System and method for online fantasy sports management

Abstract

A system and method for online fantasy sports management enables users to negotiate and conduct sports transactions, such as trading players, signing free agent players to a contract, and waiving players from their contract, in accordance with the actual rules and regulations of the professional sports league being simulated. Users can participate as fantasy managers of sports teams, or as fantasy agents with a stable of players as clients.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]Aspects described herein relate to the field of online fantasy sports management.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Online fantasy sports leagues are a popular diversion for fans of all sports. In fantasy sports, participants act as “fantasy managers” to build a team that competes against other fantasy managers based on the statistics generated by the real individual players of a professional sport. Typically, fantasy sports leagues start out with an initial draft process in which each fantasy manager in a given fantasy league selects one or more actual players from actual sports league. The draft ends with each fantasy manager controlling a “fantasy team” of players who, in reality, are affiliated with different actual teams in their sport. The fantasy sports league provides an environment where each fantasy manager can simulate the experience of managing a team of professional athletes.[0003]However, the traditional fantasy sports league model is limited in its ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]A system and method for online fantasy sports management enables a more accurate simulation of real-life sports management. Fantasy managers focus on building and managing their fantasy teams; fantasy agents focus on maximizing contract value on behalf of their “clients.” The online game includes both the functionality to manage tedious tasks and the tools to manage and facilitate player movement over the course of a sports season. In some embodiments, the game can include functionality to select automatically the actual games for each player to count towards their fantasy teams' accumulated total.

[0011]According to one aspect, the game can fantasy managers manage and facilitate player movement by eliminating infinite time between player transactions involving two or more users. Player transactions that involve the negotiation between two or more users include the signing of free agents, buying out a contract, contract extensions, and trading player contracts. According to another aspect, the game can include functionality to attempt to logically resolve pending transactions where the negotiating parties have reached an impasse.

Problems solved by technology

However, the traditional fantasy sports league model is limited in its ability to simulate the experience of managing an actual professional sports franchise.

Player valuation is further complicated by the salary rules and regulations adopted by each professional league; for example, the National Basketball Association has enacted a series of rules, salary caps, and fees as part of its Collective Bargaining Agreement with the National Basketball Player's Association.

Traditional fantasy sports leagues lack the functionality to allow fantasy managers to factor in salary considerations and / or league regulations into player evaluation.

In addition, traditional fantasy sports leagues fail to accurately simulate negotiations with free agent players.

Traditional fantasy leagues lack any analogue for agents, and therefore provide an inaccurate simulation of free agent negotiation.

Moreover, the traditional fantasy sports league structure creates disincentives for player movement and trading activities.

As a result, fantasy manager interest decreases over the course of a season due to the lack of movement and credible deal negotiation.

And, since traditional fantasy sports leagues lack any functionality to rejuvenate stagnant negotiations, most deal offers are rejected, withdrawn, or ignored indefinitely.

Furthermore, traditional fantasy sports leagues often require inconsistent and acyclical time commitments from fantasy managers, especially in sports where professional teams schedule multiple games per week (e.g., Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, and Premier League).

These mundane tasks further detract from the fantasy sports manager experience, making it further removed from becoming an accurate simulation of the experience of managing an actual professional sports franchise.

In addition, traditional fantasy sports leagues lack an effective mechanism to account for inconsistent scheduling and inconsistent play in actual sports leagues during certain times of the yearly schedule—and fail to offer any activity during the actual sports league's offseason.

As such, a fantasy manager with a star player on the roster may not be able to count on that player's performance at the end of a season.

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