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US 2004/0110552 A1Published application
Fantasy sports auction system
OwnerGeorge Del Pradoinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fantasy sports game for a plurality of participants representing sports teams each wishing to form a fantasy sports team made up of actual athletes, and each operating a participant terminal operable to act as a client on a network, the system comprising: a host controller, the host controller comprising a computer operable to act as a server on the network and to communicate with the participant terminals over the network; and data storage accessible to the host controller.
Claims22
A system for managing a fantasy sports game for a plurality of participants representing sports teams each wishing to form a fantasy sports team made up of actual athletes, and each operating a participant terminal operable to act as a client on a network, the system comprising:
- a host controller, the host controller comprising a computer operable to act as a server on the network and to communicate with the participant terminals over the network;
- and data storage accessible to the host controller, the data storage storing information relating to performance of the athletes in actual games, the host controller being operable:
- (a) to create a hierarchical order of teams to determine priority in athlete nomination for auction, the hierarchical order starting from a first nominating team and ending with a last nominating team, the first nominating team exercising a first nomination and the last nominating team exercising a last nomination, the hierarchical order repeating for nomination of remaining athletes after the last nominating team exercises the last nomination,
- (b) to solicit and accept a request from the nominating team for nomination of an athlete for auction,
- (c) to display the nominated athlete for auction on all participant terminals,
- (d) to display on all participant terminals a visual indicator to show the beginning of a predetermined auction time, the passage of a predetermined auction time, and the end of a predetermined auction time, an initial value in predetermined auction time being previously set by the host controller,
- (e) to display on all participant terminals a visual indicator to show the beginning of a predetermined athlete selection time, the passage of a predetermined athlete selection time, and the end of a predetermined athlete selection time, an initial value in predetermined athlete selection time being previously set by the host controller,
- (f) to solicit, accept and display successively higher participant bids during the predetermined auction time,
- (g) to determine and display the winning team of the athlete auction and assign the winning team the purchase of the athlete from no more than a predetermined number of game value units initially allocated by the host controller, an initial value in game value units for each athlete being previously set by the host controller;
- and
- (h) a tabulation means for assigning a team score proportional to data storage relating to actual performance of the athletes on the participant's team,
- (i) responsive to a request of a participant, to access the data storage and report a status of the participant's fantasy team, the status including information as to actual performance of the athletes on the participant's team.
9 more elements
A method for managing a fantasy sports game for a plurality of participants representing sports teams each forming a fantasy sports team made up of actual athletes, and each operating a participant computer terminal operable to act as a client on a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:
- configuring a host controller, the host controller comprising a computer operable to act as a server on the network, configuring participant terminals capable of communicating with the host controller over the network;
- and providing a data storage accessible to the host controller, the data storage storing information relating to performance of the athletes in actual games, the host controller being programmed to be operable:
- (a) to create a hierarchical order of teams to determine priority in athlete nomination for auction, the hierarchical order starting from a first nominating team and ending with a last nominating team, the first nominating team exercising a first nomination and the last nominating team exercising a last nomination, the hierarchical order repeating in reverse for nomination of remaining athletes after the last nominating team exercises the last nomination, wherein after the last nominating team exercises the last nomination, the last nominating team becomes the first nominating team and the first nominating team becomes the last nominating team,
- (b) to solicit and accept a request from the nominating team for nomination of an athlete for auction,
- (c) to display the nominated athlete for auction on all participant terminals,
- (d) to display on all participant terminals a visual indicator to show the beginning of a predetermined auction time, the passage of a predetermined auction time, and the end of a predetermined auction time, an initial value in predetermined auction time being previously set by the host controller,
- (e) to display on all participant terminals a visual indicator to show the beginning of a predetermined athlete selection time, the passage of a predetermined athlete selection time, and the end of a predetermined athlete selection time, an initial value in predetermined athlete selection time being previously set by the host controller,
- (f) to solicit, accept and display successively higher participant bids during the predetermined auction time,
- (g) to determine and display the winning team of the athlete auction and assign the winning team the purchase of the athlete from no more than a predetermined number of game value units initially allocated by the host controller;
- and
- (h) a tabulation means for assigning a team score proportional to data storage relating to actual performance of the athletes on the participant's team,
- (i) responsive to a request of a participant, to access the data storage and report a status of the participant's fantasy team, the status including information as to actual performance of the athletes on the participant's team.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.