Method for conducting sports tournaments with wagering

A method of conducting a sport tournament with wagering for a starting field of players, comprising the steps of:

• a) dividing the field into groups, each group having at least two players;
• b) providing a means of competing among the players within each group in a series of play sequences, each play sequence comprising at least one competitive play action that produces a result based on a physical skill in a sport performed by each player toward a virtual goal on a computerized simulated play system using a digitizing manual input device that gives the player manual control over a simulated trajectory of a ball, and providing a quantitative measure of success by each player toward achieving the goal in each play sequence;
• c) using a chance selection means before the first round to select an order of play within each group, resulting in a first through a last player in each group;
• d) in each round after the first rotating the play order forward by one player in circular fashion;
• e) the players within each group competing against each other in the order of play;
• f) each player in the field providing a buy-in representing an amount of money called a “bank” that is initially available to each player for wagering, and is subsequently reduced by any lost wagers made by each player;
• g) each player within each group wagering on the quantitative results of each play sequence performed by that group, each wager being the sum of any required ante plus any bets made by that player during each play sequence;
• h) each player being required to ante a predetermined first fraction of the buy-in amount on each play sequence;
• i) after each play action of physical skill, each player being allowed to place a bet or modify a bet on the quantitative results of each given play sequence after each play action of physical skill except the last in the given play sequence, the total of the ante and the bet being limited to that player's remaining bank amount;
• j) each play sequence having a minimum bet amount that can be wagered by a player;
• k) a player in the field being eliminated from the tournament when that player has less in their bank than the lesser of any required ante or any required minimum bet on the next play sequence to be performed by the group in the series;
• l) each group of players competing and wagering in the series of play sequences, said series comprising a round of the tournament until only one player survives in each of the groups, the set of surviving players being a new field for a next round of the tournament;
• m) repeating steps a)-m) recursively for additional rounds of the tournament until only one player survives as the tournament winner and the wagering winner.