U.S. patent application number 12/728935 was filed with the patent office on 2011-09-22 for fantasy sports engine for recommending optimum team rosters.
Invention is credited to Patrick Hereford.
Application Number | 20110230243 12/728935 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44647644 |
Filed Date | 2011-09-22 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110230243 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Hereford; Patrick |
September 22, 2011 |
FANTASY SPORTS ENGINE FOR RECOMMENDING OPTIMUM TEAM ROSTERS
Abstract
Fantasy sports recommendation engines are disclosed that
automatically recommend roster changes for fantasy teams including
substitution of active and inactive players, adding available
players, waiving current players, trading players, etc. based on
historical and predictive information to maximize competitiveness
of fantasy sports teams. Fantasy sports recommendation engines may
also provide detailed comparative information for recommended
roster changes.
Inventors: |
Hereford; Patrick;
(Wellesley Hills, MA) |
Family ID: |
44647644 |
Appl. No.: |
12/728935 |
Filed: |
March 22, 2010 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
463/1 ;
463/42 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G07F 17/32 20130101;
G07F 17/326 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
463/1 ;
463/42 |
International
Class: |
A63F 9/24 20060101
A63F009/24 |
Claims
1. A fantasy sports recommendation engine operating on one or more
computers connected via the internet, and configured to exchange
information via the internet with other computing devices, the
fantasy sports recommendation engine comprising: software running
on the one or more computers, the software being configured to:
compare active players for each position on a roster of a user's
fantasy team against a list of available players for each position
to provide a proposed optimized active roster having a predicted
optimum point score; and automatically provide at least one player
action recommendation to the user based on the proposed optimized
active roster.
2. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, the
software being further configured to: automatically provide the
user updated player action recommendations when new information is
available about at least one of the active players and the
available players that affects the predicted optimum point
score.
3. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein the
software is further configured to compare active players for each
position on the roster of the user's fantasy team against a list of
available players for each position, also taking into account a
second user's fantasy team so as to provide a second proposed
optimized active roster having a predicted optimum point score for
the user's roster in a game between the user's roster and the
second user's fantasy team.
4. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein the
list of available players includes inactive players on the
roster.
5. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 4, wherein the
player action recommendation includes recommending replacing an
active player with an inactive player.
6. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein the
player action recommendation includes historical performance
information and predictive performance information.
7. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein the
player action recommendation includes a comparison of predicted
performance between an active player and a recommended player.
8. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein the
comparing includes comparing inactive players on the roster to
players not on the roster to provide an optimized roster for active
and inactive players.
9. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 8, wherein the
player action recommendation includes recommending replacing an
inactive roster player with an available player not on the
roster.
10. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 8, wherein
the player action recommendation includes historical performance
information and predictive performance information.
11. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 8, wherein
the player action recommendation includes a comparison of a
predicted performance of an active player and a recommended
player.
12. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein
the software is further configured to change the user's fantasy
team roster based on acceptance by the user of one or more of the
least one player action recommendation.
13. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein
the software is further configured to allow for user acceptance or
rejection of the at least one player action recommendation.
14. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein
the at least one player action recommendation includes player
action recommendations for two or more players.
15. The fantasy sports recommendation engine of claim 1, wherein
the software is further configured to allow the user to request a
player action recommendation.
16. A method of providing fantasy sports recommendations with a
fantasy sports recommendation engine running on at least one
computer, the method comprising: recognizing a user log-on to the
fantasy sports recommendation engine; identifying a fantasy sports
team belonging to the user; locating data associated with the
fantasy sports team; comparing each active player on a roster of
the fantasy sports team against a list of available players for
each position based on historical and predictive information to
provide a proposed optimized active roster having a predicted
optimum point score; formulating at least one player action
recommendation based on the comparing; and providing the user with
the at least one player action recommendation.
17. The method of providing fantasy sports recommendations of claim
16, further comprising: automatically providing the user with
updated player action recommendations based on information when new
information is available about at least one of the active players
and the available players.
Description
FIELD
[0001] This application relates generally to management of fantasy
sports teams, and particularly to fantasy sports team management
with software.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Fantasy sports are played and enjoyed by tens of millions of
people each year around the world for every major team sport. Many
users create and manage multiple teams in different fantasy leagues
and sports to maximize enjoyment and the possibility of winning.
Some fantasy leagues are free with no reward other than respect for
winning, while others require a buy-in and pay monetary or other
rewards for winning the league or performing well in certain
categories.
[0003] A multitude of data is available for each fantasy player and
team from a large number of sources. This large amount of
information often makes team management very time consuming and
sometimes difficult, especially for fantasy team owners that want
to maximize the competitiveness of their team or teams. Some
fantasy sports team owners will pay additional fees to access
specialized fantasy sports data attempting to get an advantage over
other team owners in their league. Additionally, fantasy sports
team owners can spend many hours researching individual players for
possible changes to their rosters to improve their teams as the
season progresses. For example, if a key player on a fantasy team
is injured or failing to produce, a fantasy team owner wanting to
remain competitive will find a replacement player either
temporarily until the player is able to play again, or replacing
the injured player with a different player. The process of
researching and changing team members can be very time
consuming.
SUMMARY
[0004] Fantasy sports recommendation engines are disclosed that
provide a fantasy sports team owner with player action
recommendations to maximize competitiveness of the fantasy sports
team and save time and effort in managing fantasy sports teams.
Some embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines according
to the present invention can include a fantasy sports
recommendation engine operating on one or more computers connected
via the internet, and configured to exchange information via the
internet with other computing devices.
[0005] Embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines can
include software running on the one or more computers. In such
embodiments, the software compares active players for each position
on a roster of a user's fantasy team against a list of available
players for each position to provide a proposed optimized active
roster having a predicted optimum point score, and automatically
provide at least one player action recommendation to the user based
on the proposed optimized active roster.
[0006] In some embodiments, the fantasy sports recommendation
engine can also automatically provide the user updated player
action recommendations based on information when new information is
available about at least one of the active players and the
available players. The software can also compare active players for
each position on the roster of the user's fantasy team against a
list of available players for each position also taking into
account a second user's fantasy team, to provide a second proposed
optimized active roster having a predicted optimum point score for
the user's roster in a game between the user's roster and the
second user's fantasy team. The list of available players can
include inactive players on the roster, or any other available
players, such as free-agent players, waiver-wire players, or
players offered for trade.
[0007] The player action recommendation can include recommending
replacing an active player with an inactive player on the user's
roster or any other available player. The player action
recommendation can also include historical performance information
and predictive performance information, and a comparison of
predicted performance between an active player and a recommended
player.
[0008] Embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines can
change the user's fantasy team roster based on user acceptance of
any player action recommendation. The user may also request a
player action recommendation.
[0009] In some embodiments, a fantasy sports recommendation engine
can function by first recognizing a user log-on to the engine,
identifying a fantasy sports team belonging the user, and locating
data associated with the fantasy sports team. The fantasy sports
recommendation engine can then compare each active player on the
roster of the fantasy sports team against a list of available
players for each position based on historical and predictive
information to provide a proposed optimized active roster having a
predicted optimum point score, formulate at least one player action
recommendation based on the comparing, and then provide the user
with the at least one player action recommendation. The fantasy
sports recommendation engine can also automatically provide the
user with updated player action recommendations based on
information when new information is available about at least one of
the active players and the available players.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] The following description can be better understood in light
of Figures, in which:
[0011] FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a hardware system for an
exemplary fantasy sports recommendation engine;
[0012] FIG. 2 is a flow-chart of an exemplary method of an
exemplary fantasy sports recommendation engine;
[0013] FIG. 3 is an exemplary screen shot of an exemplary fantasy
sports recommendation engine; and
[0014] FIG. 4 is flow-chart of an exemplary method of an exemplary
fantasy sports recommendation engine.
[0015] Together with the following description, the Figures
demonstrate and explain the principles of fantasy sports
recommendation engines and methods for using and employing the
fantasy sports recommendation engines. In the Figures, the size,
number and configuration of components may be exaggerated for
clarity. The same reference numerals in different Figures represent
the same component.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0016] The following description supplies specific details in order
to provide a thorough understanding. Nevertheless, the skilled
artisan would understand that embodiments of fantasy sports
recommendation engines and associated methods of using the engines
can be implemented and used without employing these specific
details. Indeed, exemplary embodiments and associated methods can
be placed into practice by modifying the illustrated units and
associated methods and can be used in conjunction with any other
devices and techniques conventionally used in the industry. For
example, while the description below generally focuses on an
embodiment for use with fantasy football, the engine and associated
methods could be equally applied with other fantasy sport, such as
baseball, basketball, soccer, etc.
[0017] One exemplary system 10 for implementing a fantasy sports
recommendation engine is illustrated in FIG. 1. System 10 can
include user computer 14 in connection with one or more servers,
such as servers 15, 16, 17 and one or more databases, such as
database 18 through internet 12. A fantasy sports recommendation
engine can be implemented as one or more different software
modules, each module working with the other modules to provide
various embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines.
[0018] In some embodiments, the fantasy sports recommendation
engine can be present entirely on a single computer, such as user
computer 14. In other embodiments, the fantasy sports
recommendation engine can be a web-based application located on one
or more of servers 15, 16, 17, or can be modules located on a
combination of any of the components shown in FIG. 1. In some
embodiments, one or more of the servers can be a server for a
predictive fantasy sports service, or can be a server for a fantasy
sports league. Similarly, database 18 can be a sports statistics
database. The fantasy sports recommendation engine can operate with
the various computing components using PHP and MySQL framework. Of
course, embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines
according to the present invention can physically reside and
operate in any configuration sufficient to provide the features and
services as described below and illustrated.
[0019] As shown in FIG. 2 embodiments of an exemplary fantasy
sports recommendation engine can provide management and
recommendations for users to manage one or more fantasy sports
teams. Once the user logs in, recommendations can be provided to
the user for each team owned by the user and recognized by the
engine. The recommendations may be provided and identified for each
team separately, or a single screen may provide the user an
opportunity to select recommendations for a specific team.
[0020] In some embodiments, a fantasy sports recommendation engine
can provide recommendations for activating benched or inactive
players by comparing the likely point output for the next week of
an inactive player with an active player based on data related to
both players. For example, Player A may be a quarterback for Team X
playing Team Y next week and on the active roster of a fantasy
team. Player B may be a quarter back for a different team having a
different opponent. While player A may generally average more
points than Player B, Player A may historically perform very poorly
against Team Y, or teams that have defenses similar to Team Y,
indicating that Player B is likely to have a better performance
week than Player A. Of course any number of different information
can be used in the comparative determination, such as injury
reports, bye weeks, personnel decisions, etc.
[0021] The comparative analysis between players can be achieved
through comparison of historical statistics as well as predictive
factors based on current-year performance, or recent performance,
along with any pertinent information for the current week, such as
injury information, a decision by a coach to split time between two
players, a player being traded to a different team, a player's
personal troubles, etc., and the points structure of a particular
fantasy league. The statistics can be gathered from any of the
various sports statistics data sources. Similarly, the comparative
analysis can be acquired using one or more of various comparative
algorithms, either internal and proprietary to the fantasy sports
recommendation engine, or of pre-existing algorithms.
[0022] Thus, in some embodiments, the fantasy sports recommendation
engine can determine if an inactive bench player is likely to
out-perform an active player, and then generate an appropriate
recommendation to the fantasy team user. The user can then accept
the recommendation or review information relating to each player to
determine if the recommendation will be accepted. For example, upon
accessing detailed information for the recommended transaction, a
user can quickly notice that active Player A will have a bye week
upcoming and activate bench Player B to avoid losing points for
that position for the next week.
[0023] In addition to recommending active and inactive players,
embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines can provide
recommendations to drop, add, waive, or trade players on the team
roster for available players. Available players can include
unclaimed or free-agent players, players waived from other teams,
or players offered for trade by other team managers in the
particular league. In some leagues and systems, available players
can have various designations depending on the rules of the league
or system. Each player on the user's roster can be compared to the
available players and a recommended roster change provided to the
user based on the comparison.
[0024] For example, productive running back Player 1 on the user's
roster may be injured and may be unable to play for several weeks
of the season. Running back Players 2 and 3 may be on the bench
roster. The fantasy sports recommendation engine can then compare
each of the players based on available information and algorithm
employed to determine a recommendation. The fantasy sports
recommendation engine can then perhaps recommend benching Player 1
due to his likely value after recovering from the injury,
activating player 2, and replacing Player 3 with Player 9, who was
just waived by another user and determined to be likely more
productive in the future than Player 3.
[0025] In some embodiments, multiple players can be suggested to
replace a roster player. For example, if Player 1 is injured and
will not be playing for the remainder of the season, several
choices for replacing Player 1 on the roster can be provided,
allowing the user to select a most-desired player from among
different choices. In some embodiments, the fantasy sports
recommendation engine can recommend a player with lower predicted
weekly points over a higher-predicted player based on information
such as bye weeks, as it is not useful to have a back-up player for
a particular position that shares the same bye week with the active
player, which may result in no points for that position during the
bye week.
[0026] A sample, by no means exhaustive, of recommended roster
changes that may be provided to a user for consideration is shown
in FIG. 3. A user can be provided with a table of players,
positions, and recommended replacements along with projected points
improvements and action choices such as acquire, add, or trade. In
some embodiments, a user can click on a proposed trade to see more
detailed information such as season statistics and points for each
player, bye weeks, projected points for individual future weeks or
total season, or other information. Additionally, the fantasy
sports recommendation engine may also provide a suggested trade
value based on the predicted performance, value to the user's team,
and likely value of the player targeted for trade from the other
team.
[0027] Embodiments of fantasy sports recommendation engines may
also provide likely points productivity for various time periods,
such as the next game, next month, season, etc. Similarly, once an
action choice is selected, a user can then have an additional
opportunity to determine if they want a detailed comparison, or to
confirm the action.
[0028] With each recommendation accepted by the user, the fantasy
sports recommendation engine can re-evaluate the roster and
determine if additional recommendations should be provided to the
user. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, this process can repeat, depending
on the availability of new information and user selections. In some
embodiments, the user can request recommendations to start the
recommendation engine as desired rather than waiting for the engine
to automatically provide recommendations. For example, a user may
change his mind about a suggested roster change that was previously
rejected. By requesting a recommendation, the user can be provided
an additional opportunity to make roster changes.
[0029] In some embodiments, the fantasy sports recommendation
engine can provide a detailed comparison of the upcoming match-up
against the upcoming opposing fantasy team, and can make roster
suggestions based on position-by-position and team-by-team
matchups. For example, user may have a productive wide receiver
playing for team K and user's opponent may have the quarterback for
team K on her roster. In such cases, it may be desirable make sure
to play that wide receiver so that a good performance by the other
user's quarterback will be offset by corresponding points by the
receiver.
[0030] In another example, user may have an active defense from a
team that is playing against a productive running back for user's
opponent. The user may want to bench the defense for a different
defense if the opponent's running back is likely to score
significant points. Of course there are many match-ups and
strategies that can be employed by a user based on recommendations
by a fantasy sports recommendation engine according to the present
invention.
[0031] In some embodiments, the fantasy sports recommendation
engine can run in the background of other programs, suggesting
changes when information suggests that a change can be useful, or
when fantasy sports websites are accessed, allowing the user to
have the recommendation information when the user in actively
managing his team or teams through a particular website. In some
embodiments, the fantasy sports recommendation engine can be a
feature in a comprehensive fantasy sports management system that
allows users to manage all of their teams, even from different
hosts, leagues, services, etc.
[0032] In some embodiments, players can be recommended to a user
based on the successful combinations of players owned by other
fantasy team managers. For example, fantasy teams that have both
players I and J may tend to be more successful as players I and J
tend compliment the other's performance making the combination more
valuable that each individual separately. Thus, the engine can
recommend adding player J if player I is on the roster. Similarly,
players may be recommended that may not provide points benefits to
user's team, but would deny points benefits to other teams. For
example, user may have a very good quarterback, but may be able to
acquire a back-up quarterback better than opposing teams'
quarterbacks.
[0033] In addition to any previously indicated modification,
numerous other variations and alternative arrangements can be
devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the
spirit and scope of this description, and appended claims are
intended to cover such modifications and arrangements. Thus, while
the information has been described above with particularity and
detail in connection with what is presently deemed to be the most
practical and preferred aspects, it will be apparent to those of
ordinary skill in the art that numerous modifications, including,
but not limited to, form, function, manner of operation and use can
be made without departing from the principles and concepts set
forth herein. Also, as used herein, examples are meant to be
illustrative only and should not be construed to be limiting in any
manner.
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