The present invention generally relates to online, amusement devices. More specifically, the invention is directed to improved methods and devices that provide for skill-based, sports wagering.
More specifically, the present invention relates to wagering on a wide range of sporting competitions (e.g., horse racing, NASCAR racing, team events such as football and soccer) between various competitors (e.g., racehorses, NASCAR drivers, sports teams) and is directed to a means for utilizing the digital database of information that relates to such competitors and the prior sporting events in which they have competed to identify “value” wagers (i.e., those having the highest percentage probability of generating a positive return) for the sporting events in which such competitors are or will be competing.
Sports wagering is a very important part of our economy and is predicted to become even more important as more states provide for legalized sports wagering in order to provide these states with increased amounts of collected taxes.
Sports wagering on a wide range of sporting events contributes significantly to the collected taxes of many states. Such wagering takes one of two forms: “parimutuel” or “fixed odds” wagering and it is important to understand how each works.
Parimutuel wagering is a wagering or betting system wherein all the amounts of money wagered by a group of players/system users on each of the possible outcomes of a contest (e.g., which horse from among a field of horses will win a specific horse race) are placed together in a pool; taxes and the “house take” are removed (e.g., 14.25%) so as to yield a payoff amount that is shared among those players or system users who correctly picked the winner of the contest (i.e., winning players). By the use of a specialized machine, or totalizator/tote, which keeps track of all the bets, instantaneously computes the sum of the wagers or bets made on any one of the possible outcomes in a contest, and display this information, one is able to know when placing one's bet the various odds, depending on which outcome one bets, for winning some multiple of one's original bet these odds often impact the wager that a player or system user will make and add to the excitement of such games.
Thus, for the example of a horse race, how much a player wins relative to one's bet depends on the payoff amount and the sum of the amounts that the other winning players also wagered. From knowing how much has been wagered on each horse in the race and thus the total amount wagered at the time of one placing his or her bet, one can get an idea of how much one might win if the percentages of money being wagered on the different horses stay the same until the start of the race when no further bets are accepted and the winning odds for the various horses are then determined.
Parimutuel betting differs from “fixed-odds” betting in that the final payout is not determined until the pool is closed-in “fixed odds” betting, the odds are often being offered by a bookmaker who is responsible for making the required payouts to the winning users from the monies that the bookmaker presumably collects from those users who placed non-winning bets on the same race with the bookmaker. If these monies are insufficient to make the required wining payouts, the bookmaker is expected to make up the balance of any needed funds from the bookmaker's own surplus funds.
Sports wagering has generally evolved as part of the larger entertainment industry by developing a wide assortment of innovations, including: (1) cash-accepting, wagering terminals or machines, (2) self-service wagering machines, (3) advanced deposit wagering—first using the telephone and eventually using the internet and online mobile devices, (4) interstate simulcast wagering in the late 1970's, (5) intrastate simulcast wagering in the early 1980's, (6) new types of wagering opportunities, including wagering on previously-run, order of finish contests as part of what has become known as “instant wagering” or “instant racing,” or, for the horse racing industry, “historic horse racing” (HHR), and (7) online, mobile wagering.
Online, mobile wagering involves a player signing up and establishing a player's secure account on one of the many websites that provide online, sports wagering (e.g., see Xpressbet.com) by completing the website's registration process and making an initial deposit to fund the player's account. A player is then provided with the pertinent data that is relevant to an upcoming sporting event (e.g., identity of the competitors, appropriate background information on them, the listed odds).
The information relevant to an upcoming sporting event or competition is provided so as to aid the player in deciding which competitor in the field the player thinks will win or finish in any specific position at the end of the competition (i.e., information for handicapping the sporting event). There also exists various types of software that will assist a player in handicapping the sporting event on which the player is considering placing a wager (e.g., see Betmix.com).
After a player handicaps a sporting event, he or she then places his or her wager or wagers on the outcome of the event. Depending on the video capability of a player's mobile device, the player can watch the sporting event live or on a video replay to see its outcome.
Many of the methods and apparatus or systems associated with sports wagering have been patent protected, see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,182,875, 2,179,698, 5,411,258, 5,830,068, 5,846,132, 6,383,074, 6,358,150, 6,450,887, 6,736,725, 8,636,571, 8,814,700, 9,047,737, 9,053,608, 9,437,078, 9,443,392, 9,747,748, 10,510,210 and 10,720,024.
Despite the mature nature of sports wagering, there still exists the need and opportunity to further improve it, especially its online, mobile form, so as to enable it to provide its players with greater levels of excitement and entertainment while also complying with the established rules for sports wagering.
For example, there is for any sporting event usually a huge learning curve for a novice player to master before he or she can actually increase his or her chances of being able to make money on the payer's wagers. One typically needs to know: (a) a huge amount of background information on the competitors and how to wisely use it to try to determine the likelihood of a specific outcome in an upcoming sporting event (referred to herein as handicapping an event), (b) how to compare that likelihood with the prices or odds being offered in the market, (c) what types of bets are available and which of these have the best odds of being winners considering the background information of the upcoming sporting event (referred to herein as having a wagering strategy), and (d) what amounts for one's various wagers or bets has the greatest likelihood of allowing a player to make money on his or her wagers (referred to herein as employing a money management strategy or using a herein defined “value index” to guide one in placing his or her wagers).
Even for very experienced players, there is still always the immense challenge of how to most wisely use the background or handicapping information available to a player and what wagering and money management strategies to employ to increase a player's enjoyment of sports wagering. Unfortunately, current sports wagering platforms offer only a limited amount of information on how to most wisely use the available handicapping information and almost no information on how to most wisely use various wagering or money management strategies. The present invention seeks to address and provide various remedies to the above-identified problems that currently present barriers to a player's maximum enjoyment of sports wagering.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the present invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
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To do this, the server of the present invention connects over a network 16 (e.g., the Internet or other network) to its targeted players who are those with devices (e.g., laptop computer 13a, smart phone 13b, etc. with a touch-screen interface) and wish to place a wager via a web-browser-enabled 14c wagering terminal that is connected to a totalisator 15.
Also connected to this network are other players who are gathered to watch an upcoming sporting event and place wagers at a number of facilities (host 17a—where the actual event is occurring, and guest 17b—an off-site location) via the facilities' various types of wagering terminals (e.g., teller 14a, self-service 14b, web-browser enabled 14c).
A totalisator 15 or a similar machine is a key element of this wagering system as it performs a wide assortment of key tasks, including: (a) receiving and validating each individual wager placed on a sporting event, (b) totaling all the wagers into pools, and (c) for parimutuel wagers, continually computing and announcing to interested players the odds of each of the contestants winning the relevant sporting event based on the sum of the wagers placed at each instant in time before the beginning of the event, and calculating the payout of each wager based on the outcome of the competition.
The server's control software 12 is configured such that it facilitates all of the various functions and operations of the players' devices while also keeping track of all of the register players and their accounts, plus all the information pertaining to upcoming and relevant past sporting events and the background data on the competitors participating in these sporting events.
To better acquaint one with the software requirements and capabilities of the present invention, shown in this application's FIGS. are various user interface screen illustrations or screenshots that the control software of the present invention makes appear on the display of a player's device. These screenshots could be in a webpage or smart phone or tablet format, but are shown here in a smart phone format and in English. However, since the present invention is an international, multi-language, multi-currency invention, the native language environmental setting on each mobile device will be used to automatically select the language presented to the user. Date and currency formats will also match user preferences.
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The key elements in this system are seen to include:
In its predictions portion, it then uses the outcomes of prior, similar races to: (i) predict or forecast the percentage probability (i.e., a WIN %) that this competitor with the greatest number of shared-winning characteristics will actually do whatever is required to make the player's bet a winning one; it then (ii) proceeds in this manner to calculate a similar WIN % for all of the other competitors in the sporting event on which the player has decided to bet,
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These racehorses are identifiable by their numbers which are listed in the column on the far, left-hand side of this screen shot. This screen shot is also seen to have the current odds for each of these racehorses actually winning the upcoming race listed to the immediate right of each racehorse's number. Some of the outputs of the current invention are seen in the two columns that appear on the right side of this screen shot.
These outputs are seen in a first or WIN % portion 102 that lists the system's percentage probability that competitor, whose number is listed on the far left, will actually win the competition (i.e., a WIN %). A second or Value portion 104 lists the system's computed score or value index for a win bet on each of the competitors. A third or Win Pick's portion 106 identifies the competitor that has the highest percentage probability of actually winning the upcoming competition. Additionally, a fourth or Interesting Pick's portion 108 identifies any competitor that are especially significant because it is predicted to offer a player the chance to make an especially skilled wager (e.g., a good longshot bet or one that is a good “value bet”).
Other examples of how the outputs of the present invention may be used in the screen shots of live TV or simulcast broadcasts of horse races are shown in
To predict the percentage probability that each of the competitors in an upcoming sporting event (on which a player or user (e.g., a generic consumer of the outputs of the present invention) of the present invention wishes to bet) will do whatever is required to make the player's bet on one of the competitors a winning one (and subsequently combining these predictions with market pricing or “odds” to identify the “value bets” that are available on an upcoming event) the system of the present invention uses its forecast module 50. The process used by this module is generally shown in
This module utilizes its artificial intelligence platform to search its historical event database to identify prior sporting events that are similar to the one on which the player wishes to bet. Attributes that may be used to select prior, similar sporting events include: (a) for horse racing: nature and condition of the track surface, class of the race, field size, the identity of the racetrack, performance metrics (e.g., speed exhibited during various portions of a race) for each of the competitors in these prior events, etc., (b) for a football game: identity of the competing teams, location of the field on which the game is being held, key players who started for each team, identity of the coaches, team's respective won-lost records coming into the game, etc.
The forecast module then studies these prior, similar sporting events to reveal the primary attributes or characteristics of the winners (winners' characteristics or the notable values of the handicapping factors applicable to the prior winners) of these prior events. Using the winners' characteristics, the system identifies the competitor, from the upcoming sporting event, that shares the greatest number of these winners' characteristics.
Knowing that some players, especially those considering themselves to be talented handicappers, may want to select their own handicapping factors, the present invention has a variation of the above process that allows for this. This is illustrated in
In
Once a player has picked his or her ten handicapping factors, the forecast module applies a certain weighting factor to each one. Such weighting factors are determined by the analysis of the prior similar competitions and wherein the highest weighting factor is designated to that handicapping factor which was most successful in predicting the winners of the prior, similar competitions. The sum of these products of handicapping and weighting factors are then applied to the various competitors in the upcoming competition to arrive at a forecast for the winner of the upcoming sporting event.
In general. the present invention's forecast module predicts or forecasts the percentage probability that the competitor with the greatest number of winners' characteristics will actually do whatever is required to make the player's bet a winning one (i.e., a WIN %). The system then proceeds in this manner to calculate a similar WIN % for all of the other competitors in the upcoming sporting event.
The system next utilizes its WIN/Price module 60 to combine the WIN % for a competitor with that competitor's current odds or market price in such a way as to identify the “value bets” (i.e., those with the greatest likelihood of allowing a player to make money on his or her bet or wager) that are available on the upcoming sporting event.
Shown below is an example of an algorithm that the present invention can use to identify the “value bets”:
Where the definitions for the symbols used above are:
To make “value bets” more easily recognizable, the system's score module 70 transforms or rank orders these identified “value bets” by placing them on a 1-100 scale, where the “value bets” with the very greatest likelihood of allowing a player to make money on his or her bet are assigned the greatest scores or value indexes (“Value”).
Further towards the goal of making attractive bets more recognizable and obvious to a player, the present invention's derivative score module is configured to use the outputs of the system's forecast, WIN/Price and score modules to identified certain types of bets that because of their current pricing and WIN % etc. might be of special interest to a player. For example, the derivative score module defines what it calls a “best bet” (i.e., one in which the competitor bet upon has a good likelihood of winning (e.g., a Win %>20%) and yielding a payout that is at or better than a fair price (e.g., Value Index of >60)) and utilizes its user interface to bring such “best bets” to the attention of a player.
Similarly, this module defines what it calls a “longshot bet” (i.e., one in which the competitor bet upon has long odds (e.g., >10/1) to win and is more likely to win than their odds suggest (e.g., Value Index of >60)), and also brings such “longshot bets” to the attention of a player. The process for the generation of these derivative bets is generally shown in
There are many ways in which the present invention can be used in the sports wagering industry. For example, the results of the present invention for horse race wagering can be displayed in a box overlay of a TV or simulcast display and in which the commentators or broadcasters are using this box to discuss the wagering options for an upcoming race. This integration also gives the broadcasters the opportunity to talk about why they disagree or agree with the betting picks for an upcoming race and provides the possibility of turning those who are watching the broadcast into players.
The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the present invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described herein. Accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of Provisional patent Application No. PPA 63/146,811, filed Feb. 8, 2021 by the present inventors. The teachings of this application are incorporated herein by reference to the extent that they do not conflict with the teaching herein.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US22/15633 | 2/8/2022 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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63146811 | Feb 2021 | US |