System and method for operating a competitive sports market based on ranking

Abstract

A method of operating a market for a plurality of participants to invest in a plurality of competitors using a computer system includes: storing a plurality of share holdings of the participants in the computer system; storing a plurality of credit balances of the participants in the computer system; and redeeming shares at the conclusion of a period in the computer system, wherein redeeming shares includes: calculating an amount that the credit balance of each corresponding participant of the participants should be modified in accordance with a plurality of values of corresponding ones of the shares at the conclusion of the period and the share holdings of the corresponding participant, and determining the values of the shares based on a benchmark ranking of the competitors at the conclusion of the period.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer system for providing a market for a plurality of participants to invest in a plurality of shares of corresponding competitors, the computer system comprising:
 a central processing unit;   memory coupled to the central processing unit;   a data bus coupled to the central processing unit;   a persistent storage device coupled to the data bus; and   a network interface device coupled to the data bus,   the computer system being configured to:
 store a plurality of share holdings of the participants; 
 store a plurality of credit balances of the participants; and 
 redeem shares at the conclusion of a period, 
   wherein the computer system is configured to redeem shares by calculating an amount that the credit balance of each participant should be modified in accordance with a plurality of values of corresponding ones of the shares at the conclusion of the period and the share holdings of a corresponding participant of the participants, and   wherein the values of the shares at the conclusion of the period is determined based on a benchmark ranking of the competitors at the conclusion of the period.