SYSTEM FOR MANAGING PROMOTIONS

• US 20130006773A1
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Antonio Papageorgiou, Dean P. Alderucci, Geoffrey M. Gelman, Howard Lutnick, Joseph M. Asher, Kevin Burman
• Original Assignee: Antonio Papageorgiou, Dean P. Alderucci, Geoffrey M. Gelman, Howard Lutnick, Joseph M. Asher, Kevin Burman
• Inventors: Lutnick, Howard W., Burman, Kevin, Alderucci, Dean P., Gelman, Geoffrey M., Papageorgiou, Antonio, Asher, Joseph M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,818,254 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.58
• 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 17/3286 Type of games
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/34 depending on the stopping of moving members in a mechanical slot machine, e.g. "fruit" machines

Abstract

In various embodiments, promotions are featured on mobile gaming devices.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to;

receive, from an advertiser, content for a promotion;

determine that the content meets one or more of a set of predetermined criteria, in which the criteria define a set of characteristics that must be met by the content for the promotion;

identify a mobile device in use by a player;

determine that a game event occurs in a game played through the mobile device;

after determining that the game event occurs, determine that the mobile device is in a first location where the mobile device must be present for the promotion to be made that is different from a second location that the mobile device was in then the game event occurred; and

in response to determining that the game event occurs and that the mobile device is in the first location, transmit the content to the mobile handheld gaming device for presentation of the promotion.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the instructions cause the apparatus to:

in response to determining that game event occurs, transmit first instructions to the mobile device, describing how to present the content.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, in which transmitting first instructions includes transmitting first instructions to the mobile handheld gaming device, the first instructions describing at least one of:

(a) a location on a display screen at which to present the promotion; and

(b) a length of time for which to present the promotion.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, in which determining that the game event occurs includes determining that an outcome in a game has occurred.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the instructions cause the apparatus to:

display, to the advertiser, an indication of the game event;

receive a bid for the promotion to be presented in the future from the advertiser, in which the bid includes a monetary figure; and

accept the bid based on the monetary figure.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, in which displaying the indication of the game event includes displaying a credit balance of the player.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, in which displaying the game event includes displaying a characteristic of a win by the player.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, in which the instructions cause the apparatus to:

determine whether the bid meets one or more of a first set of predetermined criteria, in which determining whether the bid meets one or more of a first set of predetermined criteria includes determining whether the monetary figure is greater than a threshold amount that does not depend on other bids.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 in which displaying the indication of the game event includes displaying at least one of:

(a) a date;

(b) a time;

(c) a person; and

(d) a demographic.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the set of predetermined criteria includes one or more of:

(a) the content contains no vulgar language;

(b) the content contains only images with certain pixel dimensions;

(c) the content contains no images which are identical to images used in one or more predetermined games; and

(d) the content contains no sounds which are identical to sounds used in one or more predetermined games.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the method further comprises:

receiving an indication of a numerical rating to the promotion, in which the numerical rating is provided by the player, and transmitting the indication of the numerical rating to the advertiser.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the first location includes a location in a minimum proximity to a restaurant that the mobile device must be before the promotion is presented.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the instructions cause the apparatus to:

determine a category of the promotion,

determine whether a different promotion falling within the same category has been recently presented at the mobile device, and

in which transmitting the content includes transmitting the content to the mobile device only if a different promotion falling within the same category has not been recently presented at the mobile device.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the game event includes an amount of money won by a wager.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the instructions cause the apparatus to:

determine that the content should be presented on the mobile device, in which such determining includes making a random determination based on a probabilistic weighting applied to each of a plurality of advertisers, in which the probabilistic weighting is based on a respective monetary figure associated with respective bids received from each advertiser.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the apparatus further comprises the mobile device.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, in which presentation of the promotion includes presenting the content through the mobile device.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, in which presentation of the promotion includes transmitting information about the promotion to a stationary device for display by the stationary device.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the game event includes a near miss of a winning outcome.

20. The apparatus of claim 1, in which determining that the content meets the one or more of the set of predetermined criteria includes determining that the content does not include images that are similar to images used in a portion of a second game during which the promotion will be presented.

21. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to;

receive an indication of a location and a game event that define an opportunity to make a promotion;

after receiving the indication, transmit content for the promotion to be presented through a mobile device at the location after the game event occurs in a game played through the mobile device, in which the content includes at least one of image data, video data, and audio data;

receive an indication that the promotion has been presented by a mobile handheld gaming device at the location in the casino, in which the indication identifies a charge for the presentation; and

receiving an indication of a numerical rating to the promotion provided by a player of the game.

22. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to;

receive an indication of a location and a credit balance of a player that define an opportunity to make a promotion;

after receiving the indication, transmit content for the promotion to be presented through a mobile device at the location after the game event occurs in a game played through the mobile device, in which the content includes at least one of image data, video data, and audio data;

receive an indication that the promotion has been presented by a mobile handheld gaming device at the location in the casino, in which the indication identifies a charge for the presentation; and

receiving an indication of a numerical rating to the promotion provided by a player of the game.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to;

receive, from an advertiser, content for a promotion;

determine that the content meets one or more of a set of predetermined criteria, in which the criteria define a set of characteristics that must be met by the content for the promotion;

determine that a credit balance of a player in a game exceeds a level;

after determining that the credit balance of the player exceeds the level, determine that the mobile device is in a first location where the mobile device must be present for the promotion to be made that is different from a second location that the mobile device was in then the game event occurred; and

in response to determining that the credit balance of the player exceeds the level and that the mobile device is in the first location, transmit the content to the mobile handheld gaming device for presentation of the promotion.