TEAM BASED FANTASY SPORT CONTEST

• US 20080051201A1
• Filed: 08/27/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ALMA Mater Sports LLC
• Original Assignee: ALMA Mater Sports LLC
• Inventors: Lore, Vito
• Granted Patent: US 8,246,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• 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 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/818 Fishing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking

Abstract

A method provides a fantasy sport contest having rules wherein a plurality of participants are permitted to populate respective fantasy rosters with actual athletes for purposes of competing with each other based on corresponding real-life field-of-play performances of the actual athletes. The method includes restricting a population of each of a first and second fantasy roster for respective first and second participants to actual athletes who are teammates on respective first and second real-life team, and measuring corresponding real-life field of play performance of the actual athletes on the first and second fantasy rosters. A ranking is established as between the first participant and the second participant based on the respective performance measurements, and is further displayed. The first real-life team and the second real-life team may be the same real-life team, or different real-life teams.

Claims

1. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest, in accordance with rules wherein a plurality of participants are permitted to populate respective fantasy rosters with actual athletes for purposes of competing with each other based on corresponding real-life field-of-play performances of the actual athletes populating the respective fantasy rosters, the method comprising:

restricting a population of a first fantasy roster for a first participant to actual athletes who are teammates on a first real-life team and measuring a corresponding real-life field of play performance of the actual athletes on the first fantasy roster;

restricting a population of a second fantasy roster for a second participant to actual athletes who are teammates on a second real-life team and measuring a corresponding real-life field-of-play performance of the actual athletes on the second fantasy roster;

establishing a ranking as between the first participant and the second participant based on the respective performance measurements; and

displaying the ranking.

2. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first real-life team and the second real-life team are the same real-life team.

3. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first real-life team and the second real-life team are different real-life teams.

4. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 3, wherein the performance measurements are from a game involving the different real-life teams playing each other.

5. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 3, wherein the performance measurements are from different respective games respectively involving the different real-life teams playing respectively different teams.

6. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, further including making multiple such measurements in pairs over time with respect to the actual athletes of the first and second rosters in a head-to-head competition arrangement, and wherein establishing a ranking includes declaring a winner and a loser or declaring a tie with respect to each such pair of measurements made, and wherein displaying the ranking includes displaying a cumulative accounting of such wins, losses, and ties.

7. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein establishing a ranking includes comparing a size of the measurement associated with the first fantasy roster with a size of the measurement associated with the second fantasy roster, and determining a ranking order for the first and second participants according to the measurement size comparison.

8. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 7, wherein the contest spans a series of real-life games, and further including requiring the first and second participants to change the respective first and second rosters by limiting an eligibility of any particular such actual athletes to populate any such roster to at least one less real-life game than a total number of said real-life games comprising said series thereof.

9. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of the first real-life team and the second real-life team is a college football team, and each of the performance measurements is from a postseason bowl game for the respective college football team.

10. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, further comprising permitting each of the first and the second participants to designate at least one actual athlete populating the respective first and second roster as a star player, and wherein establishing a ranking includes bias, such that respective real-life field-of-play performances associated with an actual athlete designated as a star player is caused to have a proportionately greater degree of influence on a ranking outcome as compared to a respective real-life field-of-play performance of similar quality but associated with an actual athlete that is not so designated.

11. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein establishing a ranking includes subjecting respective results of the measurements to a weighting system adapted to equalize field-of-play performance comparisons as across different positions played by the actual athletes.

13. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of the first and second real-life teams is one selected from a group comprising a football team, a soccer team, a baseball team, a basketball team, and a hockey team.

14. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of the first and second real-life team is a football team, and further comprising requiring each of the first and second contest participants, in populating the respective first and second rosters, to include a plurality of actual athletes playing respective positions on an offensive squad of the football team, and a plurality of actual athletes playing respective positions on a defensive squad of the football team.

15. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 14, further comprising requiring each of the first and second contest participants, in populating the respective first and second rosters, to include at least one actual athlete playing a respective position on a special teams squad of the football team

16. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 14, wherein the plurality of actual athletes playing respective positions on an offensive squad of the football team include actual athletes playing one selected from a group comprising quarterback, running back, fullback, tailback, split end, tight end, wide receiver, offensive lineman, and kicker, and the plurality of actual athletes playing respective positions on a defensive squad of the football team include actual athletes playing one selected from a group comprising safety, cornerback, linebacker, defensive tackle, defensive end, and punter.

12. A method of providing a fantasy sport contest in accordance with claim 12, wherein subjecting respective results of the measurement to a weighting system includes at least one selected from a group comprising applying one or more measurement multipliers, applying one or more bonuses, and applying a combination thereof.

17. A system, comprising:

at least one storage volume configured to receive, store, and permit retrieval with respect to content relating to a fantasy sport contest, the content being selected from a group comprising participant information, real-life team information, participant rankings, and a combination thereof; and

a host server for interacting with the at least one storage volume for storing and retrieving the content relating to a fantasy sport contests, the host server being configured to

apply rules wherein a plurality of participants are permitted to populate respective fantasy rosters with actual athletes for purposes of competing with each other based on corresponding real-life field-of-play performances of the actual athletes populating the respective fantasy rosters;

restrict a population of a first fantasy roster for a first participant to actual athletes who are teammates on a first real-life team;

restrict a population of a second fantasy roster for a second participant to actual athletes who are teammates on a second real-life team;

establishing a ranking as between the first participant and the second participant based on real-life field-of-play performances of the actual athletes populating the respective fantasy rosters; and

display the ranking.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first and second real-life teams are the same real-life team.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the first and second real-life teams are different real-life teams.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising a program that, when executed by a processor, performing a method for providing a fantasy sport contest, the method comprising:

enforcing rules wherein a plurality of participants are permitted to populate respective fantasy rosters with actual athletes for purposes of competing with each other based on corresponding real-life field-of-play performances of the actual athletes populating the respective fantasy rosters;

restricting a population of a first fantasy roster for a first participant to actual athletes who are teammates on a first real-life team;

restricting a population of a second fantasy roster for a second participant to actual athletes who are teammates on a second real-life team and measuring a corresponding real-life field-of-play performance of the actual athletes on the second fantasy roster;

establishing a ranking as between the first participant and the second participant based on real-life field-of-play performances of the actual athletes populating the respective fantasy rosters; and

displaying the ranking.