‘Idol’ spawns fantasy game on the Web

To borrow from Shakespeare, if music be the food of love for “American Idol,” play online.

That’s the idea behind Idolroo, a free, online fantasy game based on Fox’s search-for-a-pop-superstar smash.

It’s the brainchild of Onroo.com, a Naples, Fla.-based Web site specializing in fantasy sports games and others based on reality shows, including “Survivor.”

Idolroo players are given 70 points each at the outset that are used for an online auction to bid on the Ruben and Fantasia wannabes.

According to Onroo founder Todd Mitchell, the auctions can quickly get as nasty as one of Simon Cowell’s critiques.

“If you think Anwar (Robinson) has a good chance of winning, you’ll bid higher for him,” Mitchell explains. “At the end of the auction, whoever is the highest bidder is awarded ownership of that contestant.”

From there, players can then buy and trade contestants and pray that the ones they own don’t get voted off.

“It does make the show a lot of fun for the fans,” Mitchell says. “You’re seeing people’s competitive fire stoked, people you might not normally think of as competitive.”

The further along your singer gets in the competition, the more points you’re awarded, with the goal to have the highest point total in May, when the new “Idol” is chosen.

And who are Idolroo players guessing has the pipes to be the next Fantasia?

Country chanteuse Carrie Underwood is the clear favorite, followed by Mario Vazquez, offbeat farmboy Scott Savol, dreadlocked belter Robinson and hard-rocker Bo Bice.