System and Method for Rewarding Game Players

A method of team gaming comprising acts of:

• allowing, via a gaming system, for a first player to join a rewards program;
• allowing, by the gaming system, for a second player to join the rewards program;
• identifying the first and second players as members of a team;
• linking, by the game system, at least one team goal to the players' participation in a game session of at least one game and completed at an end of the game session;
• storing, by use of a storage element of the gaming system, information identifying the team goal;
• accumulating, by use of a reward counter of the gaming system, a team reward based on the players achieving the at least one team goal, wherein the team reward is accomplishment oriented and awarded independent of and free from game play results;
• and
• gaining, when the team accomplishes the team goal at the end of the game session, better odds on the game of which the first game session is a part.

A computer-readable medium having computer-readable signals stored thereon that define instructions that, as a result of being executed by a computer, instruct the computer to perform a method of team gaming, the method comprising acts of:

• providing for a first player to join a rewards program;
• providing for a second player to join the rewards program;
• identifying the first and second players as members of a team;
• providing at least one team goal that is completed at an end of a game session of at least one game and that is linked to the players participation on the game session of the at least one game;
• accumulating a team reward based on at least one of the players achieving the at least one team goal at the end of the game session of the at least one game, such that the team reward is accomplishment oriented and awarded independent of and free from game play results;
• and
• gaining, when the team accomplishes the team goal at the end of the game session, better odds on the game of which the first game session is a part.