IP Library Granted Patent US 12,530,940
Granted Patent B2
US 12,530,940 · App. 18/647,002 · Granted Jan 20, 2026

Avatar-based sports betting

Inventor: Patrick Soon-Shiong (Culver City, CA)
Assignee: NANT HOLDINGS IP, LLC
G07F17/3211G07F17/3223G07F17/3288
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,530,940
App. No.
18/647,002
Granted
Jan 20, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

Methods and systems are provided to display a real world event on a client device with avatars. Appropriate parameters for the real world event are provided and participants in the real world event are associated to avatars. As the real world event begins, a server is configured to provide information on the real world event to the client device, and the client device displays a representation of a virtual event using the avatars and the information received from the server.

Claims (44)

1 . A computer-based sports avatar broadcasting system comprising:

a plurality of sensors within a real-world arena for a sporting event, the sporting event comprising a plurality of participants within the arena;

at least one non-transitory computer readable memory storing software instructions; and

at least one processor coupled with the plurality of sensors and the at least one memory, the at least one processor performing the following operations:

obtaining digital data from the plurality of sensors;

recognizing physical attributes of each participant of the plurality of participants in the arena based on unique markers observed in the digital data, wherein a unique marker is placed on each participant of the plurality of participants to identify each participant;

creating a digital avatar for each participant of the plurality of participants according to the recognized physical attributes;

rendering a virtual environment presentation in a virtual environment including the digital avatars, the virtual environment presentation corresponding to the sporting event in the arena;

detecting movement of one or more unique markers in the arena based on the digital data;

updating the virtual environment presentation by moving digital avatars corresponding to the one or more unique markers to positions within the virtual environment corresponding to a respective position of the one or more unique markers within the arena; and

broadcasting the virtual environment presentation to multiple client devices.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the arena is associated with a stadium.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the arena comprises at least one of the following: a race track, a sports field, a basketball court, a baseball field, a tennis court, a football field, a soccer field, and a hockey rink.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sporting event comprises football.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sporting event comprises hockey.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sporting event comprises at least one of the following: baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, golf, wrestling, poker, boxing, weightlifting, an Olympic event, cricket, a scavenger hunt, an e-sport, a robot competition, a gambling event, and racing.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one digital avatar comprises at least one of the following indicators on or near the avatar player: a player number and a player name.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one digital avatar comprises a three-dimensional (3D) animated avatar in the virtual environment presentation.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operation of updating the virtual environment presentation is done in real-time relative to the sporting event.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one marker is detectable by a camera in the plurality of sensors.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one marker comprises a tag detectable by the plurality of sensors.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein tag comprises a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the physical attributes include a position in the arena.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the position is determined by triangulation of the at least one marker from the plurality of sensors.

15 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sporting event participant comprises a team of participants.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein each member participant of the team of participants corresponds to an individual digital avatar in the virtual environment presentation.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein each individual digital avatar comprises a unique participant identifier.

18 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include inferring location of the at least one digital avatar in the virtual environment presentation based on a vector derived from movement of the at least one marker when the at least one marker is not available to the plurality of sensors.

19 . A method for broadcasting a sporting event, comprising:

obtaining digital data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors being placed within a real-world arena hosting a sporting event, the sporting event comprising a plurality of participants within the arena;

recognizing physical attributes of each participant of the plurality of participants in the arena based on unique markers observed in the digital data, wherein a unique marker is placed on each participant of the plurality of participants to identify each participant;

creating a digital avatar for each participant of the plurality of participants according to the recognized physical attributes;

rendering a virtual environment presentation in a virtual environment including the digital avatars, the virtual environment presentation corresponding to the sporting event in the arena;

detecting movement of one or more unique markers in the arena based on the digital data;

updating the virtual environment presentation by moving digital avatars corresponding to the one or more unique markers to positions within the virtual environment corresponding to a respective position of the one or more unique markers within the arena; and

broadcasting the virtual environment presentation to multiple client devices.

20 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable code for execution by a processor of a computing device, the executable code comprising instructions for:

obtaining digital data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors being placed within a real-world arena hosting a sporting event, the sporting event comprising a plurality of participants within the arena;

recognizing physical attributes of each participant of the plurality of participants in the arena based on unique markers observed in the digital data, wherein a unique marker is placed on each participant of the plurality of participants to identify each participant;

creating a digital avatar for each participant of the plurality of participants according to the recognized physical attributes;

rendering a virtual environment presentation in a virtual environment including the digital avatars, the virtual environment presentation corresponding to the sporting event in the arena;

detecting movement of one or more unique markers in the arena based on the digital data;

updating the virtual environment presentation by moving digital avatars corresponding to the one or more unique markers to positions within the virtual environment corresponding to a respective position of the one or more unique markers within the arena; and

broadcasting the virtual environment presentation to multiple client devices.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 26, 2024
From: SOON-SHIONG, PATRICK
To: NANT HOLDINGS IP, LLC
Reel/Frame 067234/0830 →
Continuity (5)
Continuation 18385427 · Oct 31, 2023
Continuation 17980748 · Nov 4, 2022
Continuation 16818057 · Mar 13, 2020
Provisional Application 62818472 · Mar 14, 2019
Related Publication 20240273967A1 · Aug 15, 2024
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