Patent ID: 7610221

Claim:
A method of electronic commerce, comprising: identifying, from a database, a participant who could participate in a game; providing, in a register, a plurality of tickets for said game; establishing a network-based on-line system for sale of futures contracts to acquire said tickets for the game, wherein each futures contract is exercisable upon occurrence of a contingency, wherein the contingency relates to the position of said participant in the game in a standings at a time proximate to the occurrence of the game, wherein said participant could attain a position in the standings yet which position is unknown at the sale of said futures contract; offering, via a buyer device, said futures contracts for sale for each of said tickets for said participant that could, at the time of the offer for sale, attain a position in the standings; and triggering, in an order processing module of the network-based on-line system, the exercisability of said futures contracts associated with said participant when a position in the standings has been attained.