With more than 275 million sets sold in 43 languages and 111 countries, and more than one billion players, it is fair to say that Monopoly is one of the world’s favorite board games and part of international popular culture.

Derived from The Landlord’s Game, which was created by Elizabeth Magie in the US in 1903, the game was initially intended as a protest against the big monopolists of her time.

Magi created two sets of rules for The Landlord’s Game: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents. The approach was aimed to demonstrate that the first set of rules was morally superior.

And yet it was the monopolist version of the game that caught on, with Charles Darrow claiming a version of it as his own and selling it to New England board game maker Parker Brothers. It made Darrow a millionaire, and saved Parker Brothers from the brink of destruction.

Monopoly quickly became a hit, selling 278,000 copies in its first year and more than 1.750 million the next. But the game lost its connection to Magie and her critique of American greed, and instead came to mean pretty much the opposite of what she’d hoped. It has taught generations to cheer when someone goes into bankruptcy. It has become a staple of pop culture.

Following the early years of success of Monopoly, several variants and versions have emerged to tap into specific countries and trends. Monopoly Empire, for instance, has uniquely branded tokens and places based on popular brands. Instead of buying properties, players buy popular brands one by one and slide their billboards onto their Empire towers. Monopoly: Ultimate Banking Edition has no cash and instead features an electronic ultimate banking piece with touch technology.

The Swiss Fintechpoly Ecosystem

And now, meet Swiss Fintechpoly, our very own version of the popular board game specifically for fintech nerds that focuses on the Swiss fintech ecosystem.

In Fintechpoly, you do not buy properties but instead – you guessed it – acquire Swiss fintech startups and even banks. These include some of Switzerland’s hottest startups such as wealthtech startup Additiv, mobile payment specialist Twint, crowdlending platform CreditGate24, online factoring platform Advanon, and bitcoin startup Bitcoin Suisse.

Banks present include some of the most active in the fintech and financial finance space including Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, Glarner Kantonalbank, Credit Suisse, and UBS.

The four railroads of the original Monopoly are replaced by fintech-focused organizations and communities: Swiss Finance Startups, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, Swiss Fintech Innovations and the Crypto Valley Association.

And finally, our Fintechpoly board also include notorious accelerators such as F10 and Fusion as well as the Fintech Conference Finance 2.0.

In case you forgot how the original Swiss Monopoly looks like, check it out here.

Enjoy!