# US 2025/0095439 A1 · Security Authentication Frameworks for Crowdsourced Gaming Systems, Methods, and Techniques > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2025/0095439 A1 - Document ID: US20250095439A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 18/781,537 - Filed: 2024-07-23 - Published: 2025-03-20 - Earliest claimed: 2023-09-15 - Assignees: Parlayworld LLC - Applicants: Parlayworld LLC - Inventors: Michael Scott Jones; Julius Adrian Staniewicz - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20250095439A1 ## CPC - G07F 17/3237: {about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players} - G07F 17/3218: {wherein at least part of the system is portable} - G07F 17/3225: {Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users} - G07F 17/3227: {Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters} - G07F 17/3241: {Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance (computer security G06F21/00)} - G07F 17/3288: {Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking} - G07F 17/3223: {Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, leader-follower, wireless communication} - G07F 17/3244: {Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes} - G07F: COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS (coin sorting G07D3/00; coin testing G07D5/00; {handling coins or paper currencies apart from payment activated apparatus G07D; payment architectures, schemes or protocols G06Q20/00}) ## Abstract This disclosure is related to improved security authentication frameworks for crowdsourced gaming systems that facilitate collaboration among multiple virtual participants over a network. In certain embodiments, an electronic gaming platform includes a geolocation authentication system that authenticates, verifies, and authorizes virtual user participants prior to accepting submissions in virtual multi-participant contests hosted by the electronic gaming platform. The geolocation authentication system can transition collaborative gaming applications operated by virtual user participants between a restricted functionality state that locks one or more functionalities pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contests hosted by the electronic platform and an unrestricted functionality state that unlocks one or more functionalities pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contests. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computerized system for authenticating virtual participants and processing a virtual multi-participant contest in a network environment, comprising one or more processors and one or more non-transitory storage devices, the one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory storage devices to: provide, via a network, access to an electronic gaming platform that is configured to manage permissions for accessing virtual multi-participant contests; establish, over the network, a first connection between the electronic gaming platform and a first electronic device, wherein the first electronic device executes or accesses a first collaborative gaming application configured in a restricted functionality state that locks or prevents access to one or more functionalities pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contests; authenticate, using a geolocation authentication system of the electronic gaming platform, a first location of the first electronic device; transition the first collaborative gaming application from the restricted functionality state to an unrestricted functionality state based, at least in part, on authenticating the first location of the first electronic device; create, by the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, a virtual multi-participant contest, wherein an outcome of the virtual multi-participant contest is based upon predictions for one or more live events; receive, from the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, a first virtual stake submission for the virtual multi-participant contest, the first virtual stake submission identifying a first prediction corresponding to the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; establish, over the network, at least one additional connection between the electronic gaming platform and at least one additional electronic device, wherein the at least one additional electronic device executes or accesses at least one additional collaborative gaming application configured in the restricted functionality state that locks or prevents access to at least one functionality pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; authenticate, using the geolocation authentication system of the electronic gaming platform, at least one second location corresponding to the at least one additional electronic device; transition the at least one additional collaborative gaming application from the restricted functionality state to the unrestricted functionality state based, at least in part, on authenticating the at least one second location of the at least one additional electronic device, wherein transitioning the at least one additional collaborative gaming application to the unrestricted functionality state unlocks or permits access to the at least one functionality pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; receive, from the at least one additional electronic device configured in the unrestricted functionality state, one or more additional virtual stake submissions for the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device, each of the one or more additional virtual stake submissions identifying an additional prediction for the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; receive, by the electronic gaming platform, real-time event data corresponding to the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; and generate, by the electronic gaming platform, evaluation results corresponding to the virtual multi-participant contest, wherein the evaluation results identify the outcome of the virtual multi-participant contest, at least in part, by utilizing the real-time event data to determine an accuracy of one or more of the predictions for the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: the first collaborative gaming application is transitioned from the restricted functionality state to the unrestricted functionality state in response to: (i) authenticating the first location of the first electronic device; (ii) accessing location-specific protocols corresponding to the first location; and (iii) verifying the location-specific protocols corresponding to the first location; and the at least one additional collaborative gaming application is transitioned from the restricted functionality state to the unrestricted functionality state in response to: (i) authenticating the at least one second location of the at least one additional electronic device; (ii) accessing location-specific protocols corresponding to the at least one second location; and (iii) verifying the location-specific protocols corresponding to the at least one second location. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The computerized system of claim 2, wherein: the geolocation authentication system stores first location-specific protocols corresponding to the first location and second location-specific protocols corresponding to the at least one second location; the first location is different from the at least one second location; and the first location-specific protocols corresponding to the first location are different from the second location-specific protocols corresponding to the at least one second location. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: the electronic gaming platform hosts the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device until its completion; the electronic gaming platform facilitates crowdsourcing of a plurality of virtual stake submissions for the virtual multi-participant contest from a plurality of authorized virtual participants; and the geolocation authentication system authenticates each of the plurality of authorized virtual participants prior to submission of the plurality of virtual stake submissions into the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device is configured in a vacancy tolerant mode such that: in the vacancy tolerant mode, the electronic gaming platform hosting the virtual multi-participant contest maintains the virtual multi-participant contest as active when one or more individual contests within the virtual multi-participant contest remain unfilled prior to commencement of a live event associated with at least one virtual stake submission already entered into the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The computerized system of claim 5, wherein: in the vacancy tolerant mode, the electronic gaming platform is configured to accept further virtual stake submissions from authorized virtual participants for the one or more unfilled individual contests subsequent to the commencement of the live event associated with the at least one virtual stake submission; and in the vacancy tolerant mode, the electronic gaming platform prevents entry of further virtual stake submissions in response to determining that the at least one virtual stake submission already entered into the virtual multi-participant contest has resulted in a loss. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: in response to the first electronic device creating the virtual multi-participant contest, the electronic gaming platform generates an electronic ticket corresponding to the virtual multi-participant contest; the electronic ticket is associated with definition criteria that controls how the virtual multi-participant contest is administered by the electronic gaming platform such that: (i) the definition criteria define a maximum number of individual contests for the virtual multi-participant contest; (ii) the definition criteria define a unique identifier (ID) to be associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; (iii) the definition criteria define an outcome allocation policy for allocating winnings or losses among virtual participants of the virtual multi-participant contest; and (iv) the definition criteria enable one or more entry rules to be specified by the first electronic device when the virtual multi-participant contest is created; throughout a duration of the virtual multi-participant contest, the electronic gaming platform manages the virtual multi-participant contest according to the definition criteria; one or more interfaces associated with the electronic ticket are updated to display the real-time event data corresponding to each of the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; and throughout a duration of the virtual multi-participant contest, the electronic gaming platform grants access to the electronic ticket by each virtual participant that entered at least one virtual stake submission into the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: in response to the first electronic device creating the virtual multi-participant contest, the electronic gaming platform generates an electronic ticket corresponding to the virtual multi-participant contest; throughout a duration of the virtual multi-participant contest, the electronic gaming platform grants access to the electronic ticket by virtual participants that entered at least one virtual stake submission into the virtual multi-participant contest; and the electronic ticket provides one or more participant communication functions that enable the virtual participants that entered at least one virtual stake submission into the virtual multi-participant contest to communicate with each other throughout the duration of the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device corresponds to a virtual multi-participant parlay contest; the electronic gaming platform monitors each of the one or more live events in real-time, or near real-time, using the real-time event data received by the electronic gaming platform; the electronic gaming platform is configured to render the virtual multi-participant parlay contest as a winner if both the first prediction identified by the first virtual stake submission and the one or more additional predictions identified by the one or more additional virtual stake submissions accurately predict individual outcomes corresponding to the one or more live events; and the electronic gaming platform is configured to render the virtual multi-participant parlay contest as a loser if at least one virtual stake submission within the virtual multi-participant parlay contest inaccurately predicts an individual outcome corresponding to the one or more live events. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: the electronic gaming platform selectively grants access rights for viewing real-time video streaming data corresponding to the one or more live events included in the virtual multi-participant contest; for each virtual participant that entered at least one virtual stake submission into the virtual multi-participant contest, the electronic gaming platform grants access rights for viewing the real-time video streaming data for the one or more live events included in the virtual multi-participant contest; and the electronic gaming platform prohibits access to the real-time video streaming data for the one or more live events included in the virtual multi-participant contest for other virtual participants who have not entered at least one virtual stake submission into the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: generating evaluation results corresponding to the virtual multi-participant contest includes executing an outcome allocation function that determines how winnings or losses are split among virtual participants who entered at least one virtual stake submission into the virtual multi-participant contest; and the outcome allocation function applies a big favorite adjustment configuration that adjusts the winnings or the losses based, at least in part, on a big favorite threshold defining an odds value that distinguishes between standard odds and more favored odds. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The computerized system of claim 11, wherein in response to determining that the outcome of the virtual multi-participant contest results in a loss: a total loss amount is determined for the virtual multi-participant contest; each unsuccessful virtual stake submission included the virtual multi-participant contest is allocated a loss portion of the total loss amount; the big favorite adjustment configuration allocates a greater loss portion of the total loss amount to each unsuccessful virtual stake submission having odds exceeding the big favorite threshold in comparison to the loss portion allocated to each unsuccessful virtual stake submission having odds below the big favorite threshold; and the loss portion allocated to each unsuccessful virtual stake submission is attributed to a corresponding virtual participant that submitted the unsuccessful virtual stake submission. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: each virtual stake submission included in the virtual multi-participant contest is associated with a wager amount; and the electronic gaming platform is configured to return the wager amount associated with each virtual stake submission to a respective virtual participant in response to determining that the virtual stake submission is a winner and without waiting for outcome determinations on remaining virtual stake submissions included within the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: each authorized virtual participant is permitted to enter multiple virtual stake submissions into the virtual multi-participant contest; and an outcome allocation policy determines how winnings or losses are allocated for the virtual multi-participant contest based, at least in part, on a quantity of virtual stake submissions entered by each authorized virtual participant. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein the electronic gaming platform processes the real-time event data pertaining to the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest by: determining a start time for each of the one or more live events; presenting, via the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state and the at least one additional collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, updates pertaining to one or more live events while the one or more live events are in progress; determining whether each prediction identified by each virtual stake submission included in the virtual multi-participant contest is accurate based on the real-time event data for the one or more live events; and determining the outcome for the virtual multi-participant contest based on the accuracy of one or more of the predictions for the one or more live events. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The computerized system of claim 1, wherein: an outcome allocation policy determines how winnings or losses are allocated for the virtual multi-participant contest; and a virtual participant associated with the first collaborative gaming application that created the virtual multi-participant contest is allocated an increased amount of winnings relative to winnings allocated to at least one other virtual participant that joined virtual multi-participant contest after its creation. ### Claim 17 A computerized method for authenticating virtual participants and processing a virtual multi-participant contest in a network environment, wherein the computerized method is implemented via execution of computing instructions by one or more processing devices and stored on one or more non-transitory computer storage devices, the computerized method comprising: providing, via a network, access to an electronic gaming platform that is configured to manage permissions for accessing virtual multi-participant contests; establishing, over the network, a first connection between the electronic gaming platform and a first electronic device, wherein the first electronic device executes or accesses a first collaborative gaming application configured in a restricted functionality state that locks or prevents access to one or more functionalities pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contests; authenticating, using a geolocation authentication system of the electronic gaming platform, a first location of the first electronic device; transitioning the first collaborative gaming application from the restricted functionality state to an unrestricted functionality state based, at least in part, on authenticating the first location of the first electronic device; creating, by the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, a virtual multi-participant contest, wherein an outcome of the virtual multi-participant contest is based upon predictions for one or more live events; receiving, from the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, a first virtual stake submission for the virtual multi-participant contest, the first virtual stake submission identifying a first prediction corresponding to the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; establishing, over the network, at least one additional connection between the electronic gaming platform and at least one additional electronic device, wherein the at least one additional electronic device executes or accesses at least one additional collaborative gaming application configured in the restricted functionality state that locks or prevents access to at least one functionality pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; authenticating, using the geolocation authentication system of the electronic gaming platform, at least one second location corresponding to the at least one additional electronic device; transitioning the at least one additional collaborative gaming application from the restricted functionality state to the unrestricted functionality state based, at least in part, on authenticating the at least one second location of the at least one additional electronic device, wherein transitioning the at least one additional collaborative gaming application to the unrestricted functionality state unlocks or permits access to the at least one functionality pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; receiving, from the at least one additional electronic device configured in the unrestricted functionality state, one or more additional virtual stake submissions for the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device, each of the one or more additional virtual stake submissions identifying an additional prediction for the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; receiving, by the electronic gaming platform, real-time event data corresponding to the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; and generating, by the electronic gaming platform, evaluation results corresponding to the virtual multi-participant contest, wherein the evaluation results identify the outcome of the virtual multi-participant contest, at least in part, by utilizing the real-time event data to determine an accuracy of one or more of the predictions for the one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest. ### Claim 18 A computerized system for authenticating virtual participants and processing a virtual multi-participant contest in a network environment, comprising one or more processors and one or more non-transitory storage devices, the one or more processors configured to execute instructions stored on the one or more non-transitory storage devices to: provide, via a network, access to an electronic gaming platform that is configured to manage virtual multi-participant contests; establish, over the network, a first connection between the electronic gaming platform and a first electronic device, wherein the first electronic device executes or accesses a first collaborative gaming application configured in a restricted functionality state that locks one or more functionalities pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contests; authenticate, using a geolocation authentication system of the electronic gaming platform, a first location of the first electronic device; transition the first collaborative gaming application from the restricted functionality state to an unrestricted functionality state based, at least in part, on authenticating the first location of the first electronic device; create, by the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, a virtual multi-participant contest; receive, from the first collaborative gaming application configured in the unrestricted functionality state, a first virtual stake submission for the virtual multi-participant contest, the first virtual stake submission identifying a first live event to be associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; establish, over the network, a second connection between the electronic gaming platform and a second electronic device, wherein the second electronic device executes or accesses a second collaborative gaming application configured in the restricted functionality state that locks the at least one functionality pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; authenticate, using the geolocation authentication system of the electronic gaming platform, a second location of the second electronic device; transition the second collaborative gaming application from the restricted functionality state to the unrestricted functionality state based, at least in part, on authenticating the second location of the second electronic device, wherein transitioning the second collaborative gaming application to the unrestricted functionality state unlocks the at least one functionality pertaining to the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; receive, from the second electronic device configured in the unrestricted functionality state, one or more virtual stake submissions for the virtual multi-participant contest created by the first electronic device; receive, by the electronic gaming platform, event data corresponding to one or more live events associated with the virtual multi-participant contest; and generate, by the electronic gaming platform, evaluation results corresponding to the virtual multi-participant contest based, at least in part, on the event data corresponding to the one or more live events.