Honor-based betting exchange

Abstract

An honor-based betting exchange facilitates transactions connected with bets among members of the exchange. A member need not pay his losses but his behaviors on the exchange are tracked by his honor rating. The exchange allows bets to be listed in classes facilitating searches and sorts to be performed. Upselling is possible to attract a large number of bettors. Bet matching software determines redundant bets and bring these bets to the attention of bettors. Although fixed bets are possible, certain bets can be negotiated on the exchange.

1 . A computer system, comprising:
 an exchange that facilitates transactions connected with risk-free bets among members of the exchange; and   a piece of evaluation software executing on the computer system, the piece of evaluation software providing an evaluation index for each member of the exchange, which is used to police risk-free bets on the exchange.   
   
   
       2 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a bet forest that is implemented in a database, the bet forest including classes of bets to allow a bettor to find a location to list a bet or to wager a listed bet. 
   
   
       3 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a bet listing wizard, the bet listing wizard assisting a bettor to list a bet by forming a bet proposition sentence. 
   
   
       4 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a piece of accounts software that manages funds of various accounts connected with members of the honor-based betting exchange. 
   
   
       5 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a piece of bet matching software, the piece of bet matching software determining whether a bet to be listed is substantially similar to another bet already listed in a bet forest. 
   
   
       6 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a piece of withdrawal software, the piece of withdrawal software allowing a bettor to withdraw a listed bet or to withdraw a wager on a listed bet. 
   
   
       7 . The computer system of  claim 1 , further comprising a piece of settlement software, the piece of settlement software tracking declarations of winners and losers and causing the accounts software to transfer funds from losers to winners. 
   
   
       8 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 accessing an honor-based betting exchange by a first member to accept terms of an offer of a second member regarding a bet; and   rejecting the acceptance of the first member if a piece of honor rating software determines that an honor rating of the first member fails to meet an honor rating threshold specified by the second member, the honor rating being recalculated over time by the piece of honor rating software depending on wagering statistics and behaviors of the first member including his refusal to pay on a bet he wagered.   
   
   
       9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein prior to accessing the honor-based betting exchange by the first member, the offer is upsold in one or more classes of bets within a bet forest by the second member. 
   
   
       10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a first component of the honor rating from a product of a performance average and a feedback average. 
   
   
       11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 10 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a second component of the honor rating from a remainder formed from the first component of the honor rating as a minuend and a welch/withdrawal multiple as a subtrahend. 
   
   
       12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 11 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a third component of the honor rating by a product formed from the remainder and a last five bets multiple. 
   
   
       13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 12 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a fourth component of the honor rating by a sum of an e-mail verification factor and the product formed from the remainder and the last five bets multiple. 
   
   
       14 . A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for implementing a computer-implemented method, comprising:
 accessing an honor-based betting exchange by a first member to specify new terms different from terms of an offer of a second member regarding a bet; and   accepting the new terms of the first member if the honor-based betting exchange determines that the new terms are within an acceptable range and if a piece of honor rating software determines that an honor rating of the first member meets an honor rating threshold specified by the second member.   
   
   
       15 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 14 , wherein prior to accessing the honor-based betting exchange by the first member, the offer is upsold in one or more classes of bets within a bet forest by the second member. 
   
   
       16 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 14 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a first component of the honor rating from a product of a performance average and a feedback average. 
   
   
       17 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a second component of the honor rating from a remainder formed from the first component of the honor rating as a minuend and a welch/withdrawal multiple as a subtrahend. 
   
   
       18 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a third component of the honor rating by a product formed from the remainder and a last five bets multiple. 
   
   
       19 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the recalculation of the honor rating includes calculating a fourth component of the honor rating by a sum of an e-mail verification factor and the product formed from the remainder and the last five bets multiple.