Skill based lottery system

Abstract

The invention disclosed provides a gaming system that is based on the outcome of scheduled sporting events. The wagers are directed to a selected sporting event and represent either of the top six, five or four winners. Alternate embodiments involve an array of sporting events, and other embodiments involve different scoring schemes. A method is provided to assign sports participants to groups when the total number of participants is large.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A gaming system comprising the steps of: 
 a) establishing criteria based on an outcome of at least one actual scheduled event;    b) providing access to at least one user of the system to the criteria;    c) accepting from the user at least one wager and selections by the user relating to the criteria;    d) awaiting an outcome of the at least one event to determine event results;    e) comparing the selections of the user to the outcome of the at least one event to determine whether the user has met the criteria and thereby won; and    f) providing a payment to the user if the user has won.    
     
     
         2 . The invention according to  claim 1 , said step of establishing criteria comprising requiring a winning ticket to identify the top six finishers of a contest.  
     
     
         3 . The invention according to  claim 1 , said sporting event selected from the group consisting of a golf tournament, a tennis tournament, a car race, a bicycle race and a boat race.  
     
     
         4 . The invention according to  claim 1 , wherein the at least one sporting event comprises a series of sporting events.  
     
     
         5 . The invention according to  claim 4 , wherein the series of sporting events is a sport series contest.  
     
     
         6 . The invention according to  claim 4 , wherein the sporting events comprise a series of events in a selected time period.  
     
     
         7 . The invention according to  claim 1 , wherein the step of establishing criteria comprises requiring a winning ticket to identify the top five finishers of a contest.  
     
     
         8 . The invention according to  claim 1 , wherein the step of establishing criteria comprises requiring a winning ticket to identify the top four finishers of a contest.  
     
     
         9 . The invention according to  claim 4 , wherein the step of establishing criteria comprises requiring a winning ticket to identify the top six scoring teams for a given time period.  
     
     
         10 . The invention according to  claim 4 , wherein the step of establishing criteria comprises requiring a winning ticket to identify the top five scoring teams for a given time period.  
     
     
         11 . The invention according to  claim 4 , wherein the step of establishing criteria comprises requiring a winning ticket to identify the top four scoring teams for a given time period.  
     
     
         12 . The invention according to  claim 1 , wherein the winning criteria comprises selecting the six teams to score the fastest goal for a given time period.  
     
     
         13 . The invention according to  claim 1 , wherein the winning criteria comprises selecting the five teams to score the fastest goal for a given time period.  
     
     
         14 . The invention according to  claim 1 , wherein the winning criteria comprises selecting the four teams to score the fastest goal for a given time period.  
     
     
         15 . The invention according to  claim 1 , including the user accessing the system via a wide area network.  
     
     
         16 . The invention according to  claim 15 , wherein the network comprises the Internet.  
     
     
         17 . The invention accordingly to  claim 1 , including the user accessing the system via a remote access system.  
     
     
         18 . The invention according to  claim 17 , wherein the remote access system employs communication of alpha numeric data with a server selected from the group consisting of a kiosk terminal, telephone, personal digital assistant, pulse code system and web TV.  
     
     
         19 . The invention according to  claim 15 , further comprising requesting from the user information regarding the identity of the user and payment information; 
 a) accepting or denying access of the user in response to a prompt;    b) providing in the prompt information to the user relating to criteria that has been identified;    c) accepting selections from the user; and    d) confirming to said user the selections.    
     
     
         20 . A skill based gaming system comprising at least one user computer coupled to at least one server computer on a communications network, the server computer storing gaming data accessible to the user computer and software to provide requested content to the user computer.  
     
     
         21 . In a skill based gaming system with a list of participants, a method for establishing a field of participants and participant groups from which selections are made, comprising the steps of: 
 a) determining a total number of participants;    b) establishing a total number of selections;    c) establishing a maximum number of participants to list individually as selections;    d) determining a number of selections available for participant groups;    e) assigning individual participants to the individual participant selection list; and    f) assigning remaining participants to the group selection list.    
     
     
         22 . The method as described in  claim 22 , wherein the maximum number of players to list individually is not greater than the total number of players.  
     
     
         23 . The method as described in  claim 22 , wherein the step of assigning remaining participants comprises dividing the number of remaining participants into participant groups of equal size.  
     
     
         24 . The method as described in  claim 22 , wherein the step of assigning remaining participants comprises dividing the number of remaining participants into player groups of unequal size.  
     
     
         25 . The method as described in  claim 24 , further comprising participants having a rank, wherein the step of assigning remaining participants comprises dividing the number of remaining participants into groups wherein the lower ranked participants are placed into a larger size group.  
     
     
         26 . The method as described in  claim 25 , wherein the step of assigning remaining participants comprises dividing the number of remaining participants into groups wherein each successive group of lower ranked participants is formed to contain approximately 50% or more players than the previous higher ranked group.  
     
     
         27 . A gaming system for wagering on a plurality of sporting events, comprising the steps of: 
 a) defining requirements to win the game;    b) making the established requirements available to users of the system;    c) receiving wagers from users of the system in respect to the requirements to win;    d) obtaining results from the plurality of sporting events;    e) comparing the results to the wagers of the users with results from the sporting events; and    f) determining whether any user won the game.    
     
     
         28 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the requirements to win comprise picking a defined number of teams that attained the highest score in the plurality of sporting events.  
     
     
         29 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the requirements to win comprise picking a defined number of teams that attained the lowest score in the plurality of sporting events.  
     
     
         30 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the requirements to win comprise picking a defined number of teams that attained the earliest score among the plurality of sporting events.  
     
     
         31 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the requirements to win comprise picking a defined number of teams that attained the latest score among the plurality of sporting events.  
     
     
         32 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the requirements to win comprise picking a defined number of teams that attained the most shots on goal.  
     
     
         33 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the requirements to win comprise picking a defined number of teams that attained the least shots on goal.  
     
     
         34 . The system according to  claim 27 , wherein the method is implemented electronically via a communication network.