System and logic for establishing a wager for a game

• US 8,025,565 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2008
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Interactive Games Limited (BGC Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cantor Index Limited (Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P.)
• Inventors: Lawrence, Sam B., O'Neal, Kevin R., Leen, Fergus A., McNally, David G., McDowell, David M., Hetherington, Clive
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol; Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUFFY, DAVID W
• Application Number:
  US12/131,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20080234037A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 463/25, 463/28, 463/1, 463/16, 463/23, 463 40- 42
• US Class Current: 463/23
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• 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 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3234 about the performance of a gaming system, e.g. revenue, diagnosis of the gaming system
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• 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 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3286 Type of games
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3293 Card games, e.g. poker, canasta, black jack

Abstract

In a particular embodiment of the present invention, a system for establishing a wager associated with a game comprises a processor that receives information about a wager offer, wherein the wager offer is associated with an online game. The processor also receives information about a wager acceptance. The wager offer and the wager acceptance combine to form a wager, wherein the wager is associated with at least one wager parameter. The system further comprises a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and that stores information associated with the at least one wager parameter.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that is communicatively coupled to the processor and that stores (1) information associated with at least one wager parameter and (2) instructions which, when executed by the processor, direct the processor at least to;

receive a first request for game play from a first user communicatively coupled to the system with a first of a plurality of computing devices;

execute a first gaming application in response to the first request from the first user, wherein execution of the first gaming application corresponds at least in part to a start of a first gaming session of a first game;

monitor game events by the first user during at least a portion of the first gaming session;

receive a second request for game play from the first user;

receive a request for game play from a second user communicatively coupled to the system with a second of the plurality of computing devices;

execute a second gaming application in response to at least one of the second request from the first user and the request from the second user, wherein execution of the second gaming application corresponds at least in part to a start of a second gaming session of a second game;

establish game play in the second gaming session between the first user against the second user;

receive information about a wager offer from the first user or the second user;

receive information about a wager acceptance, the wager offer and the wager acceptance combining to form a wager, wherein the wager comprises at least one wager parameter and an outcome that depends on at least one event associated with the second gaming session;

monitor game events by the first user during at least a portion of the second gaming session;

provide first game advice to the second user based at least in part on at least one of the monitored game events during at least a portion of the first gaming session and the monitored game events during at least a portion of the second gaming session, the first game advice comprising advice about whether to place or accept a wager with the first user; and

provide second game advice to the second user during the second gaming session based at least in part on the monitored game events during at least a portion of the first gaming session and the monitored game events during at least a portion of the second gaming session, the second game advice comprising one or more game options or one or more game strategies that may be used by the second user to invoke a game event during the second gaming session.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the wager offer is received from the first user and the wager acceptance is received from the second user, the wager offer and the wager acceptance combining to form a wager between the first user and the second user.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the wager offer and the wager acceptance is received during the execution of the second game.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first game advice further comprises advice about parameters of a wager with the first user that may be placed or accepted by the second user, and wherein the wager parameters comprise a wager event and a wager value.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the wager event comprises an action performed during execution of the second game that changes the state of the second game and upon which the outcome of the wager is determined.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second game comprises a card game.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the second game comprises a poker game.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the wager is associated with a hand of poker.

9. The system of claim 1, in which the instructions, when executed by the processor, further direct the processor to:

generate profile information associated with the first user based at least in part on monitored game events during at least a portion of the first gaming session, wherein the profile information comprises at least one of a user identifier;

statistics information;

user attributes; and

selection criteria; and

match the first user for game play in the second gaming session against the second user based at least in part on a comparison of the profile information associated with the first user and profile information associated with the second user.

10. The system of claim 9, in which the first game advice is determined based on profile information associated with the first user and profile information associated with the second user.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the second user a request to provide first game advice to the second user,

in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises providing first game advice to the second user responsive to the request.

12. The system of claim 1, in which the first game advice further comprises advice about one or more parameters of a wager with the first user that may be placed by the second user.

13. The system of claim 1, in which the first game advice comprises advice to place a wager with the first user.

14. The system of claim 1, in which the second game advice comprises one or more game options that may be used by the second user to invoke a game event.

15. The system of claim 1, in which the second game advice comprises one or more game strategies that may be used by the second user to invoke a game event.

16. The system of claim 1, in which the first gaming application and the second gaming application are the same gaming application executed at different times.

17. The system of claim 1, in which the first gaming application and the second gaming application are different gaming applications for different game types, and are executed at different times.

18. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises providing first game advice to the second user during execution of the second gaming application based on information about each of:

the first player, the second player, a wager between the first player and the second player, and the second gaming application.

19. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises providing first game advice to the second user during the second gaming application based on event information determined for the first user and event information determined for the second user during both a current gaming session and a previous gaming session, and in which the act of providing second game advice comprises generating second game advice based on wager records of the first user and wager records of the second user.

20. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises generating first game advice during the second gaming application based on statistics information, profile information, and wager records associated with at least one of the first user and the second user.

21. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises generating first game advice during the second gaming application responsive to the occurrence of a particular game event and a wager.

22. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises generating first game advice based on wager records of at least one of the first user and the second user.

23. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice to the second user comprises generating first game advice based on wager records of the first user and wager records of the second user.

24. The system of claim 1, in which the second user does not participate in the first gaming session.

25. The system of claim 1, in which the first gaming session comprises game play between the first user against a third user that is different from the second user.

26. The system of claim 1, in which the act of providing first game advice comprises generating the first game advice at a first time based on a plurality of wagers currently pending at the first time.

27. The system of claim 1, in which the first game advice comprises advice to accept a wager offered by the first user.

28. The system of claim 1, in which the first game advice comprises advice to not accept a wager offered by the first user.

29. The system of claim 1, in which the first game advice further comprises advice about a wager amount of a wager with the first user that may be placed by the second user.

30. A method for establishing a wager associated with a game, comprising:

receiving by at least one processor a first request for game play from a first user communicatively coupled to the system with a first of a plurality of computing devices;

executing by the at least one processor a first gaming application in response to the first request from the first user, wherein execution of the first gaming application corresponds at least in part to a start of a first gaming session;

monitoring by the at least one processor game events by the first user during at least a portion of the first gaming session;

receiving by the at least one processor a second request for game play from the first user;

receiving by the at least one processor a request for game play from a second user communicatively coupled to the system with a second of the plurality of computing devices;

executing by the at least one processor a second gaming application in response to at least one of the second request from the first user and the request from the second user, wherein execution of the second gaming application corresponds at least in part to a start of a second gaming session;

establishing by the at least one processor game play in the second gaming session between the first user against the second user;

receiving by the at least one processor information about a wager offer from the first user or the second user;

receiving by the at least one processor information about a wager acceptance, the wager offer and the wager acceptance combining to form a wager, wherein the wager comprises at least one wager parameter and an outcome that depends on at least one event associated with the second gaming session;

monitoring by the at least one processor game events by the first user during at least a portion of the second gaming session; and

providing by the at least one processor first game advice to the second user based at least in part on the monitored game events during at least a portion of the first gaming session and the monitored game events during at least a portion of the second gaming session, the first game advice comprising advice about whether to place or accept a wager,

in which the first gaming application and the second gaming application are different gaming applications for different game types, and are executed at different times.

31. A system for establishing a wager associated with a game, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one processor, direct the at least one processor to;

receive a first request for game play from a first user communicatively coupled to the system with a first of a plurality of computing devices;

execute a first gaming application in response to the first request from the first user, wherein execution of the first gaming application corresponds at least in part to a start of a first gaming session;

monitor game events by the first user during at least a portion of the first gaming session;

receive a second request for game play from the first user;

receive a request for game play from a second user communicatively coupled to the system with a second of the plurality of computing devices;

execute a second gaming application in response to at least one of the second request from the first user and the request from the second user, wherein execution of the second gaming application corresponds at least in part to a start of a second gaming session;

establish game play in the second gaming session between the first user against the second user;

receive information about a wager offer from the first user or the second user;

receive information about a wager acceptance, the wager offer and the wager acceptance combining to form a wager, wherein the wager comprises at least one wager parameter and an outcome that depends on at least one event associated with the second gaming session;

monitor game events by the first user during at least a portion of the second gaming session;

provide first game advice to the second user based at least in part on the monitored game events during at least a portion of the first gaming session and the monitored game events during at least a portion of the second gaming session; and

provide second game advice to the second user based at least in part on the monitored game events during at least a portion of the first gaming session and the monitored game events during at least a portion of the second gaming session, the second game advice comprising one or more game options that may be used by the second user to invoke a game event during the second gaming session,

in which the first gaming application and the second gaming application are different gaming applications for different game types, and are executed at different times.