proceed to link "B" and back to step 1304 ( FIG . 13 ) . If she does accept the wagering opportunity, the process may proceed to step 1316. At step 1316, the wagered amount may be
  • the user may indicate the amount she wishes to wager and the type of item she wishes to wager
  • any suitable interface such as options 710 (FIG. 7) .
  • the outcome of the event of interest which the user engaged in a wager in, may be determined.
  • the outcome may be retrieved from a substantially real-time status stored in sports data source 424 (FIG. 4) or any other suitable source.
  • the result of the wager may be processed based on the outcome of the event of interest .
  • the user may be shown fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1103 or a similar screen if she wins the wager.
  • she may be shown fantasy sports wager outcome screen 1203 if she loses the wager.
  • the reward or loss resulting from the wager may be credited or debited, respectively, through any suitable techniques, such as by communicating with a fantasy sports service (whose account login).
  • fantasy sports configuration screen 500 (FIG. 5) )
  • sports data source 424 (FIG. 4)
  • suitable providers, systems, or combinations thereof may be provided using fields 514 and 516 of fantasy sports configuration screen 500 (FIG. 5) ) , with sports data source 424 (FIG. 4) , or other suitable providers, systems, or combinations thereof.
  • the crediting or deduction of money may be performed through a credit card, a stand-alone account that the user has set aside for the purpose of fantasy sports wagering, or through any other suitable mechanisms.
  • FIGS. 13 and 14 are merely illustrative. In practice, steps may be added, deleted, modified, re- ordered, or combined without deviating from the spirit or scope of the invention. For instance, in some embodiments, the user may select one or more
  • fantasy sports configuration screen 500 (FIG. 5) , fantasy sports wagering participants screen 1003, or any other suitable interfaces.
  • the user may reach step 1306 through a manual request for a wagering opportunity (e.g., using real-time wagering option 812 of fantasy sports options screen 803 (FIG. 8) )

Abstract

La présente invention permet d'accéder à un état, sensiblement en temps réel, d'une compétition d'athlétisme pendant qu'elle est diffusée à un utilisateur sur un équipement d'utilisateur. On peut détecter un événement à venir d'un type prédéterminé dans la compétition d'athlétisme sur la base de l'état en temps réel auquel il a été effectué un accès. Sur la base du type d'événement, on peut générer une opportunité de pari qui peut se rapporter à un résultat de l'événement à venir. On peut présenter l'opportunité de pari à l'utilisateur par le biais de l'équipement d'utilisateur.
PCT/US2011/036337 2010-05-13 2011-05-12 Systèmes et procédés pour présenter une opportunité de pari relative à une compétition d'athlétisme diffusée à un utilisateur WO2011143492A2 (fr)

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US12/779,271 US20110281620A1 (en) 2010-05-13 2010-05-13 Systems and methods for presenting a wagering opportunity related to an athletic competition being broadcast to a user

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