WO2012162836A1

WO2012162836A1 - Virtual bingo game application

Info

Publication number: WO2012162836A1
Application number: PCT/CA2012/050364
Authority: WO
Inventors: Louis-Philippe Lussier; Cameron Adams; Eric Roy; George Rassias; Jason Lam; Ken Schulzke; Serge Roy; Todd Heintz; Dan BEEBE; Paul Thiessen
Original assignee: Interprovincial Lottery Corporation
Priority date: 2011-06-02
Filing date: 2012-06-01
Publication date: 2012-12-06

Abstract

There is described herein a virtual Bingo game using an event to interactively play the game. The Bingo card is made up of an N x N matrix of sections, each section describing an occurrence that may or may not take place during the event. For every occurrence that takes place during the event, the player may tag the section to indicate that the occurrence has been held true. A player will win the game when a complete row, column, or diagonal of occurrences are tagged.

Description

VIRTUAL BINGO GAME APPLICATION

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001 ] The present application claims priority under 35 USC 1 19(e) of United States Provisional Patent Application No. 61/492,658, filed on June 2, 201 1 , the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present invention relates to the field of gaming and more particularly, to a Bingo gaming application modifying the way a traditional Bingo game is played.

BACKGROUND OF THE ART

[0003] Sports betting is a very popular activity in many countries around the world. Some of the various professional sports for which betting occurs are basketball, football, baseball, soccer, hockey, and golf. Some less traditional sports for which betting occurs are, for example, bowling, curling, darts, billiards, and various races or competitions involving animals. At one end of the spectrum are the players who know the game and the players involved in a given sporting event, and who make their betting decisions based on this knowledge. At another end of the spectrum are the players who have no knowledge whatsoever of the game and/or players involved, and who make their betting decisions randomly. Avid players will typically be those that have at least some knowledge of the game and players while casual players will typically be those that have little or no knowledge of the game or players.

[0004] There is a need to provide a form of sports betting that will attract not only the avid sports betters but also the casual sports betters, allowing the two types of betters to participate side by side in a social activity.

SUMMARY

[0005] There is described herein a virtual Bingo game using an event to interactively play the game. The Bingo card is made up of an N x N matrix of sections, each section describing an occurrence that may or may not take place during the event. For every occurrence that takes place during the event, the player may tag the section to indicate that the occurrence has been held true. A player will win the game when a complete row, column, or diagonal of occurrences are tagged.

[0006] A section refers to a partitioned area on a virtual bingo card. The section may be filled with numbers, symbols, or text corresponding to a given occurrence that may take place during the course of a given event. The given occurrence may be an outcome of the event, such as a winner or loser of a competition, or a happening during the event, such as a player scoring a goal. Any possible occurrence resulting from the event taking place, whether the occurrence be the outcome, a one-time occurrence, a recurring occurrence, or the absence of a given occurrence may correspond to an occurrence in a section of the Bingo card.

[0007] In accordance with a first broad aspect, there is provided a virtual Bingo game system comprising a processor in a computer system, a memory accessible by the processor, and at least one application stored in the memory and having program code executable by the processor. The program code is executable for: receiving at least one selected virtual Bingo card for participation in the Bingo game, the at least one virtual Bingo card defining a matrix of N x N sections, each section having indicated therein a possible occurrence in at least one event; tracking the at least one event in real time to monitor occurrences therein; tagging a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true; designating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a winning card when a predetermined pattern of sections on the card has been tagged; and allocating winnings to a player account for the winning card.

[0008] In accordance with a second broad aspect, there is provided a computer- implemented method for providing a virtual Bingo game, the method comprising: receiving at least one selected virtual Bingo card for participation in the Bingo game, the at least one virtual Bingo card defining a matrix of N x N sections, each section having indicated therein a possible occurrence in at least one event; tracking the at least one event in real time to monitor occurrences therein; tagging a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true; designating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a winning card when a predetermined pattern of sections on the card has been tagged; and allocating winnings to a player account for the winning card.

[0009] In accordance with a third broad aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having stored thereon program code executable by a processor for providing a virtual Bingo game by receiving at least one selected virtual Bingo card for participation in the Bingo game, the at least one virtual Bingo card defining a matrix of N x N sections, each section having indicated therein a possible occurrence in at least one event; tracking the at least one event in real time to monitor occurrences therein; tagging a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true; designating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a winning card when a predetermined pattern of sections on the card has been tagged; and allocating winnings to a player account for the winning card.

[0010] In the present specification, the expression "event" will be understood to mean a sporting event, a television event, a political event, or any other event that can be delimited by a start time and an end time and that has elements that unfold or occur as the event takes place. For example, a television event may be an episode of a popular sitcom, and the occurrences may be references to specific characters, actions of the characters, words spoken by the characters, etc. A political event may be an election, and the occurrences may be having specific candidates win or lose in their respective ridings. Even a weather report may be an event, whereby temperature highs and lows predicted by the weatherperson may constitute the occurrences. The expression "sporting event" will be understood to refer to any activity governed by a set of rules and engaged in competitively, either between two parties or against oneself. For example, a two party competition may be a ping-pong game, while a one-party competition may be a weight-lifting competition, where the weightlifter competes with himself in trying to lift the heaviest weights possible. The term "occurrence" will be understood to refer to any one of a sub-event, a happening, an episode, an incidence, an outcome, a result, a consequence, an upshot, or an aftermath of a given event. For example, in the case of a sporting event, an occurrence may be a final score, a fight taking place, a given team scoring first, a statistic for a given player, an overtime period, a winning team, etc.

[001 1 ] A sporting event will be used in the detailed description of the present specification to illustrate some of the embodiments. However, it should be understood that the concepts described with regards to a sporting event may be extended to other events, as listed above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which:

[0013] Fig. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of the virtual sports Bingo game;

[0014] Fig. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment the step of playing the virtual sports bingo game from the flowchart of fig. 1 ;

[0015] Fig. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of the step of selecting a card from the flowchart of fig. 2;

[0016] Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of the step of choosing a card from the flowchart of fig. 3;

[0017] Fig. 5 is an exemplary screenshot of a 3 x 3 virtual card for the virtual sports bingo game;

[0018] Fig. 6 is an exemplary screenshot of a 5 x 5 virtual card for the virtual sports bingo game; [0019] Fig. 7 is an exemplary screenshot of the 3 x 3 virtual card having tagged sections;

[0020] Fig. 8 is an exemplary screenshot of the 5 x 5 virtual card having tagged sections;

[0021 ] Fig. 9 is a schematic illustration of a system for executing the virtual sports bingo game, in accordance with one embodiment;

[0022] Fig. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary application running on the processor of the system of fig. 9;

[0023] Fig. 1 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary card management module of fig. 10; and

[0024] Fig. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary player account manager for the application of fig. 10.

[0025] It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] There is described herein a virtual bingo game application incorporating features of sports betting. Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary method for the virtual sports bingo game application. In a first step 102, the application is launched via a client device. If the player is a new player 104, a player account may be created 106. If the player is an existing player, he or she may skip the step of creating a player account and begin playing the virtual sports bingo game 108. In the case of a win 1 10, winnings are collected by the player 1 12. If the game does not result in a win for the player, the player may play again 1 14 or exit 1 16.

[0027] Figure 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary embodiment for playing the virtual sports bingo game 108. In this embodiment, the player is asked to select at least one card 202. The player may select multiple cards to play at the same time or simply play with a single card. Alternatively, the player may be allocated one or more cards, either randomly or pseudo-randomly. Once the player is in possession of one or more cards, the game is played interactively as the one or more sporting events to which the one or more cards refer are taking place. Every time an occurrence found on the one or more cards held by the player is found to be true (i.e. takes place), the player may tag a section of the card having the reference to the occurrence 204. A win occurs when all of the sections in a given row/column/diagonal has been tagged.

[0028] Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment for selecting the one or more cards 202 for playing the sports Bingo game. In this embodiment, the player may first choose one or more sporting events 302 from a list of sporting events to which the sports Bingo game is applicable. The player may choose to have one card per sporting event or multiple sporting events per card. The player may then choose a card in accordance with this selection 304. In one embodiment, the player may actually configure his card by choosing occurrences 402 from a list of possible occurrences for the applicable sporting events. This is illustrated in the flowchart of figure 4. In addition, the player may also arrange the chosen occurrences in a desired configuration for each card 404. In an alternative embodiment, the cards are pre-configured and the player selects a card as desired, per sporting event or per grouping of sporting event. In some embodiments, some or all of the possible occurrences may be chosen more than once for a same card. These rules may be predetermined by the game operator or a system administrator.

[0029] Therefore, the more advanced player may choose to configure his own card using his knowledge of the game and the likelihood of various possible occurrences taking place during any given sporting event. For example, if the player knows that Team A is much stronger than Team B, he may elect "win by Team A" as one of the occurrences present on the card. He may also elect "Team A scores first" as an occurrence on the card, and he may position the "Win by Team A" occurrence next to the "Team A scores first" occurrence in order to maximize his chances of getting a Bingo. If the advanced player is also familiar with the statistics of the individual members of Team A or B, he may choose from a list of occurrences that are related to player statistics, such as "Two Runs for Smith" or "Three TD passes for Jones". The advanced player may also be playing the sports Bingo game while two different sporting events are taking place concurrently, such as a baseball game and a football game. The player may choose to select occurrences from both of these sporting events for a same card, and mix up the possible combinations of occurrences for any given row/column/diagonal, such that in order to get a Bingo, occurrences from both sporting events would need to be held as true.

[0030] In contrast, a casual player may choose not to trouble themselves with choosing the occurrences and may prefer to simply take the pre-configured cards. A player of intermediate level may choose some occurrences and have the rest of the card filled in an automated manner. A player may also choose one or more sporting event to apply to one or more cards but allow the occurrences for each card to be generated automatically.

[0031 ] In some embodiments, the occurrences selected for the cards may be changed in real time as the sporting event unfolds. In one case, some possible occurrences may only be available under special circumstances. For example, a possible occurrence of "overtime" may be offered from the very beginning, or it may only be offered if the two teams are tied with five minutes remaining in the game. The player may then be asked if he wants to replace an empty (or untagged) section with this new occurrence that has only been made available at the five minute mark of the game. The section being replaced may be imposed by the game or it may be the player's choice. A time limit is then placed on the availability of the new occurrence for the card, and if the player does not elect to make the switch before the time runs out, for example at 4:30 min from the end of the game, the occurrence is taken off the table.

[0032] In another example, a penalty in a hockey game gives a team a 2:00 minute power play, which increases their chances of scoring a goal. A possible occurrence of "goal during PP" may be offered from the very beginning of the game, or it may be available only when an actual penalty is called. Similarly to the example of overtime, the player is given a time limit to choose whether to trade an occurrence on his card for this newly available occurrence. [0033] In yet another example, as the game unfolds, the odds of winning and losing may vary. This variation may impact the amount of money that can be won, depending on the outcome. For example, if a team is losing 0-3 and the odds of a victory are significantly reduced, a player who chooses to replace an occurrence on a card with a victory by the team that is presently losing may double his possible winnings, if he gets a Bingo.

[0034] In one embodiment, the winnings vary as the sporting event unfolds in accordance with the changing odds. If a player enters the game after the sporting event has begun, or if the player makes a modification to the occurrences previously selected while the sporting event is unfolding, then the odds available at the time the occurrences are locked in become applicable to the player's card. Late entry may be allowed using only pre-configured cards, only user-configured cards, or both. Various other embodiments for determining winnings and providing occurrences in real time are possible and will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.

[0035] Figure 5 is an exemplary screenshot of a 3 x 3 virtual card for the virtual sports bingo game. Each section 502, 508, 514 is filled with a possible occurrence. In this embodiment, the possible occurrences are each presented in the form of a statement 504, 510, 516 and an answer 506, 512, 518 to the statement. For example, for section 502, the statement 504 is "to win" and the answer 506 is "Van", for Vancouver. For section 508, the statement 510 is "will there be a shootout" and the answer 512 is "no". For section 514, the statement 516 is "Van line start period 3" and the answer 518 is "Line 2". In an alternative embodiment, the statements and/or answers may be represented by symbols, logos, or numbers. For example, a statement may be the following image:

[0036] indicating that the statement is "Winner?" and the answer may be a logo of one of the two teams competing in the event. In another embodiment, the entire occurrence may be represented by a single statement that incorporates the answer, or that implies the answer. For example, "Van wins", or "Van wins?" with an implied answer being "yes".

[0037] Figure 6 is an exemplary screenshot of a 5 x 5 virtual card. The embodiments described with regards to figure 5 are also applicable. Other sizes for virtual cards may also be provided, such as 2 x 2, 4 x 4, 6 x 6, etc. In one embodiment, the possible winnings increase as the dimensions of the card increases. For example, a 2 x 2 card may give a 2: 1 return while a 6 x 6 card may give a 5: 1 return. In addition, the size of the card may affect the purchase price of the card, i.e. the price to play the game.

[0038] Figures 7 and 8 are exemplary screenshots of the cards shown in figures 5 and 6, respectively, whereby some of the sections have been tagged. In the embodiment illustrated, a tag is represented by a shaded or colored circle applied to a section. Other embodiments for displaying a tagged section will be readily understood, such as blacking out the entire section, changing the color and/or font of the text in the section, having the lines surrounding the given section change color or flash, etc. The card illustrated in figure 7 is a winning card, as a diagonal has been completed. The card illustrated in figure 8 is not a winning card as no diagonal, column, or row has been completed and occurrences that can only be held true at the end of the sporting event have been tagged (such as Van "to Win").

[0039] In some embodiments, more than one card is displayed at once, while in other embodiments, the player may change the display from one card to another card using various input devices, such as a mouse or a touch screen. The layouts illustrated in figures 5 to 8 may be modified in a variety of ways without affecting the way the virtual sports Bingo game is played.

[0040] As illustrated in the upper right hand and left hand corners of figures 5 to 8, the player is using a given currency to make purchases. In one embodiment, the currency is actual money from the real world. Purchases are made directly with real currency from a player account. In another embodiment, the currency used to make purchases is a virtual currency embodied by credits, tokens, etc, and having an equivalent in a real world currency. The equivalent may be 1 : 1 or it may be as a function of a ratio set by the game operator. In this embodiment, the player may purchase credits in order to participate in the virtual sports Bingo game. This facilitates transactions and player account management as the transactions with real money will only occur when players purchase a given number of credits or redeem their credits for the real world currency. The purchased credits will then be used at will by the player until they run out. Credits can be repurchased at any time, whether the outstanding balance of credits in a player's account is zero or non-zero. In one embodiment, the application will illustrate at all times the balance of the player's account and the amounts that have been spent. These numbers may be provided per session, per day, per game, per week, etc. In another embodiment, the player may access a profile page having detailed information regarding remaining currency, spent currency, past transactions, and past purchases and/or redemptions of credits.

[0041 ] Also illustrated in the upper left hand and right hand corners of figures 5 to 8 are the options to see player history and leader boards. Player history may allow the player to see past virtual cards, past sporting event outcomes, and past winnings. Leader boards are used as a social component in the game by allowing a community of players to see how other players are doing and compare themselves to these other players. The leader boards may be integrated into the application or provided externally thereto, in another social network such as Facebook™ or MySpace™. In some embodiments, players may be able to see not only the total winnings accumulated by others on the leader board, but also the actual virtual cards being played by other players in real time. In this embodiment, players may be able to see which possible occurrences have been selected by other players. This option may be reserved for other players that are "Friends" of the player.

[0042] While the virtual sports Bingo game may be an individual game without an opponent, it may also be played in a challenge format with other players. For example, players may consult the leader board and challenge other players. The challenge may be for the first to obtain a Bingo, or it may be for other tasks, such as finishing an entire card, tagging the most sections, finishing a special pattern, etc. The winnings for such challenges may be different than those allocated for a more traditional single-player game. In some embodiments, players may choose to wager a given amount for a challenge, whereby each player provides part or all of the given amount and the winning player collects the pot. In other embodiments, certain challenges are pre-set with wagers and/or jackpots.

[0043] In some embodiments, a virtual card may be purchased and gifted to another player. The giftee may be selected from a list of friends, other players, group members, or any other variation. For example, a person not yet registered as a player in the sports Bingo game may be invited to join the game by receiving a gift from an existing player. The player may choose to gift a pre- configured card or a player-configured card. The card is then sent to the giftee. Alternatively, the player may choose to gift a proportion of winnings resulting from the outcome of the game for one or more cards. The gifter may be the one playing the gifted card and winnings are allocated to the giftee after the event is over, as a function of the accumulated winnings from the gifer's play and the predetermined proportion of the card allocated to the giftee. In some embodiments, an entire card is gifted, with the gifter not retaining any rights to winnings resulting from the gifted card. In other embodiments, a portion of the winnings resulting from a gifted card may remain with the gifter. For example, the gifter may choose to split the card 50-50, 40-60, 73-27, 18-82, etc. These options may be pre-set by the game operator or free of choice for the player. Whatever the conditions of the gift, they are recorded by the game operator before a sporting event involving any of the possible occurrences on the card and applied in the case of a winning card.

[0044] The player may access information regarding past and present gift recipients. This information may indicate whether each person in the list has already been the recipient of a gift, either by the present gifter or by another player. This information may also indicate whether a gifted card has ever turned out to be a winning card. Details of a gift sent may also be provided. Any gift information may be provided, such as a list of gift recipients, cards for each recipient, sporting event dates, and results. Winnings for past gifted cards may be displayed.

[0045] Referring to figure 9, there is illustrated a system for executing the virtual sports Bingo game application. One or more server(s) are provided remotely and accessible via a network 908. For example, a series of servers corresponding to a web server, an application server, and a database server may be used. These servers are all represented by server 900 in figure 9. The server 900 is accessed by a client device 910, such as a telephone, a computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an iphone™, etc, via any type of network 408, such as the Internet, the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN), a cellular network, or others known to those skilled in the art.

[0046] The server 900 comprises, amongst other things, a plurality of applications 906a ... 906n running on a processor 904, the processor being coupled to a memory 902. It should be understood that while the applications 906a ... 906n presented herein are illustrated and described as separate entities, they may be combined or separated in a variety of ways.

[0047] One or more databases (not shown) may be integrated directly into memory 902 or may be provided separately therefrom and remotely from the server 900. In the case of a remote access to the databases, access may occur via any type of network 908, as indicated above. The various databases described herein may be provided as collections of data or information organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer. They are structured to facilitate storage, retrieval, modification, and deletion of data in conjunction with various data-processing operations. They may consist of a file or sets of files that can be broken down into records, each of which consists of one or more fields. Database information may be retrieved through queries using keywords and sorting commands, in order to rapidly search, rearrange, group, and select the field. The databases may be any organization of data on a data storage medium, such as one or more servers.

[0048] In one embodiment, the databases are secure web servers and Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (HTTPS) capable of supporting Transport Layer Security (TLS), which is a protocol used for access to the data. Communications to and from the secure web servers may be secured using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). An SSL session may be started by sending a request to the Web server with an HTTPS prefix in the URL, which causes port number "443" to be placed into the packets. Port "432 is the number assigned to the SSL application on the server. Identity verification of a user may be performed using usernames and passwords for all users. Various levels of access rights may be provided to multiple levels of users.

[0049] Alternatively, any known communication protocols that enable devices within a computer network to exchange information may be used. Examples of protocols are as follows: I P (Internet Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol), TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Telnet (Telnet Remote Protocol), SSH (Secure Shell Remote Protocol), POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol), RFB (Remote Frame buffer) Protocol.

[0050] The memory 902 accessible by the processor 904 receives and stores data. The memory 902 may be a main memory, such as a high speed Random Access Memory (RAM), or an auxiliary storage unit, such as a hard disk, a floppy disk, or a magnetic tape drive. The memory may be any other type of memory, such as a Read-Only Memory (ROM), or optical storage media such as a videodisc and a compact disc.

[0051 ] The processor 904 may access the memory 902 to retrieve data. The processor 904 may be any device that can perform operations on data. Examples are a central processing unit (CPU), a front-end processor, a microprocessor, a graphics processing unit (GPU/VPU), a physics processing unit (PPU), a digital signal processor, and a network processor. The applications 906a ... 906n are coupled to the processor 904 and configured to perform various tasks as explained below in more detail. An output may be transmitted to a client device 910. [0052] Figure 10 illustrates an exemplary application 906a running on the processor 904. It will be appreciated that while the application 906a illustrated in figure 10 is shown to run on the processor 904 of the server 900, it may also be provided in part or in whole directly on the client device 910. When provided on the server 900, the application 906a may be accessed online via the client device 910. Alternatively, the application 906a may be run at least in part locally on the client device 910 while communicating with the server 900 via the network 908.

[0053] The application 906a comprises at least a card management module 1002 and a card generating module 1004. These two modules interact together in order to provide the virtual sports Bingo game that is executable by the processor 904 over the network 908. The virtual sports Bingo game can conduct transactions from government sanctioned gaming authorities, the winnings being convertible to real world currency or provided directly in real world currency.

[0054] A transaction module 1008 is involved in the real world transactional aspects of the game. Real world transactions are involved when players purchase virtual currencies and when players redeem virtual currencies for real world currencies. Real world transactions may also be used whenever a player purchases a virtual card to participate in a sports bingo game. Therefore, the transaction module 1008 interacts with the card management module 1002. The transaction module 1008 also interacts with a player account manager 1006. The player account manager 1006 is responsible for managing player account functions, such as creating a player account, validating an existing player's login and password or a new player's eligibility to play the game, suspending a player's account, activating a player account, creating a player profile, viewing a player profile, viewing a current balance of a player's real money in a player account, and updating a current balance of a player's real money account.

[0055] The card generating module 1004 is used to provide the virtual sports bingo card in accordance with the embodiments described above. The card generating module 1004 may provide various options to the player, such as selecting pre-configured cards or configuring their own cards. The card generating module 1004 comprises the listing of applicable sporting events as well as the listing of applicable possible occurrences for each sporting event. In one embodiment, a random-card-generating engine is provided within the card generating module 1004 is order to generate various combinations of cards with occurrences from one or multiple sporting events. There may also be the infrastructure necessary to allow the player to configure their own cards provided therein.

[0056] Figure 1 1 is a simplified exemplary embodiment of the card management module 1002. A sporting event tracker 1 102 is used to follow one or more sporting event in real time. A section tagging module 1 104 receives tag inputs from the player, also in real time, as the sporting event unfolds and some of the occurrences on the player's virtual sports Bingo card are held to be true. In some embodiments, a validation module 1 106 will confirm that the actual occurrence is held to be true before allowing the virtual sports Bingo card to be tagged. When an entire row/column/diagonal has been tagged and validated, a winnings allocation module 1 108 is used to allocate the winnings to the player in accordance with a set of predetermined conditions.

[0057] The winnings allocation module 1 108 may also be involved when various scenarios are applied to the jackpot. For example, a progressive jackpot may be created and a percentage of any wager is placed in the progressive jackpot. In another example, a special winning pattern, as determined by the game operator or system administrator, may trigger part of the wager of a winning scenario to be placed in the progressive jackpot. Alternatively, a special winning pattern may lead to a player winning the progressive jackpot. Exemplary special patterns that may trigger various actions by the game are a full card, an X pattern, an L pattern, a T pattern, etc.

[0058] Figure 12 illustrates in more detail the player account manager 1006 of figure 10. An accounts creator 1202 handles the creation of the account, acquisition of personal information of the player, acquisition of financial information of the player, and the general creation of a player profile. The player accounts/profiles are maintained in a database 1206 and updated by a profile manager 1204. The profile manager 1204 will update the player accounts 1206 whenever new information is available for a player. The new information may have to do with winnings or purchases, updated personal information, updated financial information, etc.

[0059] The following is an exemplary description of the interaction of the various modules of figures 9 to 12 in accordance with game play. When a player launches application 906a on his client device 910, the player account manager 1006 will either set up a new account for a new player or access an existing account for an existing player. In the case of a new player, various required information is obtained from the player and recorded in the player accounts database 1206.

[0060] To open an account, the player may purchase virtual currency or provide real currency in an account. The transaction module 1008 will perform a financial transaction and issue the requested currency. The player account database 1206 is updated with this new information once the currency has been provided for the player.

[0061 ] As the player purchases game plays or virtual sports Bingo cards, the card generating module 1004 generates the cards and provides them to the player in accordance with gaming conditions or settings as determined by the game operator. This information may be provided to the player account manager 1006 for the player's profile.

[0062] As a sporting event unfolds, the card management module 1002 keeps track of occurrences that take place and may push the data to each player. Alternatively, the card management module 1002 may store the information and provide it on a per-request basis. In a push-type setting, the sections may be automatically tagged or the player may be required to perform the tagging action. In the case of automatic tagging, a win notification may be provided to the player when a Bingo occurs. The card management module 1002 interacts with the transaction module 1008 to allocate winnings to player accounts 1206. [0063] The transaction module 1008 will be involved in the transactional aspects of purchasing and redeeming credits and the player account manager 1006 is updated with any new information to the player's account. If purchases are made with real money from a player's account, the transaction module will be involved in all transactions for virtual sports Bingo cards and allocations of winnings.

[0064] In one embodiment, the application 1 106a is also designed to allow multiple game operators to cooperate and share player/card information such that players and group members can belong to more than one jurisdiction, winnings can be shared across jurisdictions, and sales and commissions can be paid across different jurisdictions. A single transaction module 1008 may be provided to manage transactions across multiple jurisdictions, or multiple transaction modules 1008 may be provided and adapted to interact together when players or winnings cross jurisdiction. Similarly, a single card management module 1002 may be provided to manage games from multiple game operators, or multiple card management modules 1002 may de provided and adapted to interact together when players or winnings cross jurisdictions. Also alternatively, some modules may be duplicated while others are not. Services or features that may be operated independently of a game operator and/or a jurisdiction may be provided within a single unit, while services or features that are operator and/or jurisdiction dependent may be duplicated for each operator and/or jurisdiction. For example, there may be multiple sporting event tracking modules 1 102 all being managed by a single card management module 1002, or there may be multiple player account managers 1006 but only one transaction module 1008 that interacts with the different player account managers 1006.

[0065] While illustrated in the block diagrams as groups of discrete components communicating with each other via distinct data signal connections, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present embodiments are provided by a combination of hardware and software components, with some components being implemented by a given function or operation of a hardware or software system, and many of the data paths illustrated being implemented by data communication within a computer application or operating system. The structure illustrated is thus provided for efficiency of teaching the present embodiment.

[0066] It should be noted that the present invention can be carried out as a method, can be embodied in a system, and/or a computer readable medium. The embodiments of the invention described above are intended to be exemplary only. The scope of the invention is therefore intended to be limited solely by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1 . A virtual Bingo game system comprising:

a processor in a computer system;

a memory accessible by the processor; and

at least one application stored in the memory and having program code executable by the processor for:

receiving at least one selected virtual Bingo card for participation in the Bingo game, the at least one virtual Bingo card defining a matrix of N x N sections, each section having indicated therein a possible occurrence in at least one event; tracking the at least one event in real time to monitor occurrences therein; tagging a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true;

designating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a winning card when a predetermined pattern of sections on the card has been tagged; and

allocating winnings to a player account for the winning card.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one application is configured to receive the at least one selected virtual Bingo card by:

providing a plurality of predefined virtual Bingo cards for participation in the Bingo game; and

receiving a selection for at least one of the predefined virtual Bingo cards.

3. The system of claims 1 or 2, wherein the at least one application is configured to receive the at least one selected virtual Bingo card by:

providing a list of a plurality of events to choose from for participation in the Bingo game; and

receiving a selection for at least one of the plurality of events.

4. The system of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one application is configured to receive the at least one selected virtual Bingo card by:

providing a list of possible occurrences for the at least one event;

receiving a selection of the possible occurrences; and

generating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card using the selection of the possible occurrences.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the at least one application is configured to receive the at least one selected virtual Bingo card by:

receiving a configuration for the selection of possible occurrences and generating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a function of the configuration.

6. The system of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the at least one application is configured to tag a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true by:

receiving a tag input from a user for the corresponding section;

validating that a corresponding occurrence is held to be true; and

marking the corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card accordingly.

7. The system of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the at least one application is configured to designate the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a winning card when at least one of an entire row, an entire column, and a diagonal of the matrix has been tagged.

8. The system of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein at least one of the selected virtual Bingo card received corresponds to a gifted card at least partially gifted from a gifter to a giftee, and wherein the at least one application is configured to associate the gifted card to a gifter player account and a giftee player account, and wherein winnings are allocated for a winning gifted card in accordance with a set of predetermined conditions for sharing the gifted card.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one application is further configured to receive the set of predetermined conditions for sharing the gifted card with the selected virtual Bingo card.

10. The system of claims 8 or 9, wherein the set of predetermined conditions for sharing the gifted card comprise a percentage of winnings for the gifter and a percentage of winnings for the giftee.

1 1 . The system of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the at least one application is further configured to:

offer in-event occurrences during the event; and

receive a selection of in-event occurrences to be added to the selected virtual Bingo card.

12. The system of any one of claims 1 to 1 1 , wherein the at least one application is configured to replace at least one occurrence in the selected virtual Bingo card during the event.

13. The system of any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the at least one application is configured to determine winnings as a function of predetermined odds corresponding to possible occurrences selected for the virtual Bingo card.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one application is configured to modify the odds of a possible occurrence added to the virtual Bingo card after the event has begun.

15. A computer-implemented method for providing a virtual Bingo game, the method comprising: receiving at least one selected virtual Bingo card for participation in the Bingo game, the at least one virtual Bingo card defining a matrix of N x N sections, each section having indicated therein a possible occurrence in at least one event; tracking the at least one event in real time to monitor occurrences therein; tagging a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true;

allocating winnings to a player account for the winning card.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein receiving the at least one selected virtual Bingo card comprises:

receiving a selection for at least one of the predefined virtual Bingo cards.

17. The method of claims 15 or 16, wherein receiving the at least one selected virtual Bingo card comprises:

receiving a selection for at least one of the plurality of events.

18. The method of any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein receiving the at least one selected virtual Bingo card comprises:

providing a list of possible occurrences for the at least one event;

receiving a selection of the possible occurrences; and

19. The method of claim 18, wherein receiving the at least one selected virtual Bingo card comprises: receiving a configuration for the selection of possible occurrences and generating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a function of the configuration.

20. The method of any one of claims 15 to 19, wherein tagging a corresponding section in the at least one selected virtual Bingo card when occurrences are held to be true comprises:

receiving a tag input from a user for the corresponding section;

validating that a corresponding occurrence is held to be true; and

21 . The method of any one of claims 15 to 20, wherein designating the at least one selected virtual Bingo card as a winning card comprises doing so when at least one of an entire row, an entire column, and a diagonal of the matrix has been tagged.

22. The method of any one of claims 15 to 21 , wherein at least one of the selected virtual Bingo card received corresponds to a gifted card at least partially gifted from a gifter to a giftee, wherein the gifted card is associated to a gifter player account and a giftee player account, and wherein winnings are allocated for a winning gifted card in accordance with a set of predetermined conditions for sharing the gifted card.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the set of predetermined conditions for sharing the gifted card are received with the selected virtual Bingo card.

24. The method of claims 22 or 23, wherein the set of predetermined conditions for sharing the gifted card comprise a percentage of winnings for the gifter and a percentage of winnings for the giftee.

25. The method of any one of claims 15 to 24, further comprising: offering in-event occurrences during the event; and

receiving a selection of in-event occurrences to be added to the selected virtual Bingo card.

26. The method of any one of claims 15 to 25, further comprising replacing at least one occurrence in the selected virtual Bingo card during the event.

27. The method of any one of claims 15 to 26, further comprising determining winnings as a function of predetermined odds corresponding to possible occurrences selected for the virtual Bingo card.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising modifying the odds of a possible occurrence added to the virtual Bingo card after the event has begun.

29. A computer readable medium having stored thereon program code executable by a processor for providing a virtual Bingo game by:

allocating winnings to a player account for the winning card.