Systems for dynamically allocating finite or unique resources

• US 8,315,918 B1
• Filed: 08/28/2009
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ticketmaster (Live Nation Entertainment Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ticketmaster (Live Nation Entertainment Incorporated)
• Inventors: Karonis, Andrew, Ross, Brendan, Hirose, Shigeki, Denker, Dennis, Kush, Happy, Sussman, Adam, Mclane, Craig, Moriarty, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): Rosen, Nicholas D
• Application Number:
  US12/550,248
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.3
• US Class Current: 705/26.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The present invention is related to electronically allocating finite or limited resources. In an embodiment, a computer system is configured to receive bids over a network from a first plurality of users for a limited number of units, the bids including associated bid amounts. A data store is operable to store the bid amounts. Program code is stored in computer readable memory and is configured to determine which bids are winning bids, determine a unit price for units associated with the winning bids, wherein the unit price associated with the winning bids is based on the lowest winning bid amount, and units can be tickets.

Claims

1. An electronic ticket system, comprising:

a web proxy system including a load balancer and a web proxy processor configured to selectively block or route an inbound ticket request from a user browser to a ticket request queue;

a cache cluster system configured to cache data and states for access by one or more other ticket system components;

a database configured to store;

an indication as to which set of tickets for an event are available for purchase at a fixed price and which set of tickets are available for purchase via an auction;

ticket information records for tickets for an event, including;

a ticket holder identifier of a current ticket holder for a first ticket;

an identifier of a past holder of the first ticket if there is a past holder;

a ticket valid/invalid indicator;

a credit card authorization system; and

a tangible computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising;

receiving ticket bids over a network from a first plurality of bidders for seat tickets in a group of seat tickets offered in an auction, the ticket bids including associated bid amounts, the ticket bids including a first bid for a first quantity of contiguous seats for a first amount by a first bidder, and a second bid for a second quantity of contiguous seats for a second amount by a second bidder, wherein the first quantity is different from the second quantity, and the second amount is greater than the first amount;

determining what seat ticket allocations with respect to the first bid and the second bid will minimize a number of single available seats; and

based at least in part on the determination, allocating seat tickets with respect to the first bidder and the second bidder so that seat tickets allocated to the first bid include rights to the first quantity of contiguous seats and seat tickets allocated to the second bid include rights to the second quantity of contiguous seats, and wherein the first bidder bidding the first amount per ticket is selectively allocated more preferred seat tickets than the second bidder bidding the second amount per ticket, the second amount greater than the first amount, in order to minimize the number of single available seats.

2. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, wherein, for bids for the same quantity of tickets, the method allocates more preferred seats to bids associated with a higher bid amount per ticket than bids associated with a relatively lower bid amount per ticket.

3. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising setting a ticket price for tickets allocated to bidders for tickets in the group of tickets, wherein the set ticket price is based on the lowest bid amount per ticket from the bidders'"'"' bids.

4. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, wherein the allocation process is performed at a predetermined time.

5. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising providing for display on a user terminal an electronic auction form via which an auction definer can define the auction, the form including:

an auction start field, configured to receive an auction start date;

an auction end field, configured to receive an auction end date; and

a packing field, configured to receive an indication as to whether a packing process is to be performed.

6. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising providing for display on a user terminal an electronic auction form via which an auction definer can define the auction, the form including:

fields used to define ticket groups; and

fields to provide a description of the ticket groups.

7. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, the method further comprising changing a bid status of at least one bid from losing to winning at least partly in response to another bid being invalidated.

8. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, wherein at least a first portion of the group of seats is in a first venue section, and at least a second portion of the group of seats is in a second venue section.

9. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 1, further comprising a data store that includes venue section rankings, wherein seats in at least one ranked section are unranked with respect to other seats in the at least one section.

10. An electronic ticket system, comprising:

a computer system configured to receive ticket bids over a network from a first plurality of bidders for seat tickets in a group of seat tickets offered in an auction, the ticket bids including associated bid amounts, the ticket bids including a first bid for a first quantity of contiguous seats for a first amount by a first bidder, and a second bid for a second quantity of contiguous seats for a second amount by a second bidder, wherein the first quantity is different from the second quantity, and the second amount is greater than the first amount; and

program code stored in computer readable memory, the program code configured to cause the electronic system to;

determine what seat ticket allocations with respect to the first bid and the second bid will minimize a number of single available seats; and

based at least in part on the determination, allocate seat tickets with respect to the first bidder and the second bidder so that seat tickets allocated to the first bid include rights to the first quantity of contiguous seats and seat tickets allocated to the second bid include rights to the second quantity of contiguous seats, and wherein the first bidder bidding the first amount per ticket is selectively allocated more preferred seat tickets than the second bidder bidding the second amount per ticket, the second amount greater than the first amount, in order to minimize the number of single available seats.

11. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, wherein, for bids for the same quantity of tickets, the program code is further configured to cause the electronic ticket system to allocate more preferred seats to bids associated with a higher bid amount per ticket than bids associated with a relatively lower bid amount per ticket.

12. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, further comprising program code stored in computer readable memory configured to cause the electronic ticket system to set a ticket price for tickets allocated to bidders for tickets in the group of tickets, wherein the set ticket price is based on the lowest bid amount per ticket from the bidders'"'"' bids.

13. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, further comprising program code stored in computer readable memory configured to set ticket prices for tickets allocated to bidders for tickets in the group of tickets, wherein the set ticket price for a given bidder is equal to the given bidder'"'"'s highest bid.

14. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, wherein the electronic ticket system is configured to provide for display an interface via which an auction definer can define the auction, the interface including:

an auction start field, configured to receive an auction start date;

an auction end field, configured to receive an auction end date; and

a packing field, configured to receive an indication as to whether a packing process is to be performed.

15. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, wherein the electronic ticket system is configured to provide for display an interface via which an auction definer can define the auction, the interface including:

fields used to define ticket groups; and

fields to provide a description of the ticket groups.

16. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, further comprising program code stored in computer readable memory configured to cause the electronic ticket system change a bid status of at least one bid from losing to winning at least partly in response to another bid being invalidated.

17. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, further comprising program code stored in computer readable memory configured to cause the electronic ticket system to transmit a bidder auction history that includes an identification of auctions to which a given bidder has submitted bids, the given bidder'"'"'s current bid amounts for at least a portion of the identified auctions, and bid status.

18. The electronic ticket system as defined in claim 10, wherein at least a first portion of the group of seats is in a first venue section, and at least a second portion of the group of seats is in a second venue section.

19. A tangible computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving ticket bids over a network from a first plurality of bidders for seat tickets in a group of seat tickets offered in an auction, the ticket bids including associated bid amounts, the ticket bids including a first bid for a first quantity of contiguous seats for a first amount by a first bidder, and a second bid for a second quantity of contiguous seats for a second amount by a second bidder, wherein the first quantity is different from the second quantity, and the second amount is greater than the first amount;

determining what seat ticket allocations with respect to the first bid and the second bid will minimize a number of single available seats; and

based at least in part on the determination, allocating seat tickets with respect to the first bidder and the second bidder so that seat tickets allocated to the first bid include rights to the first quantity contiguous seats and seat tickets allocated to the second bid include rights to the second quantity of contiguous seats, and wherein the first bidder bidding the first amount per ticket is selectively allocated more preferred seat tickets than the second bidder bidding the second amount per ticket, the second amount greater than the first amount.

20. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, wherein, for bids for the same quantity of tickets, the method allocates more preferred seats to bids associated with a higher bid amount per ticket than bids associated with a relatively lower bid amount per ticket.

21. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, the method further comprising setting a ticket price for tickets allocated to bidders for tickets in the group of tickets, wherein the set ticket price is based on the lowest bid amount per ticket from the bidders'"'"' bids.

22. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, the method further comprising setting ticket prices for tickets allocated to bidders for tickets in the group of tickets, wherein the set ticket price for a given bidder is equal to the given bidder'"'"'s highest bid.

23. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, wherein the allocation process is performed in substantially real-time, at least partly in response to receiving bids meeting at least a first criterion.

24. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, wherein the allocation process is performed at a predetermined time or on a periodic basis.

25. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, the method further comprising providing for display on a user terminal an electronic auction form via which an auction definer can define the auction, the form including:

an auction start field, configured to receive an auction start date;

an auction end field, configured to receive an auction end date; and

a packing field, configured to receive an indication as to whether a packing process is to be performed.

26. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, the method further comprising providing for display on a user terminal an electronic auction form via which an auction definer can define the auction, the form including:

fields used to define ticket groups; and

fields to provide a description of the ticket groups.

27. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, the method further comprising changing a bid status of at least one bid from losing to winning at least partly in response to another bid being invalidated.

28. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, wherein the group of seats is a venue section.

29. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, wherein at least a first portion of the group of seats is in a first venue section, and at least a second portion of the group of seats is in a second venue section.

30. The tangible computer-readable medium as defined in claim 19, further comprising a data store that includes venue section rankings, wherein seats in at least one ranked section are unranked with respect to other seats in the at least one section.

31. A method of allocating tickets, comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, ticket bids over a network from a first plurality of bidders for seat tickets in a group of seat tickets offered in an auction, the ticket bids including associated bid amounts, the ticket bids including a first bid for a first quantity of contiguous seats for a first amount by a first bidder, and a second bid for a second quantity of contiguous seats for a second amount by a second bidder, wherein the first quantity is different from the second quantity, and the second amount is greater than the first amount;

determining, by the computing system, what seat ticket allocations with respect to the first bid and the second bid will minimize a number of single available seats; and

based at least in part on the determination, allocating, by the computing system, seat tickets with respect to the first bidder and the second bidder so that seat tickets allocated to the first bid include rights to the first quantity of contiguous seats and seat tickets allocated to the second bid include rights to the second quantity of contiguous seats, and wherein the first bidder bidding the first amount per ticket is selectively allocated more preferred seat tickets than the second bidder bidding the second amount per ticket, the second amount greater than the first amount, in order to minimize the number of single available seats.

32. The method as defined in claim 31, wherein, for bids for the same quantity of tickets, the method allocates more preferred seats to bids associated with a higher bid amount per ticket than bids associated with a relatively lower bid amount per ticket.

33. The method as defined in claim 31, wherein the allocation process is performed at a predetermined time or at predetermined periodic times.

34. The method as defined in claim 31, the method further comprising providing for display on a user terminal an electronic auction form via which an auction definer can define the auction, the form including:

an auction start field, configured to receive an auction start date;

an auction end field, configured to receive an auction end date; and

a packing field, configured to receive an indication as to whether a packing process is to be performed.

35. The method as defined in claim 31, the method further comprising providing for display on a user terminal an electronic auction form via which an auction definer can define the auction, the form including:

fields used to define ticket groups; and

fields to provide a description of the ticket groups.

36. The method as defined in claim 31, the method further comprising transmitting a bidder auction history that includes an identification of auctions to which a given bidder has submitted bids, the given bidder'"'"'s current bid amounts for at least a portion of the identified auctions, and bid status.

37. The method as defined in claim 31, the method further comprising storing in computer readable memory venue section rankings, wherein seats in at least one ranked section are unranked with respect to other seats in the at least one section.