A method is disclosed of providing real time interactive participation during a game by a plurality of users through a plurality of game clients, respectively, wherein progress of the game is defined by a plurality of plays, the method is implemented by a system in which one or more nodes on a network are configured to communicate with a plurality of game clients and a central system, each node including one or more servers, the one or more servers are programmed to execute the method, the method comprising: requesting, by a game client, to communicate with the central system via a node in a cluster; searching for a node in the cluster with available bandwidth to communicate with the game client; initiating a direct connection between the client and the node with available bandwidth for communication; assigning the node the game client to enable direct communication relating to the game between the game client and the node; receiving, via the game client, a selection from the user of a play in the game, the selected play having a risk and/or reward; and receiving, an actual play based on the actual outcome in the game.