Latest news with #MauroVanetti
CBC
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
This game is like fantasy football, but for picking a pope
Social Sharing Mauro Vanetti describes himself as a "conclave geek." "People are usually not as much into conclaves as I am," the Italian game developer told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I only watch TV during conclaves." It's no surprise, then, that Vanetti is one of the brains behind Fantapapa, the hot new online game that has people building fantasy conclave teams to predict the new pope. "It's a really fun game to play with friends and have a laugh," Italian student Federico La Rocca, 23, said. "Initially my dad sent it to me ironically, but now that it's going to be the conclave, I decided to have a go and try it." 'Mock them in a good way' More than 130 Catholic cardinals on Wednesday began the centuries-old ritual to elect a successor to Pope Francis. But while the conclave itself takes place entirely in secret, people outside the Vatican are busy dissecting the politics at play and speculating on the possible outcome. Fantapapa taps into that energy, says Vanetti, allowing people to build fantasy football-style teams of the cardinals. The captain is the player's pick for pope. "The election of the pope might be seen as a very religious and pious event, but it's also kind of a power grab in a way. So people like to imagine themselves within this plot," he said. "Or sometimes they want to express their distance from these kinds of manoeuvres. And that's also something that games can do. They can make you feel inside something, or they can also make you kind of put things in perspective and make fun of them, mock them in a good way." WATCH | How to play Fantapapa: Guess the next pope with Fantapapa 1 day ago Duration 0:49 By "a good way," Vanetti means that he and his team were careful not to make light of people's religious beliefs. "The target, in a way, of the game is mostly the institution. And, at least in Italy, even people that are strong believers, they are very easily critical towards the human organzation, which is the Catholic Church," he said. While he's not a believer himself, he says many Catholics seem to be enjoying Fantapapa. "We even had a few priests playing," he said. 'The only prize you win is eternal glory' Creating a fantasy league game about a conclave has its challenges. Unlike a sports game, the play-by-play drama of the conclave all happens behind closed Vatican doors. "In a fantasy football game, all the players can score points during the actual games, while in the conclave, there's only one winner, as everyone knows," Vanetti said. In Fantapapa, every time one of your chosen cardinals gets mentioned in the national news, you get points. But you get the biggest score — 1,000 points — if your captain gets elected pope. WATCH | Conclave author weighs in on papal politics: Conclave author on the 'mystery' of choosing the next pope 1 hour ago Duration 1:19 But now that the conclave is officially under way, the game is temporarily frozen. Only when the white smoke emerges from the Vatican chimney, signalling that a new pope has been chosen, will the Fantapapa winner be revealed. "The winner of Fantapapa doesn't get anything material, and we wanted to be very clear about that," Vanetti said. Not only is betting on the new pope illegal in Italy, but Vanetti says he and his colleagues are anti-gambling advocates. "It's an interesting way of also spoiling the market for the bookmakers," he said. "The only prize you win is eternal glory, and it's really going to be eternal because this is the first, and perhaps the last, Fantapapa ever." Pope betting very popular Pope betting is not illegal everywhere, and experts say the popularity of gambling on the future of the papacy is increasing worldwide. It's even topped the Europa League soccer tournament and Formula One drivers' championship, said Sam Eaton, U.K. manager for Oddschecker, a leading online platform analyzing odds across sports, events and other betting markets. "There's a huge level of interest globally," Eaton said. "I don't think we've had a market like this where we've had so many countries interested in seeing odds." But, no matter what the odds say, nobody knows for sure who the next pope will be. In Fantapapa, Italian cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi is the leading the pack. "Zuppi has some chances in the real world as well, but we believe that he was overinflated in the game just because he is the Archbishop of Bologna and he's very likeable," Vanetti said. Vanetti says he picked Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines as his c aptain. "He's got some chances, and he's considered progressive," he said. While only a man can win the papacy, Vanetti says anyone can win Fantapapa, and a lot of players are women. "Italian men, they — or, should I say, we — tend to be very arrogant about how good we are at predicting events," Vanetti said. "It's a typical know-it-all attitude that's very, very typical of Italian males. So I would really like a woman to win this."
The Independent
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
There's now fantasy football for the Conclave – here's how to play
While betting on the next papal election is discouraged in the Vatican 's home country, thousands of Italians have found a different way to engage with the upcoming conclave: Fantapapa. The online game, inspired by fantasy sports leagues is blending the worlds of church and football. International gambling companies are offering odds on potential successors to Pope Francis, with cardinals convening on May 7. However, licensed Italian gambling platforms are abstaining from taking bets on the "papabili," as the papal contenders are known. Fantapapa provides an alternative for those seeking a pre-conclave gaming experience. Similar to Fantasy Football, players create a team of 11 papal candidates and win points if a team member is mentioned prominently in media within Italy and beyond. Extra points are allocated if one of your picks is elected, with bonuses for correct guesses on other elements such as the name taken by the new pontiff. "As of now (Cardinal Matteo) Zuppi is the preferred candidate and, notably, most of the followers on our Instagram profile are women," Pietro Pace, one of the creators, told Reuters. Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna and the head of the Italian bishops' conference, is a well-known figure in the country. Pace, an AI architect at Microsoft, and Mauro Vanetti, a video game developer, started working on the platform in February when Francis went into hospital. The game, which is free to play and carries no adverts, went online shortly after he died on April 21, and the number of users approached 60,000 last week. "There are no prizes, it's just for fun and for the eternal glory," Pace said. Betting on the conclave is not illegal in Italy, but it is discouraged. "In Italy there is no law expressly prohibiting betting on the election of the pope," explained Nicola Tani, head of specialist media outlet Agipronews. "However, the Customs Agency, which authorises the subject of bets in advance, has informally asked gaming licensees to avoid offering odds on the election of the pope, as is the case for Italian political elections," Tani added. For gambling companies elsewhere, bets on the pope fall into the novelty category of one-off events that cannot be judged by conventional statistics or sporting form. Sums wagered are relatively small. On Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction market, the "Who will be the next Pope?" market has seen a modest $10 million in total volume. By comparison, a possible Fed decision on interest rates in May has seen almost $30 million in bets. Who are the favourites for the next Pope and what are the odds? "There's already plenty of speculation on the next Pope, and currently we make the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, our favourite at 9/4," said Lee Phelps, spokesperson for British-based gambling group William Hill. He added that "Luis Antonio Tagle is second in our market at 3/1 and would become the first Asian Pope in history, while Matteo Zuppi and Peter Turkson are both priced at 6/1.' Tagle is from the Philippines. Turkson is from Ghana and would be the first Black pope in modern history.
