Abstract:
A system for providing a game or competition, comprising a computer system in electronic communication with a telecommunications network, a plurality of tokens each with an identifier, and a communication device for making an announcement that identifies a winning participant in the game or competition, the winning participant being selected from participants in the game or competition. The identifiers are adapted for entry into an electronic device and for transmission from the electronic device to the computer system, the computer system is configured to receive the identifiers, and the participants are those people who enter their identifier into their respective electronic devices and who transmit their respective identifiers to the computer system.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of Australian patent no. 2006100529 filed Jun. 21, 2006, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The invention relates to a game method and system, of particular but by no means exclusive application at or during public events (such as sporting fixtures or concerts).  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     One existing method for playing a game or participating in a competition includes transmitting one&#39;s personal or contact details to the game or competition organizer from one&#39;s mobile telephone by means of, for example, the short messaging service (SMS). This approach may be regarded as a more recent development of the more longstanding and widely employed approach of posting an entry for a game or competition to the organizer by mail.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     The invention provides, therefore, a system for providing a game or competition, comprising: 
        a computer system in electronic communication with a telecommunications network (which may be wireless, such as a mobile telephony network, or otherwise);     a plurality of tokens (such as for admitting patrons to an event, fixture or venue) each with an identifier (that will typically but not always be unique to a respective token); and     a communication device for making an announcement that identifies a winning participant in said game or competition, said winning participant being selected from participants in said game or competition;     wherein said identifiers are adapted for entry into an electronic device (such as a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a pager) and for transmission from said electronic device to the computer system, said participants are those people who enter their identifier into their electronic device and transmit their identifier to the computer system, and the computer system is configured to receive (and possibly store) said identifiers.        
 
         [0009]     In a particular embodiment, the telecommunications network is a wireless telecommunications network (that is, has at least a portion that is wireless), and the electronic device is a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone or a PDA.  
         [0010]     The tokens would typically be admission tickets to a fixture or other event, but could be issued separately thereto. The tokens may comprise a plurality of portions (integral or otherwise), such as with one portion sufficient to gain admission to a fixture or other event and another portion bearing the identifier.  
         [0011]     In practice, the participants will typically transmit their identifier to a telephone number (or the like, such an email address), such that the identifiers (which may then be regarded as “entries”) being ultimately routed to the computer system.  
         [0012]     The communication device may comprise a screen on which can be displayed the announcement, in the form of the identifier received from the selected winning participant, so that the holder of the ticket bearing that identifier is made aware that they are entitled to claim a prize.  
         [0013]     In some embodiments, the electronic device—in transmitting the identifier—also transmits data that identifies the electronic device or the owner of the electronic device. In such embodiments, the announcement may include the identity of the electronic device or its owner. The announcement may be, again, displayed on the communication device; alternatively, the communication device may be in electronic communication with the telecommunications network, and configured to transmit the announcement directly to (at least) the winning participant.  
         [0014]     It will be appreciated that the identifiers will typically be transmitted as data indicative of the identifiers, but suitable for reconstitution—possibly in encoded form—in the computer system, without falling outside the scope of this aspect of the invention.  
         [0015]     The identifier may be alphanumeric and readable by the person (such as a ticket number), so that the person may manually enter the identifier into the electronic device, such as into an SMS input screen provided by the electronic device. Alternatively, the identifier may be machine readable, and adapted to be read by the electronic device.  
         [0016]     It will be appreciated that the telecommunications network may be wired, unwired or a mixture of both, as is typically the case with a telephone network that carries telephony in part wirelessly, in part over copper wire, and in part by optical fibre.  
         [0017]     The invention also provides, in another aspect, a game or competition method, comprising: 
        providing a plurality of tokens (such as for admitting patrons to an event, fixture or venue) with a respective unique identifier;     receiving data indicative of one or more of said identifiers via a telecommunications network (such as a mobile telephony network) from one or more electronic devices;     selecting an identifier from the received identifiers;     deeming the token associated with the selected identifier or the bearer of the token associated with the selected identifier to be the winning token or person; and     announcing the selected identifier, the winning token or the winning person.        
 
         [0023]     The method may include receiving said data indicative of one or more of said identifiers into a computer system in electronic communication with the telecommunications network.  
         [0024]     The method may include making the announcement to the mobile electronic device from which the selected identifier was received.  
         [0025]     The method may include selecting the winning identifier either manually or automatically.  
         [0026]     The method may include charging a participant in the game or competition via an electronic device account (such as a mobile telephony account). The method may include passing a first portion of the charge to the electronic device provider and a second portion of the charge to the provider of the game or competition. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0027]     In order that the invention may be more clearly ascertained, embodiments will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0028]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a competition system according to one embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0029]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram of the operation of the competition system of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0030]     A competition system according to an embodiment of the invention is generally at  10  in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0031]     The system  10  includes a computer system comprising competition server  12  and a communication device in the form of display screen  14 . The server  12  is connected to a mobile telephony network  16  and consequently can receive short messaging service (SMS) messages sent from mobile telephones. Server  12  and display screen  14  are in communication with each other via communications link  18  (typically a landline, though optionally at least in part a wireless link), so that server  12  can control display screen  14  to display announcements (as is described below).  
         [0032]     The system  10  also includes a plurality of tokens in the form of admission tickets  20   a ,  20   b ,  20   c . The system is adapted to be used at public events, such as a concert or sport event, so it will be appreciated that the number of tickets may be far higher, and is typically limited only by the capacity of the venue or ground. Hence, the system may commonly include thousands or tens of thousands of such tickets.  
         [0033]     Each ticket  20   a ,  20   b ,  20   c  bears a unique identifier in the form of a ticket number. In this embodiment, the identifier is the usual ticket number, but in other embodiments the identifier may be an additional number printed on the ticket, or a portion (such as the last five digits) of the ticket number.  
         [0034]     Also, in some other embodiments, the identifier may not be unique. For example, the identifier might be deemed to be the last two digits of a ticket number with five digits. There may then be multiple ultimate winners, possibly awarded different prizes according to the order in which the entries are received. It may be announced, for example, that the first winner will receive the most valuable prize, to encourage people to enter the competition. In these embodiments, the participants would not be told that only the last two digits will be used; they would thus submit their entire ticket number so that it could be checked to be a valid ticket number.  
         [0035]     Though not forming a part of the system  10 ,  FIG. 1  also includes mobile telephones  22   a ,  22   b ,  22   c , in the respective possession of the bearers of respective tickets  20   a ,  20   b ,  20   c.    
         [0036]     The system  10  allows the bearers of mobile telephones  22   a ,  22   b ,  22   c  (and of respective tickets  20   a ,  20   b ,  20   c ) users to participate in a competition during the concert or event at which the system  10  is used and to which the bearers of tickets  20   a ,  20   b ,  20   c  gained admission with the tickets. In use, the bearers of tickets  20   a ,  20   b ,  20   c  use their mobile telephones  22   a ,  22   b ,  22   c  to transmit, by means of SMS, their respective ticket numbers to an advertised telephone number (e.g. 1800 123 456). All such entries are recorded. In this embodiment, the rules of the competition dictate that entries can validly be received only during the duration of the concert or game (though other valid periods could be stipulated, such as “before half time”).  
         [0037]     At a predetermined time after the period for validly submitting entries has closed (such as during a half time break in the concert or game), a winning ticket number is selected and transmitted from server  12  to screen  14 , and displayed to the audience at the concert or game.  
         [0038]     The ticket number can be selected manually or automatically, whether according to some predetermined criterion or randomly. In this embodiment, however, it is generated by server  12  by random number generation. Random number generation can be used in any other suitable way, known to those in the art, to select the winning ticket number. For example, random numbers of the appropriate number of digits (to match the number of digits in the ticket numbers) may be generated until the number so generated matches a received ticket number. However, in this embodiment, random number generation is used to select a received SMS entry; the ticket number in the selected SMS is checked for validity. If valid, that ticket number is deemed the winning ticket number. Otherwise the selection process is repeated until an SMS entry containing a valid ticket number is selected.  
         [0039]     The screen  14  also announces how the bearer of the ticket corresponding to the winning ticket number can collect their prize.  
         [0040]     Each participant in the competition is charged via their mobile telephony provider at a premium rate. The charge includes a first portion (that pays the provider for the use of the SMS facility) and a second portion that the mobile telephone provider passes on to the provider of the system  10 . The first portion may be approximately 10% of the total charge, but the precise figure will be the subject of negotiation between the parties (including mobile telephone provider and the provider of the system  10 ), and depend on commercial considerations. By this mechanism, the provider of the system  10  obtains revenue from the provision of the competition.  
         [0041]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram  30  of the operation of the competition system of  FIG. 1 . The operation of the system includes the following steps. At step  32 , a person attending the concert or game transmits the ticket number on their ticket, by SMS, to server  12  (which records this and all other submitted entries). At step  34 , the mobile telephony provider of the person charges the person at a premium SMS rate. At step  36 , the mobile telephony provider retains a first portion of that charge and transmits a second portion to the competition provider.  
         [0042]     At step  38 , the period in which entries can validly be received by the server  12  closes.  
         [0043]     At step  40 , the server  10  selects a received SMS entry by random number generation and retrieves the ticket number contained in the SMS message. At step  42 , the server  12  checks whether the retrieved ticket number is valid (that is, corresponds to a ticket for the instant concert or game). If not, processing returns to step  40 , where a received SMS entry is again selected by random number generation.  
         [0044]     If the retrieved ticket number is valid, which means that a winning ticket number has been selected, processing proceeds to step  44  where auditing of the process is conducted, and relevant data is saved for later inspection (if this should prove necessary).  
         [0045]     At step  46 , the server  12  controls the screen  14  to display the winning ticket number and other information (such as how the winner can collect their prize). At step  48 , the winner claims his or her prize by attending a predetermined location, proving his or her identity by presenting their ticket with the winning ticket number and either collecting their prize or providing their contact details so that the prize can be sent to them (such as by cheque).  
         [0046]     Modifications within the scope of the invention may be readily effected by those skilled in the art. It is to be understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described by way of example hereinabove.  
         [0047]     Further, any reference herein to prior art is not intended to imply that such prior art forms or formed a part of the common general knowledge.