You don’t need any financial wizardry or betting know-how to play the game successfully, according to Sorrell, who developed Market Meltdown with Tom Greene, a recent Oxford University economics graduate. It can be played by children as young as 12 and you don’t have to be good at maths as there’s a calculator included in the box. This is what makes it such an accurate reflection of the banking crisis, according to Geldof. “No amount of analysis can predict the casino nature of the global market,” he says. “You may as well examine the runes, pray to the gods or throw a die. Economy is not a science, it’s a crapshoot. Random luck, chaotic chance, prudence, guile and ruthlessness all seem to be useful in this game.”  It certainly doesn’t pay to be bearish in Market Meltdown; Sir Mark soon discovered this when his private jet landed on a 'data wipe’ square. “I was waiting to get 'data stoppers’ for the roulette wheel to improve my odds,” he recalls, clearly au fait with the game’s tactical requirements. “I hadn’t been gambling as aggressively as I should have been, and I lost my data before I could use it.”  The game bears similarities to Monopoly, which was developed in the wake of another financial crisis, the Wall Street Crash, and it is even manufactured in the same factory. But here the emphasis is on evil bankers rather than property tycoons, and the pace is much faster – Market Meltdown never lasts more than 45 minutes, whereas in Monopoly players can spend several hours methodically buying up houses and hotels. “Right from the beginning your cash is diminishing and you’re in danger of going bankrupt,” Sorrell says. “It’s designed to be quick and energetic. We didn’t want people to be padlocked to the table for the whole of Christmas Day.”  Last Christmas Sorrell and Greene made their first venture into the board games market with Perigon, a wooden strategy game akin to chess and backgammon. It proved to be a surprise bestseller. “We hadn’t produced enough sets,” says Greene. “It came as a shock to us how many people still play board games in an age of computer games.”  Once they’d decided that their next game was to be based on the financial crisis they sought advice from a former equities trader at Morgan Stanley. “We wanted to design a game that would appeal to both those who work in finance and those who enjoy lampooning the banking industry,” says Sorrell. It took them six months to perfect the mechanisms of the game; at one of the early trial sessions, a player won enough money to pay off global debt. Before Geldof rushes to apply the model to genuine problems, I am assured the blip in the game has been corrected.  Fortnum & Mason have already put in a second order to cope with demand. Elizabeth Cook, of the Piccadilly store’s toy department, believes the game is destined to become a classic. “Banking is a world that always fascinates people and what has happened over the past few years will inevitably happen again in the future,” she says.  Sir Mark shudders at the prospect. “The truth is I hope the game will not be popular in five years’ time,” he says. “When we’re living in a more prosperous society where the lessons about leverage have been learnt, Will can move on to developing new games where the object isn’t simply to avoid going bust.”  For the time being, though, it looks like Market Meltdown is going to do enough to keep at least one company afloat.  More fun at the table  Harry Hill’s TV Burp Board Game (£10.29)  The Logo Board Game (UK Edition) (£26.99)  Top Gear The Board Game (£10)  The Yes! No! Game (£4.97)  Market Meltdown costs £29.99 and is available to order from market-meltdown.com  The Telegraph has 10 Market Meltdown games to give away. For your chance to win, enter before midday on Friday, December 7 2012 at telegraph.co.uk/promotions
Keen competitor Bob Geldof demonstrates Market Meltdown, a new board game   based on City shenanigans to Anna Tyzack.