System and method for tournament gaming using social network based team formation

Abstract

A method is disclosed of enabling a player to use remote home terminals or mobile devices via a network to enroll in a casino tournament gaming system, in addition to winning prizes offered as an outcome of a primary game on underlying gaming machines located in a casino. The method includes enabling enrollment in the casino tournament gaming system to form tournament teams via remote home terminals or mobile devices, wherein the system uses existing social networks to leverage pre-existing relationships between players that are members of the social network to form tournament teams; enabling play of a game of chance on the underlying gaming machines that award game credits that are redeemable for a payout and are controlled by overall payout percentages relating to the game of chance; and facilitating entry into one or more skill-based tournament games in the player's tournament team against other tournament teams.

1 . A method of enabling a player to use remote home terminals or mobile devices via a network to enroll in a casino tournament gaming system, in addition to winning prizes offered as an outcome of a primary game on underlying gaming machines located in a casino, the method comprising:
 enabling enrollment in the casino tournament gaming system using an existing internet-based social network to form tournament teams via remote home terminals or mobile devices, wherein the system uses existing social networks to leverage pre-existing relationships between players that are members of the social network to form tournament teams;   enabling play of a game of chance on the underlying gaming machines that award game credits that are redeemable for a payout and are controlled by overall payout percentages relating to the game of chance;   facilitating entry into one or more skill-based tournament games in the player's tournament team against other tournament teams, wherein the one or more skill-based tournament games are a bonus round of the primary games;   wherein the tournament team with a highest score at the end of a tournament period wins the tournament.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising implementing a practice version of the skill-based game on a non-gaming platform, thereby enabling players to hone their skills for later tournament participation. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising updating scores from the gaming machines to the social network, thereby enabling notification of tournament status to players away from casino. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tournament period lasts multiple days enabling players within teams to make multiple visits to the casino during the tournament period to post scores. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising enabling manual selection of one or more tournament games for a tournament team. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising enabling automatic selection of one or more tournament games for a tournament team. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system maintains multiple leaderboards including a bank-wide leaderboard. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system maintains multiple leaderboards including a casino-wide leaderboard. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino has a social network web page that displays one or more leaderboards for tournaments in progress. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino has a social network web page that presents one or more options to form a team. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a player that has selected a form team option has an opportunity to send invitations to join a tournament team to friends on a previously established friends list associated with a profile of the player on the social network. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tournament teams may grow in size. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tournament teams may be of unequal size to other teams against which they are competing. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein only a top number of player scores from tournament teams are used to compete against other teams, thereby enabling teams of unequal size to compete against each other. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system employs a team balancing criteria. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system may award non-cash prizes for tournament wins. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system may award privilege-based prizes for tournament wins. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system may award cash prizes for tournament wins that are not funded by coin-in from the gaming machines being played. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system may run multiple overlapping tournaments during a same time period. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the casino tournament gaming system maintains multiple leaderboards so that different skill, bet, or club level players may be matched against each other. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the system includes a free play game version that attracts players to the tournament, enables players to practice away from the casino, and enables players to measure their skill against other players and other teams. 
     
     
         22 . A method of enabling a player to enroll in a casino tournament gaming system, in addition to winning prizes offered as an outcome of a primary game on underlying gaming machines located in a casino, the method comprising:
 enabling enrollment in the casino tournament gaming system using an existing internet-based social network to form tournament teams via remote home terminals or mobile devices, wherein the system uses existing social networks to leverage pre-existing relationships between players that are members of the social network to form tournament teams;   enabling game play on the underlying gaming machines that present pseudo-skill games which award game credits and game points, wherein the game credits are redeemable for a payout and are controlled by overall payout percentages relating to the game of chance, and wherein game points are not redeemable for a payout, game points are not controlled by overall payout percentages relating to the game of chance, and a number of game points awarded is increased according to player skill and performance during game play of the pseudo-skill games on the underlying gaming machines located in the casino; and   using the game points from the primary games on the underlying gaming machines located in the casino to facilitate entry into one or more skill-based tournament games in the player's tournament team against other tournament teams;   wherein the tournament team with a highest score at the end of a tournament period wins the tournament.   
     
     
         23 . A system for enabling a player to enroll in a casino tournament gaming system, in addition to winning prizes offered as an outcome of a primary game on underlying gaming machines located in a casino, the system comprising:
 an internet-based social network server;   a plurality of internet terminals connected to the social network server, wherein the plurality of internet terminals include remote home terminals or mobile devices, and wherein the casino tournament gaming system using an existing internet-based social network to form tournament teams via remote home terminals or mobile devices, wherein the system uses existing social networks to leverage pre-existing relationships between players that are members of the social network to form tournament teams; and   a plurality of gaming machines that enable play of a game of chance and award game credits which are redeemable for a payout and are controlled by overall payout percentages relating to the game of chance, wherein the plurality of gaming machines include a bonus round in addition to the primary game;   a tournament server for controlling one or more skill-based tournament games that are a bonus round of the primary game, wherein the tournament server facilitates entry into one or more skill-based tournament games in the player's tournament team against other tournament teams.