Patent ID: 8500548

Claim:
A gaming system comprising: a plurality of gaming devices, each gaming device including at least one input device; at least one display device associated with at least one of said gaming devices; and at least one controller configured to operate with each of said gaming devices and said at least one display device to: (a) maintain and cause a display of a team award; (b) after an occurrence of an equity accumulation event, accumulate an amount of equity associated with a team for a player at one of said gaming devices, wherein the accumulated amount of equity is independent from any amounts of any wagers placed on any plays of any displayed games; and (c) after an occurrence of a team award triggering event: (i) determine if any players at any of said gaming devices are actively associated with the team within a designated time period after the occurrence of the team award triggering event, and (ii) for each of any players actively associated with the team within the designated time period after the occurrence of the team award triggering event, determine and display a portion of the team award, wherein said determined and displayed portion of the team award is based on that player's accumulated amount of equity associated with the team relative to a total amount of equity associated with the team accumulated for each of the players actively associated with the team within the designated time period after the occurrence of the team award triggering event and if a first player has a first accumulated amount of equity associated with the team and a second, different player has a second, different accumulated amount of equity associated with the team, a first portion of the team award is determined for the first player and a second, different portion of the team award is determined for the second player.