Sweden's top thirty was built abroad — and two of its biggest nights happened at the same table in 2006
Sweden's all-time live money list ranks 5,151 players, but almost nothing in its top thirty was won at home. Reading the list alongside three player profiles turns up a 2006 coincidence: Erik Marcus Friberg's $1,979,189 for eighth in that year's WSOP Main Event and William Thorson's $907,128 for thirteenth are each man's largest recorded cash, and they came out of the same tournament. Meanwhile Svenska Spel's own notice confirms the country's land-based casinos are gone for good.
The Hendon Mob's Sweden all-time money list, generated on 6 October 2026, ranks 5,151 Swedish players. We read it in full down to thirtieth place and then opened three profiles in the band immediately below the established top eight.
What the three have in common is that their money was won somewhere else. Robert Flink is ninth with $3,682,613, and $1,582,000 of it — close to half — came from sixth place in the $250,000 Luxon Invitational at the Triton series in London in August 2023. William Thorson is tenth with $3,302,324, built on a thirteenth place in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event worth $907,128, with later deep runs at the Bellagio and on the European Poker Tour in Monte Carlo and Dortmund. Erik Marcus Friberg is eleventh with $3,184,194, of which $1,979,189 — nearly two-thirds — is a single result: eighth place in that same 2006 WSOP Main Event.
That is the coincidence worth recording. Two of the three profiles we opened peak in the same tournament, twenty years ago, in Las Vegas. Neither player's biggest night has been beaten since, and both profiles show how much a fixed total erodes in relative terms: Friberg's best all-time world ranking was 97th and the same unchanged figure now places him 944th; Thorson's was 144th and now reads 899th.
The absence of home-soil results has a straightforward explanation. Svenska Spel's own notice states that Casino Cosmopol has closed permanently, following a Riksdag decision to wind up the state casinos and a changed ownership directive issued to the company on 24 April. The page records Sundsvall closing in 2020, Göteborg and Malmö in February 2024, and Stockholm — the last one — from 25 April; the page does not print the year for that final date. On what happens to the games, it is explicit: because all land-based casinos are to be prohibited, nobody has the right to offer cash games, while tournament poker can to some extent be run under a special licence. Svenska Spel's online casino is unaffected.
So a country with 5,151 ranked live players has no state casino left, no licensed land-based cash game, and a top thirty whose defining results were won in Las Vegas, London, Monte Carlo and Kyrenia. Figures here are as printed on 7 October 2026 and attributed to The Hendon Mob; the closure facts are Svenska Spel's own. This is general information, not legal advice.
Read the original at The Hendon Mob; Svenska Spel →
Frequently asked questions
Are there still land-based casinos in Sweden?
No. Svenska Spel's notice states that Casino Cosmopol has closed permanently, with Sundsvall closing in 2020, Göteborg and Malmö in February 2024 and Stockholm last, from 25 April.
Can you still play live cash poker in Sweden?
Svenska Spel's page states that because all land-based casinos are to be prohibited, nobody has the right to offer cash games, and that tournament poker can to some extent be run under a special licence. This is general information, not legal advice.
Which two Swedish players peaked in the same tournament?
Erik Marcus Friberg, eighth for $1,979,189, and William Thorson, thirteenth for $907,128, both in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event. Each result remains that player's largest recorded cash.