Fantasy sports auction system

[0001] Fantasy sports is one of the fastest growing and most popular games in the United States today. Fantasy sports allows people the opportunity to experiment and explore the management and coaching aspect of professional spectator sports. Fantasy teams are based on real-life athletes on real-life teams and have seasons similar to real-life sports.

[0002] Fantasy sports is a simulation game where sports fans act as managers of simulated sports teams called fantasy teams. Thus, a manager, user, or participant interchangeably refers to natural person participants in the fantasy sport. An athlete refers to a real world natural person professional athlete or the parallel world fantasy athlete character that represents him or her. One or more users can form a fantasy sports league which consists of several teams which are managed by the individual league participants. These league participants receive the authority and responsibility for the management of a simulated sports team. Fantasy teams compete against each other in a series of games. Fantasy athletes are not natural persons like sports fans, but rather a collection of statistics and data often derived from the historical statistics of actual athletes.

[0003] The outcome of games is highly dependent on the composition of fantasy athletes in a fantasy league because different fantasy athletes have different statistics that contribute to varying degrees of success in games. The outcome of a game is a calculation based on actual athlete statistics during actual games.

[0004] A fantasy league consists of a number of users that create and manage teams based on a pool of athletes¹. For example, in a 12-team fantasy football league, NFL football athletes are distributed among the 12 teams in the league. Each team might be required to start one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, and a kicker (i.e. the starters are those athletes whose performance for a given week will contribute to the team's point total). Additionally, the team may have six extra athletes on their bench, extra athletes to act as back-ups for the usual starters when they are injured or during their off-weeks. The seven starters and six back-ups make up a total of 13 roster spots on the team. Each roster spot might be filled by athletes from different NFL teams.

[0005] At the outset of the season, the league members¹ agree upon a point system in order to measure the value of each athlete. Based on the athletes' weekly performance in professional football games, the values of the athletes are tallied to see which team member has the highest scoring team. Throughout the season, league participants¹ may try to improve their team by trading athletes to other participants or by adding and dropping athletes from the available pool of NFL athletes. Although football is used as an example throughout this document, the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer can be used for any fantasy sportbaseball, basketball, golf, NASCAR, hockey, etc.

[0006] Fantasy athlete statistics and related data are often stored and/or viewed on some kind of terminal (like a computer or a cell phone) connected to a network like the Internet. This network allows diverse sports fans from around the world to meet and participate in leagues. Many fantasy sports websites have already been established over the last few years to facilitate the game and/or provide the research necessary to play it. Some examples of these websites are:

[0007] http://fantasysports.yahoo.com

[0008] http://games.espn.go.com

[0009] http://www.fanball.com

[0010] The current systems lack certain interactive functions and can be improved. The first two websites listed above do not offer an auction-based method of distributing athletes (only snake draft, which is discussed below). The last website on the list offers an auction-based method of distributing athletes, but uses a very different process than the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System (e.g. among other differences, its users bid on athletes that are nominated for auction in random order determined by its host controller). Other auction systems do not occur in real time. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,855 by Gavriloff Apr. 16, 2002. It shows a Fantasy Internet sports game where teams starting with a number of game value units associated with each athlete varies in correlation with the demand of the participants for that athlete and a participant receives periodically a value-based reward correlated to the value and/or performance of the athletes on a participant's team.

[0011] FIG. 1 shows an online auction screen

[0012] FIG. 2 shows a league team display

[0013] Definitions

[0014] User: a natural person participant or one or more natural persons acting as a single user, or a computerized user in the fantasy game. These persons do not play sports and are not athletes.

[0015] Fantasy athlete: a collection of statistics and data often derived from the historical statistics of real natural person athletes who play sports. These persons are professional athletes and so are usually somewhat famous. Athletes are also called players.

[0016] Fantasy team: a collection of fantasy athletes managed by a user.

[0017] Fantasy league: a collection of users and their fantasy teams along with a set of rules regulating the management, scheduling, and scoring of competitions between fantasy teams.

[0018] Fantasy sports: a game consisting of one more fantasy leagues.

[0019] The present invention relates to an electronic system of auctioning athletes by nominated auction in a fantasy sports league. Various users access a central server through a network such as the Internet protocol via remote personal computers. The system is preferably embodied as a software application operating on a central server allowing a diverse variety of fantasy sports websites to integrate with the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System to give its users the option of using the nominated auction method.

[0020] The fantasy league begins with an athlete distribution method. A first method of prior art is called the snake draft. In a snake draft, fantasy team selection order is first randomly determined. In order of the randomized list, each team then takes turns selecting an athlete to be added to their fantasy team. To make it as fair as possible, the randomized team order is inverted every other round, to allow the team with the last pick of the current round the first pick of the next round. The first method is more easily implemented on the Internet as the central server determines priority for athlete selection order and then allows teams to choose athletes based upon the team priority.

[0021] A second method is by nominated auction. Team order is first randomized and then snaked or inverted every other round as in the snake draft. Instead of choosing an athlete to be added to a user's team, the user nominates an athlete for auction and places an opening bid for the athlete. Other users (i.e. the managers of the other teams in the league) may then outbid the nominating team and bidding for the athlete begins as each team interested in acquiring the athlete may enter successively higher bids. Each team begins with the same preset imaginary budget (also referred to in this document as a salary cap) representing fantasy money or game value units that are spent on bidding for athletes. The highest bid wins the athlete and the amount of the winning bid is subtracted from the team's budget (therefore, a user cannot enter a bid that is higher than his or her remaining budget). This process continues until each team has a full roster. If an auction participant fills his or her roster, he or she is finished with the auction, regardless of whether they have spent all the allotted salary cap money.

[0022] The second method is preferably implemented by a software application operating on a central server. This allows a diverse variety of fantasy sports websites to integrate with the auctioneer software application to give their users a variety of athlete distribution options including the nominated auction method. Currently, almost all fantasy sports websites only offer the snake draft method because there is no real, efficient, and electronic version of the traditional process of the auction method, something that the present invention, the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System, will provide.

[0023] A. Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System

[0024] The software application implementing the second method of nominated auction has various parts. The first part is the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer. The Fantasy Sports Auctioneer operates as an auction house to facilitate traditional auction rules. The Fantasy Sports Auctioneer is designed to facilitate the auction method of distributing athletes.

[0025] B. Screen Components

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a large screen shot showing the preferred embodiment.

[0027] In FIG. 1, the Online Auction screen is divided into four parts: the On the block portion (110), the Player Selection portion (165) where athletes are selected to be put on the auction block, the user's Team Display portion (130), and the Auction Order portion (135). Currently, the athlete listed under the display name of current athlete being auctioned (110) is Ahman Green, showing that he is the athlete being auctioned. The manager who is selecting a team of athletes can decide either to submit a bid for the athlete (115) or to pass (120). If every other user presses the Pass button, the highest bidder wins the athlete automatically, regardless of whether the delay time is finished. Below the box for inputting a bid, the bidding history window (145) is displayed, showing the bids of various teams and the current highest bid. The chat box (155) is displayed below the bidding history box (145) showing the comments of the various auction participants to the current bids. The Say box (155) allows the auction participants to enter their responses into the chat box.

[0028] The Player Selection portion (165) shows athletes listed by name and categorized by their position. Users can highlight athletes from the list and click on the Select Athlete button in order to put an athlete on the auction block (165). In this example, the NFL athletes are listed by their position, real-life professional NFL team name, and the week of NFL play in which they have a bye and therefore be unavailable. For instance, the highlighted player in the list-box is Brett Favre, who is listed as a quarterback (QB) from Green Bay that will have a bye in the eighth week of NFL play (165). It is important to note that the information displayed in the columns of this list box depend on the fantasy sport for which the auctioneer is being used. For example, for fantasy baseball or basketball, bye weeks would not apply, so it would not be shown. Furthermore, the columns may depend on the particular fantasy sports website using the Auctioneer. Wesites can select for themselves what data will be shown as pertaining to what they feel is important for their users to decide on which athletes to be placed on the auction block. An example of this might be that a fantasy sports website could add a column with their recommended value of all the available athletes.

[0029] The previously selected athletes are shown in lighter lettering (grayed-out) than those awaiting auction (165) and cannot be selected. Underneath the athlete list is a button for either Alphabetize or Pre-ranked List options (160) of sorting the athletes. If the list is already in alphabetical order, the button would be labeled Pre-ranked List. If the list is already in order of the pre-ranked list, the button would be labeled Alphabetize. The pre-ranked list would be predetermined by the host controller (i.e. the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer or the website integrating with it).

[0030] The user's Team Display portion (130) lists the athletes the user has won in previous rounds of bidding. The user shown is represented by a team named the Boston Big Heads (130). The team display lists the athletes on the user's roster along with their position, the actual team of which they are a part, their bye week (again, the data in these columns will depend on the fantasy sport), and their salary, i.e. the winning bid for each athlete (130). Spaces for unfilled positions are also listed. Below the team display box is the Salary cap info (170) that informs the user how much money remains for auctioning and the total (170), which is the amount the user has spent so far in auctioning for athletes. (Mathematically speaking, salary captotal amountthe preset budget for the fantasy league which in FIG. 1 is $100.)

[0031] The Auction Order Portion (135) lists the order in which the various teams represented by different users will be allowed to select an athlete to be placed on the auction block (using the aforementioned Athlete Selection portion of the screen). To the right of the auction order list are phrases indicating who has the current pick, indicated by the word Pick, the next pick, indicated by the words On deck, and the pick after that, indicated by the words In the hole (180). Below the Auction order list is an option that allows the user to show all teams (140), the result of which is shown in FIG. 2. This command allows the user to see the same information shown in the user's team display for all the teams. This allows the user to see what positions have been filled for each of his or her competitors, as well as how much salary cap money he or she has left. Below the Show All Teams button is the Change Delay button (175). This button allows one of the league participants (e.g. the league commissioner) to change the different timing mechanisms that are in the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System. When it is time for an auction participant to select an athlete to be auctioned, for example, he or she is only given a certain amount of time to do so. Additionally, during the bidding process, there is a timing mechanism that measures how much idle time goes by before the athlete being auctioned is won by the highest bidder (this is explained more thoroughly below). The amount of time given for both these functions are predetermined by the host controller. The Change Delay button, however, allows one of the league participants to change this time mid-auction.

[0032] 1. Athlete Player Selection Area

[0033] This section of the screen is where an athlete is nominated for auction. This area consists of a Position drop-down box, a Select Player button, and a list-box populated by athletes' names.

[0034] The Position drop-down box will be used to sort the list of athletes' names by position. For example, if the Auctioneer is being used for a Fantasy Football League, the Position drop-down box might be populated with values such as Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, Tight End, Kicker, etc. By selecting Running Back in the drop-down box, the list-box of athletes' names will only be populated by those athletes playing the position of running back in the NFL. This will aid the participant in choosing an athlete to be placed on the auction block. This Position drop-down box will obviously be filled by different values for different fantasy sports.

[0035] The list-box containing athletes' names will have a highlight to show which athlete is currently selected. The user can move the highlight up and down by using whichever tool the terminal provides (e.g. either a keyboard or mouse for a personal computer, the keypad for a cell phone, etc.). To put an athlete on the auction block, the user highlights an athlete's name and then presses the Select Player button. The athletes who have already been auctioned will be grayed out and thus unavailable to be auctioned again.

[0036] The Select Player button is inaccessible (i.e. grayed-out) to an auction participant until it is his or her turn to select an athlete to be auctioned (as indicated in the Auction Order portion of the screen). It is inaccessible to everyone during the actual bidding process, when there is already an athlete on the auction block.

[0037] The user will have the option to sort this list-box in alphabetical order or in order of a pre-ranked list (whichever system that integrates with the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer will have the option to set this pre-ranked list). Furthermore, information about the athlete may be added or subtracted to this list-box, depending on what the systems integrating with the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer feel is important to display. For example, the athletes' team, position, or bye week (especially for football) might be added to further aid the participant in selecting an athlete. As mentioned previously, the user selecting an athlete to be auctioned only has a certain amount of time to do so. Some kind of visual cue will be given as to how much time he or she has left or an Artificial Intelligence will select an athlete for the user (see Artificial Intelligence Selection Process below).

[0038] 2. Bidding and Chat Area

[0039] Once a participant selects an athlete to be auctioned, he or she must enter an opening bid. This can be done in the bidding area. After selecting an athlete from the Player Selection Area, the athlete's name appears in the bidding area under the On the block: label. Underneath the athlete's name is a Bid textbox where the user can enter the opening bid (only zero or positive whole numbers less than the remaining salary cap would be allowed to be entered). Upon pressing the Submit Bid button, the participant's team name will appear in the bidding textbox along with the submitted bid. This information is broadcasted to all the league members so that they will all see the athlete to be auctioned and the opening bid. At this point, bidding ensues by participants entering their desired bid into their own Bid textbox. In order to enter a successful bid, the bidder must enter a bid that is greater than the current bid and less than or equal to what is allowed by the bidder's remaining budget.

[0040] Based on the auction's set bid delay time, a visual cue is given to show how much time is left before an athlete is sold to the highest bidder. In the example in FIG. 1, the delay time (set by a league participant acting as commissioner or by the fantasy website integrated with the Auctioneer) is divided by three, and the result is the amount of time before the messages Going once, then Going twice, and finally, Sold are displayed. A series of periods (.) will be shown for each second of idle time. If no one is outbidding the highest bid on a current athlete, and 12 seconds of a 15-second set delay time have passed, the following will be displayed: . . . Going once . . . Going twice . . . 12 periods interspersed with the Going once and Going twice messages. In reality, whatever system (e.g. a fantasy sports website) that chooses to integrate with the Auctioneer can use a different visual display such as a simple count-down timer.

[0041] To expedite the bidding process, the auction participants can pass on a given athlete by pressing the Pass button. If all auction participants press the Pass button, the highest bidder wins the athlete regardless of whether the delay time has finished. Once the bidding goes higher than a particular user's salary cap allows, the system will automatically press the Pass button for him or her. The commissioner of the league will also be able to change the delay time mid-auction, in case the league feels that more or less time is needed to run the auction (as mentioned above in the description of the Change Delay button). Additionally, there is a chat area where people can type in comments to each other.

[0042] C. Team Display Area

[0043] The team area is where an auction participant can view which athletes he or she has already won in previous rounds of bidding, as well as the team's remaining salary cap space. The list-box displaying the athletes will be organized to reflect the league's roster requirements, which includes a starting lineup and a number of bench spots (i.e. back-ups). In FIG. 1, the starting lineup requirements are: one quarterback (QB), two running backs (RB), three wide receivers (WR), one tight end (TE), one kicker (K), one defensive lineman (DL), one defensive back (DB), and five bench spots (B).

[0044] D. League Team Display

[0045] FIG. 2 depicts another screen showing a team's display box that is accessed by clicking on the Show All Teams button (140) shown in FIG. 1. In the top left corner of the display is the league name which in this case is the Pi Kapp A league (210). This team's display screen allows the user to view the athletes selected by the other league participants in order of what is seen in the Auction Order portion of FIG. 1. Additionally, the system (e.g. fantasy sports website) using the Auctioneer may choose to attach (e.g. hyper-link) data to each of the given athletes' names to provide research information about the individual athletes (260). This aids auction participants in determining whether to place an athlete on the auction block or whether to bid a certain amount on an athlete. Each column in the team's display box lists the team name above the athlete information section (220) and below has divided sections (240) that provide information regarding the position, name, real-life team, bye week, salary of each selected athlete (270), and/or whatever else information the host controller feels is pertinent to display. Below all this information, additional data is provided regarding the salary cap (the remaining money allowed for auctioning) and the Total, the amount of money the user has already spent (250), just as shown in the Team Display portion in FIG. 1. The same information described above is shown for the twelve different teams that make up, in this case, the Pi Kapp A League (230).

[0046] Additionally, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program may replace a user when an extra user is required but unavailable. The artificial intelligence program may also temporarily take the place of a user when a user is away from a terminal. If there is more than one required but unavailable user, multiple instances of the system's AI will manifest itself to control the player selection and bidding process for each missing user. For example, if there are three missing human auction participants, three different instances of the Artificial Intelligence program will be run to handle player selection and bidding strategies for each of the missing human participants. Additionally, when a user has run out of time to select a player to be auctioned, the built-in AI's athlete Selection Algorithm (see below) will be run to select a player to be auctioned for him or her. Artificial intelligence programs are widely known in the software industry, and a variety of artificial intelligence routines may be purchased commercially.

[0047] Many different algorithms can be designed to control the AI of the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer. The AI will generally consist of two algorithms:

[0048] 1) a Selection Algorithm that will determine which athletes to place on the auction block when it is the AI's turn to do so, and

[0049] 2) a Bidding Algorithm that will determine up to how much the AI will bid on a given athlete that is currently being auctioned. The AI will generally use a price list preset by the host controller as a basis for both algorithms. This price list is a list of all the available athletes to be auctioned with a corresponding unit value that will also be preset by the host controller.

[0050] The following Conditions and Appropriate Actions describe possible examples of a Selection Algorithm and a Bidding Algorithm.

[0051] Conditions and Appropriate Actions for a Possible AI Selection Algorithm:

[0052] The Selection Algorithm would run when it is the AI's turn to select an athlete to be placed on auction. The algorithm breaks down into two decisions: which position (e.g. quarterback, running back, etc.) and which athlete to place on the auction block. Condition 2 below describes the strategy behind which position to elect for auction. Once the AI has decided upon a particular position, it simply chooses the highest ranked player still available on the price list (this is described at the very bottom of the Selection Algorithm description):

[0053] Condition 1: The AI's full roster is already completely filled,

[0054] Action 1: The AI will discontinue entirely from the auction process.

[0055] Action 2: Give selection control to whomever is next on the Player Selection list (either human or another AI auction participant).

[0056] Action 3: End Selection Algorithm

[0057] Condition 2: The AI's roster is not yet full,

[0058] Condition 2.1: There is more than one starting position yet to be filled,

[0059] Action 1: Randomly select one of these unfilled starting positions.

[0060] Condition 2.2: There is only one starting position yet to be filled,

[0061] Action 1: Select this one position.

[0062] Condition 2.3: All the starting positions are already filled,

[0063] Action 1: Find the position with the least number of back-ups on the bench.

[0064] Condition 2.3.1: There is only one such position,

[0065] Action 1: Select this one position.

[0066] Condition 2.3.2: There is more than one position with the least number of back-ups (e.g. the AI has yet to purchase a back-up for either the starting quarterback or the starting running back),

[0067] Action 1: Find the position with the most number of required starters. Take, for example, a league that requires one starting quarterback, one starting running back, and two starting wide receivers. If the AI has yet to buy any back-ups for any of the starting athletes, it would select a wide receiver because it requires two starters compared to one quarterback and one running back.

[0068] Condition 2.3.2.1: There is only one such position,

[0069] Action 1: Select this one position.

[0070] Condition 2.3.2.2: There is more than one such position (in the previous example, if there were already one back-up wide receiver, but no back-up quarterback or running back),

[0071] Action 1: Randomly select one of these positions.

[0072] For All Subconditions of Condition 2:

[0073] Action 2: For the position selected above, select the most expensive athlete still available on the price list for the randomly selected position.

[0074] Action 3: Enter an opening bid of the league's preset minimum bid (e.g. zero dollars).

[0075] Action 4: End Selection Algorithm.

[0076] Conditions and Appropriate Actions for a Possible AI Bidding Algorithm:

[0077] Condition 1: The current player placed on the auction block is of a position for which the AI has yet to buy a starter (e.g. a quarterback is placed on the auction block and the AI has yet to buy a quarterbacks),

[0078] Action 1: The AI will multiply the suggested price on the price list for this particular athlete with a randomly selected number between 0.5 and 1.5 (e.g. 0.92345 or 1.3762).

[0079] Condition 2: The current player placed on the auction block is of a position for which the AI already has bought all the required starters, but not any back-ups.

[0080] Action 1: The AI will multiply the suggested price on the price list for this particular athlete with a randomly selected number between 0 and 1.0 (e.g. 0.3342 or 0.9237).

[0081] Condition 3: The current player placed on the auction block is of a position for which the AI already has bought all the required starters and one back-up.

[0082] Action 1: The AI will multiply the suggested price on the price list for this particular athlete with a randomly selected number between 0 and 0.5 (e.g. 0.0342 or 0.3237).

[0083] For Conditions 1 through 3:

[0084] Action 2: The AI will round the result of the multiplication done above to the nearest whole number.

[0085] Action 3: The AI will then use this whole number as the maximum amount that it will bid for the athlete currently on the auction block.

[0086] Action 4: The AI will continue bidding the lowest possible increment (e.g. $1) above any bids of either human or other AI auction participants up to this maximum bid).

[0087] Condition A: A human or another AI auction participant outbids this max bid

[0088] Action 1: Press the Pass button.

[0089] Action 2: End Bidding Algorithm.

[0090] Condition B: The AI wins the player

[0091] Action 1: Add the athlete to the AI's roster.

[0092] Action 2: Subtract the winning bid from the AI's salary cap.

[0093] Action 3: End Bidding Algorithm.

[0094] Condition 4: The current player on the auction block is of a position for which the AI already has bought all the required starters and two back-ups,

[0095] Action 1: Press the Pass button.

[0096] Action 2: End Bidding Algorithm.

[0097] If the maximum bid calculated above is greater than however much the AI has left on its remaining budget, it can obviously only bid up to what is left on the AI's budget. Also, the number of back-ups up to which the AI will continue bidding (two back-ups in the example above) should be adjusted to the sport and the number of possible bench spots in whatever league is formed. The adjusting multiplication done above (i.e. the randomly generated numbers) should also be adjusted based on these factors.

[0098] It is important to note once again that the Artificial Intelligence described above can be used for any fantasy sport (even though football was used as an example). Furthermore, the Artificial Intelligence described above can be made to be more sophisticated based on certain sport and league settings. The aforementioned description is only to give an idea of how a possible AI routine may be designed.

[0099] Artificial Intelligence programs may replace a user temporarily for bidding with the user and assigning values for nominating athletes and values for the maximum bid that a user is willing to spend on bidding for fantasy athletes. Artificial Intelligence programs may also bid randomly for fantasy athletes or bid based upon a set value of a fantasy athlete calculated from historical statistical data.

[0100] The foregoing describes the preferred embodiments of the invention and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.

[0101] Call Out List

[0102] 110 Display name of current athlete being auctioned

[0103] 115 Location for entering bids allowing input of desired bid by pressing the Submit button.

[0104] 120 Pass Button.

[0105] 125 Position dropdown box will filter the Athlete Selection list-box by selected position.

[0106] 130 User's Team display sport contextual fantasy website and league's line-up requirements.

[0107] 135 Randomized athlete selection order

[0108] 140 Show All Teams button brings up all of the team displays

[0109] 145 Bidding history window shows who has bid what and who currently has the highest bid

[0110] 150 Visual cue to show how much delay time is left over before the athlete is sold

[0111] 155 Chat functionality allows auction participants to comment on the auction

[0112] 160 Alphabetize/Pre-ranked List buttons give two athlete list-box sorting options

[0113] 165 Highlight an athlete and press Select Athlete button to auction him or her off.

[0114] 170 Displays how much money has been spent and how much salary cap space is left

[0115] 175 Change Delay button allows league commissioner to change auction delay time

[0116] 180 Indicates who has the current pick, the next pick, and the pick after that.

[0117] 210 League name will be displayed here

[0118] 220 Names of each team will be displayed.

[0119] 230 All team displays are based on the league's starting lineup and bench requirements

[0120] 240 Based on the sport as well as user input, different data can be shown here.

[0121] 250 Display money user spent and salary cap remaining.

[0122] 260 All displays of athlete names, including list-box, under On the Block label, or in the Team Display areas of both FIGS. 1 and 2 may be hyper-linked to provide research information.

[0123] 270 The amount of money spent on each athlete is shown in the salary column