IMPROVED FORM OF COMPETITION The present invention relates to an improved form of the type of competition which may be generically described as of the"Spot the Ball"type. Such latter competitions involve displaying a picture from which a mobile item, for example a football, has been omitted or specifically deleted and requiring the competitor to identify the position of the omitted or deleted item.

While competitions of this generic type are probably most frequently encountered as applied to football games, they are also applied to other sports and indeed to other situations in which the position of an omitted item is required to be identified.

The improved form of competition according to the present invention comprises displaying at the same time at least two pictures, showing from different directions simultaneous views of an event or views of at least two different events, from which views an item has been omitted, and requiring a competitor to indicate on at least one of the pictures the position of the omitted item.

Each displayed picture may simply be a two-dimensional display. However, in various alternative forms of the invention, each display may be a three-dimensional, four-dimensional or stereoscopic image, a holographic image, or a display in virtual reality.

The displaying of the two or more pictures of the same event from different directions may or may not assist the competitor in determining the position of the omitted item. Thus, in the case where just two pictures are displayed, a competitor may be permitted to indicate his selected position on just one of the pictures or he may be permitted or required to select a position on both pictures. In a preferred form of the competition, the competitor may be given the choice between a single-picture and a two-picture entry to the competition, quite possibly at two different entry fees, and the reward for entering the competition successfully in both pictures may then be a multiple of the reward for single-picture success.

In general, the simultaneous displaying of two pictures will be sufficient to provide both a successful competition and also an adequate aid or challenge to the competitor. However more pictures, for example three or four pictures, may be displayed simultaneously if desired.

Another possibility is to display, either simultaneously with the two or more pictures providing the competition or alternatively in advance of those pictures, a static picture recording the event or the events occurring a few seconds or minutes before the events displayed in the pictures, in which static picture the subsequently removed item is still visible.

Such a static picture may or may not aid the competitor in assessing the position of the omitted item. Where facilities permit, that is, where the display enables a moving or video picture to be shown, an advance display may be in the form of a sequence of events preceding the events displayed in the pictures subsequently forming the basis of the competition.

The two or more pictures which together form the basis of the competition according to the present invention are not necessarily taken from fixed or otherwise predetermined positions relative to the event, for example (but not restricted to) a football match, which forms the basis of the competition. By way of example, two or more cameras may be located at separate sides, for example opposite or adjacent sides, of a football match, or cameras may be located at each of four sides of a football pitch and only two or more of those cameras may be operated to take pictures which will form the basis of the competition. The cameras relied upon may be located in fixed positions or one or more of the cameras may be mounted in a manner which allows it to be moved, either linearly or pivotally or both, relative to the adjacent sides of the pitch or other aspect of the event which forms the subject of the competition.

Another form of the invention is to display two or more images of different events. Again a competitor may be permitted to indicate his selected position on just one of the pictures or he may be permitted or required to select a position on both or all of the multiple pictures.

The competition according to the present invention may be put into practice in numerous possible ways. At its very simplest, it may be carried out by means of postal entries in the manner of the long-established"Spot the Ball"competitions but incorporating two separate views of the same instant from different directions. In another form, the displays forming the basis of the competition may be a fixed billboard display or transmitted by television and competitors may telephone in, by fixed line or by mobile telephone, the co- ordinates of the positions selected as their entries to the competition. Competitors may have hand-held devices including remote control, computer mouse and keyboard mobile phone and computer screen touch pen enabling them to indicate, either locally or remotely, their selected entry positions. The positions selected by the competitors may be transmitted to the competition via the Internet, by e-mail or other Digital transmission, including text messaging. In fact the only requirement of a competitor is that, having seen views of an event observed simultaneously from at least two different directions, the competitor should indicate what he estimates to be the position of the omitted item relative to the display of at least one of those views.

While the foregoing description envisages the competition according to the present invention being carried out on a significant scale among competitors located over a range, indeed a generally wide range, of relative geographical or other positions, the competition is of course, in an appropriate form, a system also applicable for playing by individual competitors or groups of competitors in a single location.

The foregoing description of the present invention has been based primarily on competitions in which the display is of a game of football, in particular association football. However, the invention is equally or advantageously applied to other sporting or related events. For example, it could be applied to rugby football, tennis, badminton, hockey, basketball or netball games among many others.

The positions selected by the competitor as his competition entries may each be indicated by means of a single simple cross, or by a dot, for example, or by a representation of the omitted item, for example of a football. If desired, each of the selected positions may be indicated by a plurality or multiplicity of crosses or dots, so that the competitor may thereby be given more than one opportunity of successfully identifying the winning location with each entry.

The invention will now be further described and illustrated and exemplified with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:- Fig. 1 illustrates schematically a first possible form of the invention; Fig 2. illustrates an alternative second possible form of the invention; and Fig 3. illustrates one manner in which a form of the invention may be applied in practice to a stadium in which a game of football is in progress.

Referring firstly to Fig. 1, that figure illustrates, in schematic form, two simultaneous views, 10 and 11, of a moment in the course of a game of football. Of course, the players illustrated schematically in the accompanying drawings will in fact be shown in the form of true and accurate photographs in practice. The photographs may embrace the whole of the football pitch or only a part of it; for convenience, just three players are shown in each"photograph"in Fig. 1 but each picture may show more or fewer players than that and indeed, because the event has been pictured from two different directions, the numbers of players in the two picture may differ from each other.

The person entering the competition may, in the illustrated example, be given the facility to insert a photograph or other symbol representing a football, or indeed a multiplicity of such symbols, into either or preferably both photographs and of course that symbol will be visible to the competitor. If he has successfully identified the position of the omitted football, a visual and/or sound confirmation of his success may immediately be displayed and a prize will be awarded to him.

Figure 2 illustrates one alternative form of the competition. Views 10 and 11 are again displayed but, in addition, a further view 12, taken a matter of one or a few seconds before views 10 and 11, is included in the display. View 12 includes the football 13 before it was subsequently deleted in advance of the taking of photographs 10 and 11. The view 12 may assist the competitor, but not necessarily so, in subsequently estimating the position of the omitted football 13 from pictures 10 and 11.

Referring now to Fig. 3, the pitch 14 on which the game of football is in progress is illustrated in full in that figure. In the interests of clarity, only three players are included in the figure. Cameras 15 to 18 are mounted at the four sides of the pitch 14 and are able to move linearly a greater or lesser distance along the pitch sides as illustrated by the associated arrows. Normally the views from only two of those cameras, for example cameras 16 and 17, are displayed for competition purposes at any one time. The cameras in use for a given competition picture may or may not be identified to potential competitors. In other respects, the competition is carried out as described by reference to the earlier figures of the accompanying competition pictures.