Patent Application
20050236768
The present invention relates to a betting die which is used to make a random selection of a competitor on which to bet in a sporting event.
When a person makes a selection of a sports competitor for betting or gambling purposes it is often difficult to make a choice as to which competitor the bet should be placed on. It is not simply a matter of picking the better person or team because odds become a factor in the selection. Often, a person will select a competitor to win a bet and then later take the position that they really should have picked another competitor for the bet. This often occurs when the decision is based on nothing more than instinct or hunches which change over time and can create serious frustrations.
Some people will make gambling choices in the same manner that they pick lottery numbers i.e., they will choose based on some type of an indicator which is personal to them but which does not really represent anything to do with the event itself. For example, a person not knowing anything about the sporting event may make a bet simply based on the color of the outfit of the competitors or some other equally non-critical factor.
The present invention provides betting die which eliminates the need for a person to make a personal choice of a competitor on which to wager in a sporting event in which two competitors compete against one another. The choice as to which competitor is to be selected for the wager is based on a rolling of the die.
The die itself has a plurality of faces including faces that have markings representative of the competitors involved in the event. The faces will include at least first and second marked faces. These marked faces will either have a home marking on one face and an away marking on another face or they will have a favorite marking on one face and an underdog marking on another face. Optionally, all four markings, i.e. the home marking, the away marking, the favorite marking and the underdog marking are provided on four different faces of the die. In a case where all four markings are used two of these markings are representative of one of the competitors and two others of these markings are representative of the other one of the competitors. The die provides a random choice of which of the competitors is to be bet upon depending upon positioning of the markings after rolling of the die.
The above as well as other advantages and features of the present invention will be described in greater detail according to the preferred embodiments of the present invention in which;
This particular die is a six sided die. In the
Two of the four markings referred to above are representative of a specific characteristic of one of two competitors who will be meeting in a sporting event. By way of example only, the sporting event may involve two football teams. One of those teams will be a home team i.e., playing at its home field and the other will be a visiting or away team. One of those teams will be the favorite and the other team will be the underdog. The home team may or may not be the favorite and the away team may or may not be the underdog team.
In the particular embodiment shown the marking of the letter F identifies the favorite team. The marking of the letter H identifies the home team. The marking of the letter A identifies the away team and the marking of the letter D identifies the underdog team. The identification of “Joe's Cars” is provided on an otherwise blank face of the die which is not marked with information relating to either of the teams but which is simply left for advertising space on the die.
A person wishing to place a bet on one of the two teams does not have to go through the thought process of rationalizing the choice or selection but rather simply rolls the die. The team to be bet on is chosen through the positioning of the markings on the die after it is rolled. For example, when the die is rolled to the
In the event that the marking “Joe's Cars” faces upwardly after rolling the die the person wishing to make the selection will simply re-roll the die until one of the competitor representative markings appears on the upper surface of the die.
As will be appreciated from the above the team chosen is selected completely at random through the roll of the die.
Although the drawings specifically show a six sided die, dies having other numbers of faces can equally as well be used. The four specific markings, F, D, H, and A will occupy four sides. The remaining sides can be occupied with additional advertising or graphics.
Another feature of the invention is that a single die can include a combination of only two markings. These markings would be either a home marking and an away marking or the markings would be a favorite marking and an underdog marking. Both combinations of markings cover the various different competitor choices that can be made.
Note that in a six sided die the home marking could be included on three different faces and the away marking could be included on three different faces. Also on a six sided die the favorite marking could appear on three different faces and the underdog marking could appear on three different faces.
Also to be noted is that with a die having all four of the markings on four different faces each competitor is identified twice, for example the home team will also be either a favorite or an underdog. The away team will also be either a favorite or an underdog.
Accordingly, although various preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.
