MONOPOLY News

IRISH CITIZENS - CALLED TO VOTE!

A worldwide vote for countries to be included on the first-ever World Monopoly board will be launched to the international press in Times Square New York today (22nd January 2008).  The Rose of Tralee, Lisa Murtagh will cast the first official vote for Ireland at the event, while back in Dublin, Miss Ireland, Blaithnaid McKenna, will rally the Irish nation to get behind the Irish vote.

Global games company Parker Brothers is launching the worldwide vote to find the 22 greatest cities in the world that should be included on the new Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition board – and Dublin has been nominated.

Monopoly fans around the world can visit www.monopoly.com to cast their votes and help create the first-ever worldwide edition of the game.  Voters are allowed to cast their ballots for up to ten cities each day of the vote, which will be open until 28 February 2008. The city that receives the most votes will be placed on the highest rent property traditionally held on the Irish board by Shrewsbury Road and more recently, on the new All-Ireland edition, by County Roscommon.

Bookmakers Paddy Power has put odds on Ireland being represented by Dublin making the board at 1/3 and for Dublin to achieve the highest rent position of 20/1. “This vote is about the passion of the Irish people.  It’s up to us to ensure that Ireland is featured on the board.  And as was demonstrated only recently by the people of Roscommon, it’s entirely possible that if Irish people at home and abroad vote everyday over the coming month, Ireland will have a good chance of featuring on the board”, he said.

The twenty cities that receive the most votes will be part of Monopoly history as the first cities selected to be on the World edition game board. However, two spaces on the board will be reserved for cities that are nominated through a wild card vote.  Any city in the world can be nominated for these property spaces, which means that Belfast and Cork might appear on the game board next to Paris, London or Dublin. The wild card winners will occupy the low-rent property spaces traditionally held on the Irish board by Kimmage and Crumlin and more recently, Donegal and Westmeath.

“Monopoly is the world’s most popular board game and it transcends cultural barriers,” said Helen Martin, global brand director for Monopoly brand.  “More than 750 million people have played the game since it was first introduced nearly 75 years ago and its popularity shows no sign of slowing down.

“The final result of the Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition voting may be just as surprising as the votes conducted in each country,” said Martin. “Only time will tell how the vote will turn out, and we hope that fans will vote early and often for their favourite cities.”

For more than 70 years the official Monopoly board has represented the most elite locations in individual cities. However, recently Parker Brothers invited fans of the game to help update the board in their respective countries to reflect what the game board would look like if it were created today instead of in 1935. The votes resulted in the “Here & Now” versions of the game in each country – with often surprising results.  

In Ireland, almost 170,000 votes were cast and the people of County Roscommon proved to be the most passionate about their county winning the top spot. In France, Paris never made it onto game board. In the United States, powerhouse city Dallas landed in the low-rent district. In Australia, fans logged more than 17 million votes. And in the UK, more votes were cast during the UK online vote than were cast in the local elections, which took place simultaneously.

The cities voted onto the final game board will be announced in August 2008. The new Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition will be produced in Hasbro’s plant in Waterford and available in stores around the world in the autumn.


Issued on behalf of Hasbro Ireland by Walsh Public Relations
Contact: Gillian D’arcy, Louisa Kennedy or Caroline Heywood
Tel: + 353 1 6613515
Gillian@walshpr.ie, Louisa@walshpr.ie, caroline@walshpr.ie

Notes to Editors:

The 68 cities nominated for the global vote are as follows:

Amsterdam	Helsinki	Queenstown
Athens	Hong Kong	Riga
Barcelona	Istanbul	Rio de Janeiro
Beijing	Jerusalem	Rome
Belgrade	Kiev	Santiago
Berlin	Kuala Lumpur	Seoul
Bogota	Las Vegas	Shanghai
Boston	Lisbon	Singapore
Bratislava	Ljubljana	Sofia
Brussels	London	St. Petersburg
Bucharest	Los Angeles	Stockholm
Budapest	Lyon	Sydney
Buenos Aires	Madrid	Tallinn
Cairo	Melbourne	Tokyo
Cape Town	Mexico City	Toronto
Caracas	Montreal	Vancouver
Cardiff	Moscow	Vienna
Chicago	Mumbai	Vilnius
Copenhagen	Munich	Warsaw
Dubai	New York	Washington, D.C.
Dublin	Oslo	Zagreb
Edinburgh	Paris	Zurich
Frankfurt	Prague

Since 1935, more than 250 million copies of Monopoly have been sold in 103 countries and 37 languages.  More than 200 different editions of the game have been published, but the most popular continues to be the classic "Number Nine."  Affectionately known by its original product number, "Number Nine" is based on the streets of Atlantic City and is nearly identical to Charles Darrow's original submission to Parker Brothers.  The Monopoly name and logo, the distinctive design of the game board, the four corner squares, the Mr. Monopoly name and the character, as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board and playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property trading game and game equipment.  © 2008 Hasbro, All Rights Reserved.

Hasbro is a worldwide leader in children's and family leisure time entertainment products and services, including the design, manufacture and marketing of games and toys ranging from traditional to high-tech.  Both internationally and in the U.S., its PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, TIGER, and WIZARDS OF THE COAST brands and products provide the highest quality and most recognizable play experiences in the world.