Systems and methods for online, real-time, social gaming

Abstract

Systems and methods for designing a social gaming platform in which participants compete to determine who best predicts the outcomes of conditions relating to activities at sporting events, TV shows, or other types of events. In a game, players compete with other players in the same group or in different groups via a gaming platform that employs a live digitized information feed from a contemporaneous event (while an event is currently in-progress) in addition to historical information relating to the event available from third party sources. Such information allow players (and also the system) to predict outcomes of conditions relating to activities at events, wherein such conditions are either user-contemplated, pre-stored in the system, or generated live (by the system or users). Additionally, embodiments of the present system utilize geo-location information to enable creation of user-groups based on the physical location of system users and social network affiliation of users.

1 . A method for conducting an online game via an Online Gaming System (OGS) involving a plurality of participants that participate in the online game via software operating on respective electronic devices of the plurality of participants, wherein the online game corresponds to a physical event happening in real-time, and wherein participants of the online game are associated with a specific geographic location, comprising the steps of:
 receiving game-related information at the OGS corresponding to one or more characteristics that define a particular online game, wherein the game-related information includes location information defining a particular geographic location associated with the particular online game;   generating an entry in an OGS database for the particular online game based on the received game-related information, and storing the received game-related information in the OGS database in association with the entry for the particular online game;   receiving participant information at the OGS from one or more participants indicating an interest by the one or more participants in participating in the particular online game, wherein the participant information includes participant location information corresponding to a specific geographic location of an electronic device associated with each respective participant;   determining if the participant location information for each respective participant satisfies the location information defining the particular geographic location associated with the particular online game;   for each participant whose participant location information satisfies the location information defining the particular geographic location associated with the particular online game, associating the participant information for each respective participant with the entry in the OGS database for the particular online game; and   initiating the particular online game via the OGS involving each participant associated with the particular online game.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the game-related information is defined by an administrator of the particular online game. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the game-related information is generated automatically by the OGS based on pre-stored game-related information. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more characteristics that define the particular online game are selected from the group comprising: game type, game name, game duration, physical event type, particular physical event, participant information, settings, scoring settings, game questions, game answers. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic devices associated with participants are selected from the group comprising: mobile devices, cellular phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), computers, tablet computers. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location information defining the particular geographic location associated with the particular online game comprises information defining a geographic boundary within which participants must be physically located to participate in the particular online game. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the location information defining the particular geographic location associated with the particular online game comprises one or more of the following: latitude and longitude coordinates, zip code information, neighborhood information, city information, state information, information relating to venues, information relating to arenas, information relating to restaurants, information relating to retail establishments, geographic area information, information defining a radii around a geographic location. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the participant location information comprises latitude and longitude coordinates. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the participant location information is received from one or more of the following: a wireless carrier, a global positioning system (GPS), a satellite triangulation system, a location-based service (LBS) provider, a social media check-in feature. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the physical event is selected from the group comprising: a sporting event, sporting events, an entertainment event, a television broadcast, an awards show, a political event, a newsworthy event. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the particular online game comprises one or more questions and answers that relate to the physical event happening in real-time. 
     
     
         12 . A method for conducting an online game via an Online Gaming System (OGS) involving a plurality of participants that participate in the online game via software operating on respective electronic devices of the plurality of participants, wherein the online game corresponds to a physical event happening in real-time, comprising the steps of:
 receiving an indication at the OGS during a particular online game for an in-game question corresponding to a particular physical event to be presented to participants of the particular online game as the particular online game is happening;   retrieving question information corresponding to specifics of the in-game question;   displaying the in-game question to the participants of the particular online game based on the question information;   receiving answer information at the OGS from the participants of the particular online game indicating answer selections to the in-game question by the participants;   storing the received answer information from each respective participant in an OGS database corresponding to each respective participant;   receiving live event information corresponding to the particular physical event occurring in real-time; and   generating a ranking of the participants of the particular online game based on the answer information and the live event information, and displaying the ranking to the participants during the particular online game.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the indication comprises satisfaction of one or more predefined rules associated with activities occurring with respect to the particular physical event. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the indication comprises a question submitted to the OGS by one of the participants of the particular online game. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the step of retrieving question information corresponding to specifics of the in-game question comprises retrieving predefined question information from the OGS database. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the step of retrieving question information corresponding to specifics of the in-game question comprises receiving question information from a participant of the particular online game. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the live event information comprises information corresponding to one or more activities occurring with respect to the particular physical event. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the electronic devices associated with participants are selected from the group comprising: mobile devices, cellular phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), computers, tablet computers. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the particular physical event is selected from the group comprising: a sporting event, sporting events, an entertainment event, a television broadcast, an awards show, a political event, a newsworthy event. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the particular online game comprises one or more questions and answers that relate to the particular physical event happening in real-time. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising the steps of:
 retrieving historical information relating to aspects associated with the particular physical event;   generating predictive information corresponding to one or more answers associated with the in-game question; and   displaying the predictive information in conjunction with the in-game question to the participants of the particular online game.