Fantasy sports agent

• US 20080026804A1
• Filed: 07/28/2006
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Robinson, Shawn, Baray, Cristobal, Riess, Chuck
• Granted Patent: US 8,568,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/9
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/85 Providing additional services to players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/57 details of game services offered to the player

Abstract

A fantasy sports alert agent provides notifications of relevant news articles and occurrences in a fantasy sports game, such as fantasy team roster changes or player trades, and also suggests changes to a fantasy team roster to improve the team'"'"'s chances of winning. The notifications are based on items of data received from an item generator, which is typically a server process that communicates with the agent via a network. The alert agent may suggest alternative fantasy team roster lineups and, if the user accepts a suggestion, the agent may change the lineup. Each notification includes a call to action feature, such as a web link, which a user can select to perform an action, such as accepting a trade or changing the team'"'"'s roster. The notifications may be displayed on a user'"'"'s computer screen by the alert agent, or by an RSS reader or electronic mail reader.

Claims

1. A fantasy sports agent for notifying a user of events in online fantasy sports games, comprising:

item receiving logic for receiving an item from a server, wherein the item includes an item type and an item sports identifier;

item parsing logic for retrieving the item type and the item sports identifier from the received item; and

notification logic for presenting a notification to the user, wherein the notification is based upon the item type and the item sports identifier.

2. The fantasy sports agent of claim 1, wherein the item sports identifier comprises an item game identifier, an item league identifier, an item team identifier, an item player identifier, a content field, or a combination thereof.

3. The fantasy sports agent of claim 1, wherein the fantasy sports agent comprises a user interface widget.

4. The fantasy sports agent of claim 1, wherein the item type comprises Add Player, Drop Player, Update Starting Lineup, Update Starting Roster, Incomplete Roster, Roster Changed, Player Trade, Information Message, News Article, Player Injury Status, or a combination thereof.

5. The fantasy sports agent of claim 1, further comprising:

link generation logic for generating an action link, wherein the action link is based upon the item sports identifier,

wherein the action link comprises a reference to a Web page for performing an action,

wherein the notification logic is operable to present the action link to the user in association with the notification.

6. The fantasy sports agent of claim 5, wherein the action link comprises a Uniform Resource Locator for the Web page.

7. The fantasy sports agent of claim 1, further comprising:

item filtering logic for causing the notification to be presented to the user if at least one component of the item sports identifier matches a value associated with the user'"'"'s fantasy sports team.

8. The fantasy sports agent of claim 7, further comprising:

memory logic for storing a stored sports identifier,

wherein the stored sports identifier comprises a user league identifier, a user team identifier, and a user player identifier,

wherein the user league identifier, the user team identifier, and the user player identifier are associated with a user, and

wherein the memory logic is operable to provide the stored sports identifier in response to a request that specifies the user.

9. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the notification to the user if the item player identifier matches a user player identifier associated with a player on the user'"'"'s team.

10. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the notification to the user if the item league identifier matches the user league identifier.

11. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the notification to the user if the item league identifier, the item team identifier, and the item player identifier match the user league identifier, the user team identifier, and the user player identifier, respectively.

12. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the item to the user if the item is an incomplete roster item and the item team identifier matches the user team identifier.

13. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the item to the user if the item is a roster changed item and the item league identifier matches the user league identifier.

14. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the item to the user if the item is a player trade item and the item league identifier matches the user league identifier.

15. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the item to the user if (a) the item is a lineup change suggestion for adding a player, and (b) the player is available to be added to the user'"'"'s team, wherein the player is identified by the item player identifier.

16. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the item to the user if the item is a news story item that refers to a player on the user'"'"'s team.

17. The fantasy sports agent of claim 16, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the news story item to the user if a player identified by the item player identifier is a member of a team identified by the user team identifier.

18. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, wherein the notification logic is operable to present the item to the user if the item is an injury status item and a player identified by the item player identifier is a member of a team identified by the user team identifier.

19. The fantasy sports agent of claim 8, further comprising:

link generation logic for generating an action link, wherein the action link is based upon the item sports identifier and the stored sports identifier,

wherein the action link comprises a reference to a Web page for performing an action, and

wherein the notification logic is operable to present the action link to the user in association with the notification.

20. The fantasy sports agent of claim 19, wherein the action link comprises a link to the Web page, wherein the Web page includes an interface for adding a player specified by the item to the user'"'"'s fantasy sports team, an interface for dropping the player specified by the item from the user'"'"'s fantasy sports team, an interface for changing the starting lineup of the user'"'"'s fantasy sports team, an interface for sending an informational message, or a combination thereof.

22. The fantasy sports agent of claim 21, further comprising:

suggestion submission logic for submitting the suggestion to a server to perform a suggested action if the user accepts the suggestion.

21. A fantasy sports agent for providing suggestions for an online fantasy sports team, comprising:

statistics monitoring logic for receiving game play statistics associated with at least one player;

suggestion generation logic for generating a suggested action for a user if a condition is true, wherein the condition is based upon the statistics and upon the user; and

notification logic for presenting a representation of the suggested action to the user.

23. The fantasy sports agent of claim 21, further comprising:

suggestion generation logic for identifying a first player, wherein the first player is available to be added to the user'"'"'s team,

wherein the suggestion generation logic is operable to identify a second player on the user'"'"'s team;

wherein the suggestion generation logic is operable to determine based upon the statistics a first weighting of the first player and a second weighting of the second player, and

wherein the suggestion generation logic is operable to generate a suggestion to add the first player to the user'"'"'s team if the first weighting is greater than the second weighting.

24. The fantasy sports agent of claim 23, wherein the first weighting and the second weighting are based upon player rankings generated by a fantasy sports player ranker.

25. The fantasy sports agent of claim 23, wherein the first weighting and the second weighting are based upon positions in a buzz list of the first player and the second player, respectively.

26. The fantasy sports agent of claim 23, wherein the first weighting and the second weighting are based upon projected points of the first player and the second player, respectively.

27. A fantasy sports agent user interface for displaying notifications of fantasy sports events in a fantasy sports game, comprising:

a notification area for displaying a visual representation of the notification;

a game description area for displaying a description of the fantasy sports game; and

an action area for displaying a call to action associated with an action link, wherein the action area is operable to receive at least one input event directed to the action area;

wherein the at least one input event is operable to cause the call to action link to be opened.

28. The fantasy sports agent user interface of claim 27, wherein the notification area comprises a text description of the notification, a graphical image based upon the notification, or a combination thereof.

29. The fantasy sports agent user interface of claim 27, wherein the game description area comprises a game type name, a league name, a date, or a combination thereof.

30. A method for notifying a user of events in online fantasy sports games, comprising the steps of:

receiving an item from a server, wherein the item includes an item type and an item sports identifier;

generating an action link that refers to a Web page for performing an action,

wherein the action link is based upon the item; and

presenting a notification to the user if a condition is true,

wherein the notification comprises the action link.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the item sports identifier comprises an item game identifier, an item league identifier, an item team identifier, an item player identifier, a content field, or a combination thereof.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the condition is true if at least one component of the item sports identifier matches a value associated with the user'"'"'s fantasy sports team.

33. A computer program product comprising program code for notifying a user of events in online fantasy sports games, the computer program product comprising:

program code operable to receive an item from a server, wherein the item includes an item type and an item sports identifier;

program code operable to generate an action link that refers to a Web page for performing an action,

wherein the action link is based upon the item; and

program code operable to present a notification to the user if a condition is true, wherein the notification comprises the action link.

34. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the item sports identifier comprises an item game identifier, an item league identifier, an item team identifier, an item player identifier, a content field, or a combination thereof.

35. The computer program product of claim 33, wherein the condition is true if at least one component of the item sports identifier matches a value associated with the user'"'"'s fantasy sports team.