DESC:DESCRIPTION:
Field of the invention:
[0001] The present invention relates to a system and method for providing a digitally organized player engaging amateur sports networking platform for users to connect, plan and manage sports events with matches and activities aimed at driving more people to engage in sports.
Background of the Invention:
[0002] There are many undeniable benefits in playing sports. Apart from physical fitness benefits sport teaches other skills like discipline, recognizing importance of team work, handling failures etc. Generally, many people say that sports are played for fun and exercise, to recreate, but everybody is a sports person at heart wanting to win - it’s just a question of degree. That’s the difference - how much we want to win and want the recognition of winning. Therefore, most of the people love playing sports to satisfy primitive instincts of competing and winning.

[0003] People would love to share their moments, achievements and other sports activities to enjoy a sense of satisfaction upon social acceptance or appreciation from friends. Easily sharable sports activities on social media for instant gratification will definitely have a positive impact on sports eco-system in motivating and mobilizing the sports enthusiasts towards playing field and also to inspire more people to start playing sports.

[0004] The hosting of matches and tracking of the participating matches, nearby matches or any current sports events in their network is an important aspect for the sports players. Usually, users interact with one another by directly meeting or through voice calls, texts and the like to plan a sport’s match on a weekend at a particular location. Users check or plan with friends or neighbors for the availability to play team sports. This sports networking platform helps sports enthusiasts in facilitating them to know nearby matches and also easily organize or participate in the matches.

[0005] Managing amateur team sports is not straight forward as all the rules of the sport are not strictly followed; especially number of players in each team. Meetup matches people play in their group usually will not have fixed sides or teams. Some people may not turn up to a match, so the match played at the event may have teams with different team members from the previous match. The existing platforms does not provide provision to support formation of teams in every match with available members and do not provide a means to display or manage matches of past events or an upcoming event for such formed teams.

[0006] People feel satisfied by the support or social acceptance they get from friends upon participating, winning or achieving an award in sports. So, people would love to share these sports activities. This keeps them motivated to play sport more often. It will also inspire friends of these players to participate in sport. Existing platforms do not provide a means to share the above match information such as the teams, number of matches, participants, scores of the teams, the wining team and the like with friends optionally on external platforms. The match information may comprise a past match, an upcoming match i.e. scheduled match, an ongoing match with live scores and results.

[0007] In view of above observations, there is a need for a social network of players to keep them engaged with the sports they love. There is a need for creating a networking system for sports enthusiasts for connecting, planning, socializing and managing of the sports events. There is a need for a system which facilitates users to form a sports team as cricket, football, basketball and the like for recreation who play against one another at the event, plan matches well in advance of the event to keep the players engaged and also to save time at the event location. There is a need for a system that supports sharing of event information with match specific details on other platforms either by an application programming interface or by converting into sharable media preferably in an image or video format instead of a link. Also there is a need to provide a system that generates dynamic content other than providing a link for each match held on the event with specific details so that the user can share the content or details on the other platforms where the posted details will get wider audience.

[0008] The match information that is shared is dynamic and personalized to the user who is sharing it. Dynamic meaning, the shared story will have the details of the match at the point of time the user does share. Personalized meaning, the shared story may highlight the details of his actions like cheering a side, his achievements like winning match, winning man of the match, his statistics in the sport etc.

[0009] There is a need for a system which facilitates users to add match details, winners, score and the like data to be displayed. There is a need for a system which provides information about sports events or matches being held or will be held in the nearby locations so that a player can connect to new people with similar sports interest. There is a need to provide a means to audience for supporting a team or player, congratulating a winning team or player and the like through social actions. In case of tournaments, there is a need to manage rounds, the matches played in each round, winners and scores of a match, winners of a round and the like.

Objectives of the invention:
[0010] The primary objective of the invention is to provide a sports networking platform for sports enthusiasts in specific for amateur players to connect with other players for planning, sharing and management of sports activities.

[0011] An objective of the invention is to facilitate a sports management platform for players of different sports such as cricket, football, basketball and the like for recreation.

[0012] An objective of the invention is to facilitate a profile user to host a sports event and invite other profile users or people from other networks to the event.

[0013] An objective of the invention is to allow the sports event to be repeated automatically weekly, monthly and the like time periods without the need for creating the similar event every time.

[0014] An objective of the invention is to develop a system to add one or more matches to a particular sports event.

[0015] An objective of the invention is to create or change match sides on the fly among the available players optionally create match well in advance of the meet-up match schedule time.

[0016] An objective of the invention is to allow a player to challenge other individual players in a particular sport that can be played individually and to challenge other teams in any particular team sport.

[0017] An objective of the invention is to provide a means for displaying match details such as score or status of the match, winner or winning team or player of the match and the like details in real time and also as an update of the match after the match.

[0018] An objective of the invention is to facilitate sports tournament organizers to reach out participants for registration, schedule and manage the matches.

[0019] An objective of the invention is to facilitate tournament organizer to add rounds, add matches to the rounds and announce winners in matches of each round for a tournament event.

[0020] An objective of the invention is to provide social actions like supporting or betting on a match side, congratulating or appreciating a winning side and the like.

[0021] An objective of the invention is to provide a means for sharing events or match details such as score at the match, winner or winning team or player of each match and the like details on other social networking platforms.

[0022] An objective of the invention is to provide a means for displaying summary score-board specific to the sport of the match.

[0023] An objective of the invention is to develop a platform that provides latest updated news feed on players in the network and on participating or interested sports events.

[0024] An objective of the invention is to provide real time notifications about relevant sports activities to the player.

Summary of the Invention:
[0025] The invention proposes a method for organizing a sports match to socially engage players and fans. The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the claimed subject matter. This summary is not an extensive overview. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of the claimed subject matter. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented late.

[0026] According to an aspect of the invention, a sports networking system comprises an entry module to create a profile and to exhibit a profile module and an explore module to enter and or search for related sports events and players in a locality. The profile module is further configured to access various modules of the sports networking system which comprises an event creation module to create a sports event with details, an event management module to manage the details of the sports event, an activity feed module to display sports activities related to players in the network, a notification module to notify updates on sports events, matches, actions of players and thereof in real-time. The network of a profile user includes the players, teams and groups that the user is following. The profile user can automatically follow all his team members, all the players he play or played in meetups, and the teams that he play or played in team challenges.

[0027] According to other aspect of the invention, a method of creating a sports event using the event creation module comprises selecting a type of sports event, choosing a sport to be played in the sports event, entering location and time of the event to be conducted and inviting members either from personal profiles or public profiles. The type of sports event comprises a meet-up, a challenge and a tournament. The challenge sports event comprises type of challenge such as either one-on-one or team versus team challenge.

[0028] According to another aspect of the invention, the event management module comprises an event edit module, a frequency module, a match management module and a sharing module. The event edit module is configured to add or modify details of a sports event. The frequency module is configured to create or modify recurrence instances of same event. The recurrence of the sports event comprises repetition of the event such as daily, weekly, monthly, and the like. The match management module is configured to create or manage details of a match in an event formed through event creation module. The match management module comprises a match side module to edit or update teams or participants in the match, a scoreboard module to input or update scores of match sides and an announcement module to announce winners or best participant and thereof. The sharing module is configured to convert the sports event or match into sharable media content. The sharing module further allows to share personalized or profile based content of said sports event or match.

[0029] According to further aspect of the invention, a method of meet-up match formation comprises the steps of selecting a meet-up sports event, creating a meet-up match; selecting a match side to form a team, adding or updating participants into the selected match side from available participants, repeating the selection of next match side and addition of participants to form required teams, checking whether the created meet-up match is a past match to update scores, announce winners and thereof and finally submitting to form the meet-up match.

[0030] According to further aspect of the invention, a method of tournament match formation comprises the steps of selecting a tournament sports event, adding a new round or selecting an existing round, adding a new match or updating an existing match to selected round, checking whether the new match or the existing match is a past match to update scores, announce winners and thereof and then submitting to form the tournament match.

[0031] According to further aspect of the invention, users can perform social actions on a match side like cheering and appreciating which comprises of notifying players involved in the side or match and sharing the story about that social action to the user's followers.

Detailed description of Drawings:
[0032] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention, and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

[0033] Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a sports networking system in accordance to an embodiment of the invention.

[0034] Fig. 2 illustrates a block diagram of sub-modules of an event creation module of the system in accordance to an embodiment of the invention.

[0035] Fig. 3 illustrates modules of an event management module in accordance to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

[0036] Fig. 4 illustrates a flowchart for a method for creating a sports event through the event creation module of the system in accordance to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

[0037] Fig. 5 illustrates a flowchart for a method of a meet-up match formation in accordance to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

[0038] Fig. 6 illustrates a flowchart for a method of a tournament match formation in accordance to an exemplary embodiment of the invention.

Detailed invention disclosure:
[0039] An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in reference to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, same or similar reference numerals are used in the drawings and description to refer to the same or like parts or steps.

[0040] Definitions:

[0041] The term “sports event” indicates a sports related event planned to be played between individuals or teams at a particular location. The term “meet-up” indicates an amateur sports event which is less organized for a group of players that can be played in a local park, public ground or streets. The term “match” is to conduct a match between the individuals or a team with an opponent team. The term “meet-up team” indicates a plurality of players formed to play one or more matches in the particular meet-up event. The term “challenge” indicates a sports event challenged by an individual or team against an individual or team. The term “team” indicates members with an interest in a particular sport forming a group wherein this team can challenge other teams in the same sport. The term “tournament” indicates a sports event for a particular sport when two or more participants compete with other participants i.e., individuals or teams planned to be played at a particular location, wherein the tournaments have one or more rounds and each round has one or more matches. Based on the sport, a player in a tournament can participate either as a single or in doubles or in a team. The term “public” indicates that the sports event is open to all profile users registered with the system. The term “private” indicates that the sports event is only for members who are invited. The term “host” indicates a profile user who created an event. The term “administrator” or “admin” indicates a profile user who can access and manage the event or group. The term “guest” indicates the user without a profile in the system.

[0042] According to an exemplary embodiment, Fig. 1 refers to a sports networking system which comprises a user interface 101 to display information to a user, an entry module 102 to enter user details to create a user profile and to exhibit a profile module 104 and an explore module 103 to search for related sports events, players and groups in a locality. The explore module 103 is configured to take search criteria from the user to retrieve best matching results in the order of interest to the user. The explore module 103 can also be configured to work for guest users to help them identify happenings in his locality before creating a profile.

[0043] A profile user or guest can select sport(s) such as badminton, tennis, cricket, chess, volleyball, basketball and the like or from favourite sports listed in the profile. The user can further select a particular location, wherein the location may be a city or a particular area. Then, the explore module 103 retrieves the events such as meet-up, challenge, tournaments, players, groups and thereof matching the search criteria. The user can show interest in the listed public events either as an individual or as a team based on the sport of the event. A guest user can get details of the event before creating a profile and showing interest in that event.

[0044] In accordance to the invention, the registration of a user with the system is to input details such as name, Email-ID, contact number, sports played by the user, address and thereof. The profile is created for the user and a generated means is provided to access the profile. The user profile may represent user’s data such as skill level in a sport, number of matches played, and number of matches won and the like. The user can check or view other player’s profile based on the permissions set by the owner of the profile. Similarly, the user can check or view event details based on the permissions set by the admin of the event.

[0045] The profile module 104 is configured to access various modules of the sports networking system such as event creation module 105, event management module 106, activity feed module 107 and notification module 108. The event creation module 105 is configured to create a sports event with certain details such as type of the sports event, location and time of the sports event, invitation to the participants to attend the event. The event management module 106 is configured to manage the details of the sports event. The activity feed module 107 is configured to display sports activities related to events and the like sharable actions or moments of players in the network of the login user. The notification module 108 is configured to notify the user regarding the updates on events, matches, actions of players in the network and thereof in real-time.

[0046] According to other exemplary embodiment, Fig. 2 refers to a block diagram of sub-modules of the event creation module of the system 200 which in turn comprise details of the sports event to be filled to create a sports event. The details comprise a type of sports event 201, a sport 202, a location 203, a time 204 and an invitation 205. The host can select a sport 202 such as badminton, tennis, cricket, chess, volleyball, basketball and the like.

[0047] The type of sports event comprises a meet-up 201a, a challenge 201b and a tournament 201c. The meet-up 201a is a sports event where the players meet with other players and may participate in matches held between individual players or two meet-up teams. In challenge sports event 201b, an individual or a team can challenge other individual or team of the same sport respectively. For direct challenge, user needs to select an individual or team to send the challenge. The challenge may be open to public where the available participants who are willing to accept the challenge will respond. The host has a choice to select from the challenge responses to finalize opponent.

[0048] In tournament sports event 201c, multiple rounds can be added and matches to the rounds can be further added. The participants in the matches can be either individuals or teams based on sport of the tournament. Typically the number of participants in a match of team sport is two but the matches can be also be conducted between more than two participants for some sports such as running, cycling, racing, swimming, trekking and the like. The organizers can also use schedule assistant to generate a schedule of rounds and matches based on available participants and the chosen type of elimination.

[0049] The system of the invention facilitates the user to get connected with other players and participate in the events created by others. The meet-up sports event 201a can be hosted by any user, wherein the user can create the event through the input of relevant information and may invite members. The invited members can become users of the system and can participate in the event. The meet-up sports event 201a can be created for sports such as cricket, badminton, volleyball, basketball, tennis, swimming, trekking and the like. Further, a provision can be made for guest players without profile to participate in a meet-up sports event.

[0050] The system facilitates users to even challenge other profile users by selecting challenge sports event 201b, wherein the challenge in sports may be between two individuals or teams which may be open to public or private, i.e., only to the invited members. The system further facilitate users to plan tournaments at a location, by selecting tournament sports event 201c and thereby input tournament details such as rounds details, winners of each round, matches in each round, winners of matches and the like to be displayed in the system. If an individual gets invitation for team challenge or team tournament, the player can participate only if the player has team in the particular sport. If he doesn’t have team, he can create a team and then participate.

[0051] According to other exemplary embodiment, Fig. 3 refers to the modules of the event management module of the system 300. The modules comprise an event edit module 301, a frequency module 302, a match management module 303 and a sharing module 304. The event edit module 301 is configured to add or modify details of the sports event which was created. The frequency module 302 is configured to create, modify or extend recurrence of the sports event. The frequency module 302 displays the time period to be set by admin to repeat the sports event automatically. The frequency module 302 can also be configured even in the event creation module to create recurring events at the time of creation itself. The recurrence of the sports event may comprise repetition of the event such as daily, weekly, monthly, and the like.

[0052] The match management module 303 is configured to manage the details of a match in the event formed through event creation module. The match management module 303 comprises a match side module 305, a scoreboard module 306 and an announcement module 307. The match side module 305 is configured to edit or update teams or participants in a particular match. The scoreboard module 306 is configured to input or update scores of match sides played in a match. The scores can be displayed on the system with a score format in accordance with the sport such as cricket, tennis, volley ball and the like. A means can also be configured for displaying details of the match with summary score board specific to the sports. The announcement module 307 is configured to announce winners or best participant and thereof. The module 307 chooses the winning team or an individual from a match through the user input and displays the winner along with scoreboard module 306.

[0053] The sharing module 304 is configured to convert the sports event or match into sharable media content. The module 304 converts the match information such as teams played, scores, winner of the match, best player of the match and the like information into a sharable media which can be easily shared in external social networking platforms. The module 304 in addition allows to share personalized or profile based content of the sports match or event, i.e., along with the match or event details that the user wants to share, the system also generates personalized content for the user. Personalized content comprising of the users stats in the event, stats in the sport, recent actions on the match or event like supporting a side, congratulating winner, etc.

[0054] According to an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 4 illustrates a flowchart for a method of creating a sports event through the event creation module of the system 400. The method of creating a sports event using the event creation module may comprise different steps. At step 401, select event creation module. At step 402, select the type of sports event from the list available in the system. At step 403, enter details and optionally select recurring frequency. The user can enter the details of the sports event such as sport, location and time and can send invitations to other users. At step 404, select privacy for the sports event to be conducted i.e., either a public event or a private event. At step 405, a check is executed whether the user has selected a public event or not. At step 406, submit the event invitation to be displayed in the explore module of users, if it is a public event. The sports event can be posted publicly through this step. At step 407, add profile users to send invitation for the event even though it is posted publicly. If the user does not select the public event, then step 406 is omitted and addition of members from the profile to send invitation is executed directly at step 407. At step 408, submit the event invitation to be sent to the notification module of the selected users.

[0055] Fig. 5 illustrates a flowchart for a method of meet-up match formation 500 according to an embodiment of the invention. At step 501, select the meet-up sports event through the event management module. At step 502, an empty meet-up match is created. The user can form teams for the meet-up match. Optionally the match sides that played in the previous match of the same event can be loaded by default. At step 503, a match side is selected to form a team. At step 504, participants can be added into or removed from the selected match side from available participants; based on sport, the number of participants in a side may vary. Since this is a meetup, the number of players per meetup side need not be equal to that of actual team size required for that sport. The available players for that match can be distributed across the sides. In case, the available players cannot be distributed evenly there can be difference of one player across sides. For sports like table tennis, badminton where only singles or doubles is played, the difference of one player is not allowed. Also in sports like cricket, the odd player can play in both sides as well. Once the team is selected, steps from 503 can be repeated to select next match side and to add participants to form required teams. At step 505, a check is executed whether the created meet-up match is a past match or not. If yes, scores are updated and winners are announced at step 506. Then, submission is carried out to form the meet-up match at step 507.

[0056] Fig. 6 illustrates a method of tournament match formation 600 according to an embodiment of the invention. The method 600 comprises different steps. At step 601, a tournament sports event can be selected. After selecting the tournament sports event, two steps are displayed i.e., whether to add a new round or to select an existing round. A new round can be added at step 602 or an existing round can be selected at step 603. At step 604, a new match can be added or an existing match can be updated to the selected round. This step further includes adding or updating participants into the match sides based on the sports event. At step 605, a check is executed whether the created match is a past match or not. If yes, scores are updated and winners are announced at step 606. Then, the details are submitted to form the tournament match at step 607.

[0057] In accordance to an embodiment of the invention, the scores of the matches can be updated in real time using an additional module such as score assistant module. This module helps to keep track of live scores and also to keep the followers or audience updated with the information regarding the sports event. The scores of the matches can be organised to immediately reflect on connected electric devices such as TVs, tablets and the like optionally with a connected speaker to announce scores using text-to-speech converter. Therefore, there is no need of an umpire or commentators to announce live scores. The system can also facilitate live video feeds of the matches to the users.

[0058] The proposed sports system facilitates the user to access public invitations where the players can see or check or send join request for the event to participate which may need approval from the event administrator. The system can be incorporated with a communication module such as a general chat feature or a video chat or a group video chat among the event going members. The system further allows to upload photos or videos of the event and also allows to share the moments of the event with friends. The system allows users to perform social actions on a match side like cheering and appreciating which comprises of notifying players involved in the side or match and sharing the story about that social action to the user's followers. Amateur is intentionally used in the application as most of the processes apply to amateur players but these methodologies can also be used to manage a professional sports event as well.

[0059] The embodiments of the system may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages or any combination thereof. While implementing in the software, firmware, middleware, or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the associated tasks may be stored in a computer-readable medium such as a storage medium. Processors may perform the associated tasks.

[0060] It will readily be apparent that numerous modifications and alterations can be made to the processes described in the foregoing examples without departing from the principles underlying the invention, and all such modifications and alterations are intended to be embraced by this application.
,CLAIMS:CLAIMS:
We Claim:
1. A sports networking system comprising:
an entry module to create a profile and to exhibit a profile module, wherein said profile module to access various modules of said sports networking system comprises:
an event creation module to create a sports event with details;
an event management module to manage the details of said sports event;
an activity feed module to display sports activities related to players in the network;
a notification module to notify updates on sports events, matches, actions of players and thereof in real-time; and
an explore module to enter and or search for related sports events and players in a locality.

2. A method of creating a sports event using the event creation module comprising:
selecting a type of sports event;
choosing a sport to be played in said sports event;
entering location and time of the event to be conducted; and
inviting members either from personal profiles or public profiles.

3. The method of creating a sports event using the event creation module as claimed in claim 2, wherein said type of sports event comprises a meet-up, a challenge and a tournament.

4. The method of creating a sports event using the event creation module as claimed in claim 3, wherein said challenge sports event comprises type of challenge such as either one on one or team vs team challenge.

5. An event management module comprising:
an event edit module to add or modify details of a sports event;
a frequency module to create or modify recurrence instances of said sports event;
a match management module to manage details of a match formed through event creation module, wherein said match management module comprises:
a match side module to edit or update teams or participants in the match;
a scoreboard module to input or update scores of match sides;
an announcement module to announce winners or best participant and thereof; and
a sharing module to convert said sports event or match into sharable media content.

6. The event management module as claimed in claim 5, wherein recurrence of said sports event comprises repetition of the event such as daily, weekly, monthly, and the like.

7. The event management module as claimed in claim 5, wherein said sharing module allows to share personalized or profile based content of said sports event or match.

8. A method of meet-up match formation comprising the steps of:
selecting a meet-up sports event;
creating a meet-up match;
selecting a match side to form a team;
adding or updating participants into said selected match side from available participants;
repeating selection of next match side and addition of participants to form required teams;
checking whether the created meet-up match is a past match to update scores, announce winners and thereof; and
submitting to form said meet-up match.

9. A method of tournament match formation comprising the steps of:
selecting tournament sports event;
adding a new round or selecting an existing round;
adding a new match or updating an existing match to selected round;
checking whether the new match or the existing match is a past match to update scores, announce winners and thereof; and
submitting to form said tournament match.