System and method of revealing real world wager outcomes based on user interactions with interactive media

• US 10,186,115 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2017
• Issued: 01/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Game Play Network, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Game Play Network, Inc.
• Inventors: Fine, Russell M., Marshall, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Allen
• Application Number:
  US15/708,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20180096563A1
• Time in Patent Office: 490 Days
• Field of Search: 463 25
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3209 Input means, e.g. buttons, touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3211 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3225 Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3227 Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/326 Game play aspects of gaming systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3262 Player actions which determine the course of the game, e.g. selecting a prize to be won, outcome to be achieved, game to be played
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking

Abstract

The invention relates to systems and methods of selecting and placing real-world wagers responsive to one or more wager triggers, obtaining outcomes of the real-world wagers, facilitating user interactions with various interactive media, and revealing the outcomes of the real-world wagers through the interactive media to give an appearance that the outcomes of the real-world wagers resulted from the user interactions even though the outcomes resulted from the real-world wagers and were determined before the user interactions. By integrating real-world wager outcomes with gameplay and other user interactions, the system may provide an engaging user experience with interactive media. For example, a game may reveal an outcome of a real-world wager (which has already occurred), in response to in-game actions such as user actions in the game, other players'"'"' actions in the game, game events (e.g., events caused by the game logic/artificial intelligence), and/or other events.

Claims

1. A device that that reveals outcomes of wagers placed on behalf of a user, the device comprising:

one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more physical processors, program the device to;

determine a first location of the device;

determine that the first location corresponds to one or more locations at which wagers are legally permitted;

responsive to the determination that the first location corresponds to the one or more locations at which wagers are legally permitted, cause a wager to be placed on behalf of the user based on one or more wager parameters;

obtain an outcome of the wager;

initiate a particular session of an interactive media application;

obtain one or more reveal parameters that specify a manner in which to reveal at least a portion of the outcome via the interactive media application; and

reveal the portion of the outcome to the user at a second location different than the first location via the interactive media application, wherein the portion of the outcome is revealed based on the one or more reveal parameters to give the user the impression that user interaction with the interactive media application resulted in the portion of the outcome.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein to cause the wager to be placed on behalf of the user, the device is programmed to:

cause instructions to place the wager on behalf of the user to be transmitted to a third-party wagering system via a network.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is further programmed to:

receive physical user input indicating one or more wager parameters that specify information used to place the wager, wherein the wager is caused to be placed based on the one or more wager parameters, the one or more wager parameters comprising an indication of a type of wager event in which to place the wager, a particular wager event in which to place the wager, a particular outcome that is wagered upon, an amount of the wager, a number of wagers to place, and/or a risk level of the wager.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein to obtain the one or more reveal parameters, the device is programmed to:

communicate a request for a reveal specification associated with the user to a computer system, wherein the reveal specification includes the one or more reveal parameters and an indication of the portion of the outcome to be revealed via the interactive media application, and wherein the reveal specification is received from the computer system responsive to the request.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the device further comprises a memory, and wherein the device is further programmed to:

cause the wager to be placed on behalf of the user via a communication link between the device and the computer system;

cause the reveal specification to be cached in the memory, wherein the reveal specification is received via the communication link; and

reveal, based on the reveal specification cached in the memory, the portion of the outcome to the user while the communication link between the device and the computer system is disconnected.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the interactive media application comprises a game, and wherein the device is further programmed to:

receive physical user input related to gameplay of the game while the communication link between the device and the computer system is disconnected, wherein the physical user input comprises the user interaction with the interactive media application; and

reveal the portion of the outcome to the user within the game while the communication link between the device and the computer system is disconnected.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein the device is further programmed to:

store, in the memory, information that indicates the portion or all of the amount that was indicated to the user; and

communicate, to the computer system, the information that indicates the portion or all of the amount that was revealed to the user when a new communication link with the computer system has been established.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is further programmed to:

communicate an indication that the portion of the outcome was revealed via the interactive media application to the computer system, wherein a revealed balance of a user account associated with the user is incremented responsive to the indication.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more reveal parameters comprise an indication of when a reveal may occur, an identification of one or more interactive media applications able to make the reveal, an amount of the reveal, a number of reveals to make, a geo-location associated with the reveal, and/or a promotion associated with the reveal.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more reveal parameters indicate that the portion of the outcome is to be revealed based on completion of an objective related to the interactive media application, wherein the device is further programmed to:

determine that the user has completed the objective based on user interaction with the interactive media application, wherein the portion of the outcome is revealed responsive to the completed objective to give the user the impression that the user won the portion of the outcome based on the completed objective.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the interactive media application comprises a game and the objective comprises an objective within the game, wherein the device is further programmed to:

obtain a level of completion of the objective based on the user interaction, wherein the user interaction comprises physical user input received via the device;

determine that the level of completion satisfies a minimum level of completion of the objective within the game for revealing at least the portion of the outcome based on the one or more reveal parameters; and

responsive to the determination that the level of completion satisfies the minimum level of completion, reveal the portion of the outcome to the user via the interactive media application to give the appearance that the user won the revealed portion based on the level of completion of the objective within the game.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein completion of the objective requires downloading media content, wherein the device is further programmed to:

receive a request from the user via the interactive media application to download the media content;

cause the media content to be downloaded via the interactive media application based on the request; and

responsive to the media content being successfully downloaded via the interactive media application, reveal the portion of the outcome to the user via the interactive media application to give the appearance that the user won the revealed portion based on the download of the media content via the interactive media application.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more reveal parameters indicate that the portion of the outcome is to be revealed when a location associated with the user corresponds to a location associated with a reveal opportunity, wherein the device is further programmed to:

determine that the user is at the second location;

determine that the second location corresponds to the location associated with the reveal opportunity; and

responsive to the determination that the second location corresponds to the location associated with the reveal opportunity, reveal the portion of the outcome to the user via the interactive media application.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the determination that the second location corresponds to the location associated with the reveal opportunity comprises a determination that the second location is the same as the location associated with the reveal opportunity.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the determination that the second location corresponds to the location associated with the reveal opportunity comprises a determination that the second location is in a proximity to the location associated with the reveal opportunity.

16. The device of claim 1, wherein to initiate the particular session of the interactive media application, the device is further programmed to:

obtain one or more authentication credentials associated with the user; and

authenticate the user using the one or more authentication credentials, wherein the outcome of the wager and the one or more revealed parameters are obtained based on the authenticated user.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein to cause the wager to be placed, the device is further programmed to:

cause a random number generator to generate a random number on which the outcome is based.

18. The device of claim 1, wherein the reveal parameters specify a first portion of the outcome to be potentially revealed via the interactive media application and a second portion of the outcome to be potentially revealed via a second interactive media application, wherein the device is further programmed to:

determine that the first portion of the outcome is to be revealed to the user based on the initiation of the particular session of the interactive media application such that the portion of the outcome to reveal is customized based on the interactive media application, wherein the portion fo the outcome comprises the first portion of the outcome.

19. The device of claim 1, wherein the second location corresponds to a location at which placing the wager is not legally permitted.

20. The device of claim 1, wherein the device further comprises a GPS component, wherein the GPS component is configured to:

generate location information indicating a location of the device at a given point in time, wherein the first location of the device is determined based on the location information.

21. A device that that reveals outcomes of wagers placed on behalf of a user, wherein the wagers are placed via a communication link between the device and a computer system, the device comprising:

one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions that, when executed by the one or more physical processors, program the device to;

receive one or more wager parameters for a wager;

transmit the one or more wager parameters to the computer system via the communication link;

obtain one or more reveal parameters that specify a manner in which to reveal at least a portion of the outcome; and

initiate an interactive media application after the communication link has been disconnected; and

reveal, via the interactive media application, the portion of the outcome to the user based on the one or more reveal parameters, wherein the portion of the outcome is revealed to give the user the impression that user interaction with the interactive media application resulted in the portion of the outcome.

22. The device of claim 21, wherein the device further comprises a memory, wherein the device is further programmed to:

cause the one or more reveal parameters to be cached in the memory; and

obtain the one or more reveal parameters from the memory to reveal the portion of the outcome.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein to obtain the one or more reveal parameters, the device is further programmed to obtain the one or more reveal parameters from the computer system via the communication link.