Method of and system for conducting multiple contests of skill with a single performance

What is this patent about?

’988 is related to the field of distributed gaming and real-time interactive competition. Specifically, it addresses the technical challenge of allowing mobile users to engage in multiple, distinct competitive frameworks—such as open tournaments, private groups, and team-based leagues—simultaneously while observing a single live broadcast or event.

The underlying idea behind ’988 is the decoupling of a participant's performance data from any single competition instance. By treating a user's predictions or event selections as a universal input stream, the system can multiplex a single set of actions across various scoring pools. This allows a user to leverage one effort to compete against different sets of opponents, each with unique prize structures or social contexts, without requiring redundant inputs.

The claims of ’988 focus on a server-side architecture and client-side application that facilitate the simultaneous application of a single set of event selections to multiple contests. The independent claims specifically cover the real-time transmission of separate standings for each contest to a client device, ensuring that a user’s input is processed in parallel across all joined groups to provide distinct, concurrent rankings.

In practice, the system functions by maintaining a database of user-generated and system-generated groups, which are synchronized to a live event via audio fingerprinting or watermarking. When a user makes a selection—such as predicting a play in a football game—the server receives this input and instantly calculates the user's standing within every group they have joined. This allows for a tiered competitive experience where a user might be losing in a global professional flight but winning a private head-to-head match against a friend.

This approach differentiates itself from prior art by moving beyond simple skill-based flighting. While earlier systems grouped players by experience to avoid discouragement, this invention enables multi-contest participation where the same score is evaluated against different cohorts for different rewards. By integrating social networking contacts and providing real-time, separate feedback for each contest, the system maximizes user engagement through a single, unified stream of interaction.