IN-CASINO TO ONLINE CASINO INTERACTIVITY

• US 20110183749A1
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Light & Wonder Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ward, Matthew J., Pacey, Larry J., Allen, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,529,338 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3211 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3227 Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players

Abstract

A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In embodiments, the operations can include determining an achievement by a player account that occurs during a wagering game session and rewarding the player accounts achievement according to achievement settings or business rules. The operations can also include generating achievement data with marketing metadata and providing the achievement data to a marketing provider to market to the player account based on the achievement data. In some embodiments, the operations can also include presenting the achievement data on a website, such as a personal wagering game web log “gaming blog”.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining an achievement by a wagering game player account that occurs during a wagering game session, wherein the wagering game session includes achievement data that describes information related to the achievement;

awarding the achievement according to achievement settings that indicate awards for accomplishing preset wagering game activities;

associating marketing metadata with the achievement data; and

providing the achievement data and the marketing metadata to a marketing provider to market to the wagering game player account based on one or more of the achievement data and the marketing metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein awarding the achievement comprises:

determining an award setting that correlates to one of the achievement settings associated with the achievement;

providing an award indicated by the award setting to the wagering game player account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein associating the marketing metadata with the achievement data comprises:

generating marketing tags with descriptions of one or more of the achievement, the wagering game session, demographics about the wagering game player account, a playing history, game classifications, and the location of the wagering game player account; and

assigning the marketing tags to portions of the achievement data that correlate to the descriptions.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the marketing data to drive traffic to one or more of a casino website, a third party website, and a physical casino location.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the marketing data to provide one or more of promotions, coupons, and marketing material to the wagering game player account.

6. An apparatus, comprising:

means for receiving achievement data for a wagering game player account, where the achievement data contains one or more marketing tags pertaining to information about an achievement obtained by the wagering game player account;

means for determining personal information related to the wagering game player account;

means for accessing marketer information that correlates to the one or more marketing tags, wherein the marketer information includes data for one or more incentive providers and one or more incentives offered by the one or more incentive providers;

means for determining at least one of the one or more marketing incentives offered by one or more incentive providers indicated in the marketer information; and

means for providing the one or more marketing incentives to the wagering game player account.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means for determining personal information related to the wagering game player account comprises:

means for determining one or more of demographic information, game play history, player profile data, preference settings, and contact information for the wagering game player account; and

means for determining one or more of game theme data, game type data, and game origin data for a wagering game session in which the achievement was obtained.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means for determining at least one of the one or more marketing incentives comprises:

means for generating analysis data of one or more of the personal information, descriptions in the marketing tags, and wagering game session information;

means for determining, using the analysis data, at least one marketing incentive that the wagering game player account prefers;

means for determining at least one incentive provider that provides the marketing incentive; and

means for generating a redemption certificate for the marketing incentive redeemable by the incentive provider.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the means for determining at least one of the one or more marketing incentives comprises:

means for presenting a proposed marketing incentive to an incentive provider;

means for receiving modifications to the proposed marketing incentive by the incentive provider;

means for generating a modified proposed marketing incentive using the modifications; and

means for including the modified proposed marketing incentive in the one or more marketing incentives.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a wagering game module configured to

determine a selection of a replay control, wherein the replay control is configured to present a replay of a wagering game,

present a game replay of the wagering game,

determine a selection, by a player account, of a point in the game replay to play out a portion of wagering game activity in the wagering game,

determine that a wagering game result has not been completely presented yet in the game replay for the portion of the wagering game activity,

determine a wager amount from the player account,

generate a new wagering game result, and

present the new wagering game result for the portion of the wagering game activity.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the wagering game module is further configured to present an automated commentator that automatically comments on the wagering game replay.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the wagering game module is further configured to

stream metadata for the game replay, wherein the metadata includes instructions about events that occurred within the wagering game, and

reconstruct the wagering game using the metadata and wagering game assets.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the wagering game module is further configured to modify the wager amount based on a degree of the wagering game result that is presented from the game replay.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the wagering game module is further configured to

determine that the new wagering game result is a win, and

transact a winning value to the player account.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the wagering game module is further configured to

present the game replay on a wagering game web log, and

present comments from web log patrons about the game replay.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the wagering game module is further configured to present wagering controls for the web log patrons to wager on the portion of the wagering game activity.

17. One or more machine-readable media having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a set of one or more processors causes the set of one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining player preference information in a player profile for a wagering game player account;

comparing the player preference information to user account preference information for one or more other accounts;

determining similarities in the player preferences for the wagering game player account and the user account preferences for the one or more other accounts;

determining a group of the one or more other accounts that have similarities; and

presenting an interface that displays the group of the one or more other accounts that have the similarities.

18. The machine-readable media of claim 17, the operations further comprising

presenting one or more controls to filter the group based on categories of similarities.

19. The machine-readable media of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

introducing the wagering game player account to one or more of the group.

20. The machine-readable media of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

scheduling an event for the wagering game player account and one or more of the group to socially interact.

21. The machine-readable media of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

suggesting wagering game preferences to the wagering game player account, wherein the wagering game preferences are possessed by one or more of the group.

22. A system, comprising:

a wagering game server comprising;

an achievement award module configured to

determine one or more achievements of one or more wagering game player accounts during wagering game activity, and

provide one or more recognitions to the one or more wagering game player accounts for the one or more achievements; and

a wagering game machine comprising

a gaming web log object controller configured to

automatically generate one or more web log entries related to the one or more achievements, and

present the one or more web log entries on a wagering game web log for the one or more wagering game player accounts.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the wagering game server further comprises a marketing module configured to

receive marketing data regarding the one or more achievements, and

use the marketing data to market to the one or more wagering game player accounts.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the wagering game machine further comprises a game replay module configured to

present a replay of the wagering game activity, and

provide a break-out gaming session for a selected portion of the wagering game activity.

25. The system of claim 22, further comprising an account server including a player preferences settings configured to store player preferences for the one or more wagering game player accounts, and wherein the wagering game server further comprises an account comparison module configured to

compare similarities between the one or more wagering game player accounts and other social contact accounts, and

provide a social introduction between the one or more wagering game player accounts and one or more of the other social contact accounts.