FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative rules engine for identifying scoring opportunities in a fantasy sports matchup, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Rules engine 800 may be implemented by control circuitry 604 (e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 604 by the media application). Control circuitry 604 may be part of user equipment (e.g., user equipment 100, which may have any or all of the functionality of user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and/or wireless communications device 706), or of a remote server separated from the user equipment by way of communication network 714, or distributed over a combination of both.
A rules engine uses, for example, a set of data structures and modules to identify a user's scoring opportunities in a fantasy sports matchup that pertain to the given scenarios of a live sporting match. The generic nature of the rules engine allows the system to be customized for different scoring systems, different fantasy sports leagues, and different sports (e.g., football, baseball, soccer, hockey). Thus, while the examples are described with reference to a fantasy sports league based on NFL performances, the same teaching could be applied elsewhere. An exemplary set of data structures is illustrated in FIG. 9.
FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative set of data structures for defining a scoring system of a fantasy sports league. The scoring system is made up of collections of scoring rules, scoring roles, position-scoring role links, and players.
