This game is like fantasy football, but for picking a pope

Sheena Goodyear · CBC Radio

· Posted: May 07, 2025 4:26 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

Mauro Vanetti describes himself arsenic a "conclave geek."

"People are usually not arsenic overmuch into conclaves arsenic I am," the Italian crippled developer told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I lone ticker TV during conclaves."

It's nary surprise, then, that Vanetti is 1 of the brains down Fantapapa, the blistery caller online crippled that has radical gathering phantasy conclave teams to foretell the caller pope.

"It's a truly amusive crippled to play with friends and person a laugh," Italian pupil Federico La Rocca, 23, said. "Initially my dada sent it to maine ironically, but present that it's going to beryllium the conclave, I decided to person a spell and effort it."

'Mock them successful a bully way'

More than 130 Catholic cardinals connected Wednesday began the centuries-old ritual to elite a successor to Pope Francis.

But portion the conclave itself takes spot wholly successful secret, radical extracurricular the Vatican are engaged dissecting the authorities astatine play and speculating connected the imaginable outcome. 

Fantapapa taps into that energy, says Vanetti, allowing radical to physique phantasy football-style teams of the cardinals. The skipper is the player's prime for pope.

"The predetermination of the pope mightiness beryllium seen arsenic a precise spiritual and pious event, but it's besides benignant of a powerfulness drawback successful a way. So radical similar to ideate themselves wrong this plot," helium said.

"Or sometimes they privation to explicit their region from these kinds of manoeuvres. And that's besides thing that games tin do. They tin marque you feel inside something, oregon they tin besides marque you benignant of enactment things successful position and marque amusive of them, mock them successful a bully way."

WATCH | How to play Fantapapa: 

By "a bully way," Vanetti means that helium and his squad were cautious not to marque airy of people's spiritual beliefs. 

"The target, successful a way, of the crippled is mostly the institution. And, astatine slightest successful Italy, adjacent radical that are beardown believers, they are precise easy captious towards the quality organization, which is the Catholic Church," helium said.

While he's not a believer himself, helium says galore Catholics look to beryllium enjoying Fantapapa.

"We adjacent had a fewer priests playing," helium said.

'The lone prize you triumph is eternal glory'

Creating a phantasy league crippled astir a conclave has its challenges. Unlike a sports game, the play-by-play play of the conclave each happens down closed Vatican doors.

"In a phantasy shot game, each the players tin people points during the existent games, portion successful the conclave, there's lone 1 winner, arsenic everyone knows," Vanetti said.

In Fantapapa, every clip 1 of your chosen cardinals gets mentioned successful the nationalist news, you get points. But you get the biggest people — 1,000 points — if your skipper gets elected pope. 

WATCH | Conclave writer weighs successful connected papal politics: 

But present that the conclave is officially nether way, the crippled is temporarily frozen. Only when the achromatic fume emerges from the Vatican chimney, signalling that a caller pope has been chosen, volition the Fantapapa winner beryllium revealed. 

"The victor of Fantapapa doesn't get thing material, and we wanted to beryllium precise wide astir that," Vanetti said.

Not lone is betting connected the caller pope amerciable successful Italy, but Vanetti says helium and his colleagues are anti-gambling advocates. 

"It's an absorbing mode of besides spoiling the marketplace for the bookmakers," helium said. "The lone prize you triumph is eternal glory, and it's truly going to beryllium eternal due to the fact that this is the first, and possibly the last, Fantapapa ever."

Pope betting precise popular 

Pope betting is not amerciable everywhere, and experts accidental the popularity of gambling connected the aboriginal of the papacy is expanding worldwide.

It's adjacent topped the Europa League shot tourney and Formula One drivers' championship, said Sam Eaton, U.K. manager for Oddschecker, a starring online level analyzing likelihood crossed sports, events and different betting markets.

"There's a immense level of involvement globally," Eaton said. "I don't deliberation we've had a marketplace similar this wherever we've had truthful galore countries funny successful seeing odds."

But, nary matter what the likelihood say, cipher knows for definite who the adjacent pope volition be. In Fantapapa, Italian cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi is the starring the pack.

"Zuppi has immoderate chances successful the existent satellite arsenic well, but we judge that helium was overinflated successful the crippled conscionable due to the fact that helium is the Archbishop of Bologna and he's precise likable," Vanetti said. 

Vanetti says helium picked Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines arsenic his captain. 

"He's got immoderate chances, and he's considered progressive," helium said.

While lone a antheral tin triumph the papacy, Vanetti says anyone tin triumph Fantapapa, and a batch of players are women.

"Italian men, they — or should I say we —  thin to beryllium precise arrogant astir however bully we are astatine predicting events," Vanetti said. "It's a emblematic know-it-all cognition that's very, precise emblematic of Italian males. So I would truly similar a pistillate to triumph this."