Wagering game award system

A method of operating a wagering game network that supports a plurality of award types, the wagering gaming network including one or more wagering game machines, the wagering game machines primarily dedicated to playing casino wagering games, each wagering game machine including an electronic display device and one or more electronic input devices, the method comprising:

• detecting, by one of the wagering game machines, a player identifier identifying a player;
• detecting, via at least one of the electronic input devices of the one of the wagering game machines, a physical item associated with a monetary value that establishes a credit balance;
• initiating, by the one of the wagering game machines, the casino wagering game in response to an input indicating a wager covered by the credit balance;
• displaying, on the electronic display device of the one of the wagering game machines, a result for the casino wagering game;
• identifying, by an award account server, an award account associated with the player identifier;
• determining, by the award account server, awards for the player, wherein the awards are of the plurality of award types, and wherein the determining includes
• determining casino activities of the one or more wagering game machines including the result for the casino wagering game;
• and
• determining online activities performed by the payer in at least one online server;
• providing, by the award account server, information indicating items for which the awards can be redeemed;
• detecting a request to redeem one or more of the awards for one of the items;
• and
• performing the redemption.

A method for operating an award system server in a wagering game network, the method comprising:

• determining, by the award system server over a communications network, casino activities at one or more wagering game machines, wherein the casino activities include the following operations performed by the one or more wagering game machines
• detecting, via electronic input devices of the wagering game machines, physical items associated with monetary value that establishes credit balances;
• initiating, by the wagering game machines, casino wagering games in response to inputs indicating wagers covered by the credit balances;
• displaying, on electronic display devices of the wagering game machines, results for the casino wagering games;
• determining, by the award system server over a communications network, online activities occurring via one or more online servers;
• adding, by the award system server, awards to award accounts associated with player identifiers, wherein the awards are for the online activities and the casino activities, wherein the awards are of a plurality of types including a first award type, second award type, and third award type, and wherein the awards of the first award type, second award type, and third award type are redeemable for each other;
• detecting, by the award system server, requests to redeem ones of the awards of the first award type for awards of the second award type and third award type;
• and
• redeeming, by the award system server, the ones of the awards of the first award type for the awards of the second award type and third award type.

A method for operating, a third-party marketer computer in an electronic wagering game network, the method comprising:

• submitting, by third-party marketer computer over a communications network, an electronic request to acquire awards from an award system server in the wagering game network;
• detecting, by the third-party marketer computer, an electronic indication that the awards have been acquired from the award system server;
• detecting, by the third-party marketer server, activities in the wagering game network that make players eligible to receive some of the awards, wherein the activities are associated with operations performed by wagering game machines in the wagering game network. the operations including
• detecting, via electronic input devices of the wagering game machines, physical items associated with monetary value that establishes credit balances;
• initiating, by the wagering game machines, casino wagering games in response to inputs indicating wagers covered by the credit balances;
• displaying, on electronic display devices of the wagering game machines, results for the casino wagering games;
• and
• requesting, by the third-party marketer over the communications network, electronic transfer of the some of the awards to accounts associated with the players, wherein the requesting occurs in response to the detecting the activities.