Fantasy Politics Unveiled at LAUNCH Festival

SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the LAUNCH Festival a group of tech entrepreneurs and political enthusiasts unveiled Fantasy Politics, a product that applies the fantasy sports model to politics. The mission of Fantasy Politics is to engage and educate the American public about its leaders and the political process and to give political junkies an online gaming experience to compete with each other. The game is currently in closed beta.

Similar to fantasy sports, competitors draft a team of national political figures, including pundits, and then compete head-to-head with other teams in their league. Competitors can trade and drop politicians or sign free agents just as they would in fantasy sports. Points are accrued through several measurable metrics such as social media followers, news mentions, polling, and fundraising.

"More people voted in 2008 than watched this year's Super Bowl, yet there is no online gaming experience that matches the billion fantasy sports market played by over 30 million Americans," said Aaron Michel, founder of Fantasy Politics. "And the data we aggregate into one quantifiable Power Score will be a huge indicator of how politicians and pundits are trending in influence."

Aside from the gaming experience, Fantasy Politics collects over 30 data points on every politician and aggregates them into a Power Score, a relative measure of political momentum. The Power Score quantifiably measures the current influence, effectiveness, and popularity of a politician or pundit into a score between 0-100. All of this data is easily accessible on the website, offering users a one-stop-shop for political information.

The game also serves as an educational tool in getting students of all ages more engaged in politics and current events.

"Fantasy Politics is an innovative tool to engage young people in creating political and social change in our country," said Chrissy Faesson, VP, Marketing and Communications, Rock the Vote. "At Rock the Vote, we strive to motivate and mobilize young people to participate in our democracy and to become better, more informed citizens. Fantasy Politics is an excellent way to engage our leaders of tomorrow."

Rock the Vote, Intrade, Open Secrets, Eucalyptus, and Voto Latino have partnered with Fantasy Politics on this project.

The LAUNCH Festival features 40 cutting edge, and never-before seen, technology companies debuting their products for investors who have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments for companies at LAUNCH. Hundreds of start-ups compete for the 40 spots awarded to the new companies debuting at LAUNCH.

Fantasy Politics was founded by Aaron Michel, who worked in presidential politics and attended Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government before entering the entrepreneurial arena.

The Fantasy Politics team includes:

• Morgan P. Muchnick, former government affairs director for a DC lobbying firm and former senior staff member for US Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee and Senator Fred Thompson. Morgan graduated from UCLA and Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
• George Marootian, a senior technical architect who spent the past 15 years designing and building online equities trading platforms and complex modeling algorithms and working as a CTO
• Matt DiVito, a recent Boston University graduate, expert fantasy game player and budding entrepreneur
• Deepak Saxena, a senior software engineer who founded Playing11.com, a fantasy sports game with over 80,000 users
• Matt Freund, the team's Harvard Business School intern, a former Army Ranger, and President of the Harvard Business School Republicans

The Advisory Board includes:

• Scott Fairchild, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign manager
• Scott Ferson, former press secretary to Senator Ted Kennedy and founder of the Liberty Square Group
• Aaron McLear, former press secretary to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and co-founder of The Ginsberg McLear Group
• Andy Tobias, Democratic National Committee Treasurer

For more information on Fantasy Politics please visit www.fantasypolitics.co

SOURCE Fantasy Politics