From Vikings to Valletta: The Nordic Echoes in Malta’s History
At first glance, Sweden and Malta could hardly be more different — one carved by ice and pine forests, the other an arid, sun-drenched, Mediterranean isle. But look a little closer, and threads of shared history begin to emerge, stretching across centuries and seas.
By Noelle Norman
The story begins not with Swedes themselves, but with their distant descendants — the Normans. These were Norse warriors who had settled in northern France in the 10th century, adopting Christianity and the French language. From their new home in Normandy, they spread
southward through conquest and ambition, eventually seizing Sicily and, in 1091, Malta.
The Norman conquest, led by Count Roger I of Sicily, ended more than two centuries of Muslim rule on the island. Malta was re-Christianized and drawn firmly back into the Latin Christian world — a transformation
that endured. From that moment on, Malta has remained Christian, even as empires and languages changed around it.
And though the Norman conquerors were by then French-speaking warrior aristocrats rather than Viking raiders, their roots lay deep in Scandinavia — making Malta’s re-Christiani-
Photos courtesy of viewingmalta.com
zation one of the last ripples of Viking influence in the Mediterranean.
Knights, Nobles, and Nordic Links
Centuries later, under the Knights of St. John (1530–1798), Malta became a fortress of faith and chivalry. Sweden, by then a Protestant nation, stood outside the Catholic order. Still, a handful of Swedish noblemen found their way into the ranks of the Knights, often through Catholic relatives or service abroad.
That link never completely disappeared. When the Order of St. John was reconstituted in modern times, a Swedish branch — Johanniterorden i Sverige — was established, proudly tracing its symbolic lineage back to the Knights who once ruled from Valletta.
Sails, Science, and the British Era
After Malta became a British colony
in 1814, Swedish ships — naval, scientific, and merchant — began to frequent its harbors. The island served as a waypoint for explorers and naturalists heading east. Swedish scientists such as Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, who helped chart Arctic routes, also took interest in Mediterranean biodiversity.
By the 19th century, Malta had become a stop on the Grand Tour, and Swedish travelers and artists passed through Valletta and Mdina, sketching its bastions and baroque domes.
From Nightlife to Language Learning
Sweden and Malta established formal diplomatic relations after the latter’s independence from Britain in 1964, and a new wave of Swedes rediscovered Malta in the 1970s. Cheap charter flights, an English-speaking environment, and an easygoing
Mediterranean lifestyle made Malta a magnet for young Swedes in search of sunshine and party. St. Julian’s and Paceville became nightlife hot spots for Scandinavian travelers.
Beginning in the 1990s, language schools mushroomed on the island and thousands of students visited each summer to learn English under the Maltese sun, often staying with local families.
Modern Links, Ancient Echoes
Since 2004, Sweden and Malta have been partners within the European Union. Beneath the modern layers of tourism, education, and digital enterprise lies a story that began nearly a thousand years ago — when men from the North helped secure Malta’s Christian identity, and the island, in turn, became a beacon of the Mediterranean world.
Streets of Valletta. Photo courtesy of viewmalta.com
Swedes in Malta
Today, the Swedish community in Malta consists of a professional-heavy enclave concentrated in iGaming, remote tech, and services, but there is also a fair number of retirees, and a few who migrated for love.
By Kajsa Norman
Of Malta’s 575,000 inhabitants, about 30 percent are foreign citizens. While there are no official statistics of how many Swedes currently live in Malta, estimates range from 4,000 to 10,000.
“Malta is a great place to build a career. There’s a great deal of competence, big established companies, and opportunities to advance here,” says Pierre Lindh who has lived on the island for 15 years.
Unlike other sun-drenched desti-
nations that attract Swedish expats, Pierre has the impression that fewer Swedes come to Malta because they are running away from something.
“It’s a serious community of professionals,” he says.
And people who relocate here now tend to stay longer than they did a decade ago.
“Back then, there wasn’t much on the island — everything was about doing things as cheaply as possible. Valletta was very run-down, but today the island has been beautifully devel-
oped,” says Pierre.
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That development has in no small part been fueled by the significant influx of capital from the iGaming sector – the industry which currently employs the most Swedes. A source of both opportunity and concern as it raises questions about dependency on a single, highly mobile industry and the social effects of a fast-arriving expatriate community.
“You have to consider the long term. With companies that generate massive amounts of money come
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people who want to pay as little tax as possible. House prices skyrocket and young people can no longer afford to leave home,” says Fredrik Hammenborn.
Fredrik first came to Malta in 1997 as a travel guide. After meeting his Maltese wife, he settled permanently on the island and the couple now has two daughters, 19 and 23 years old.
“People like me belong to a much smaller category of Swedish expats here, different form the young iGaming professionals or the community of retirees who get together for Friday beer every week. They stay for a few years but never integrate into Maltese society they way someone who marries a Maltese does.”
We meet at Padel Malta, a racquet club run by Karl Wijkmark, another Swede married to a Maltese. Karl attests that culturally, Malta is much more family-focused than Sweden. He and his wife have two daughters, 2 years old and 8 months old respectively.
“In Malta, grandparents are incredibly dedicated to their grandchildren. Most days my mother-in-law is with us from 9 am to 8 pm. Not a day goes by without me seeing them,” he says.
Despite the many Swedes in Malta, the Swedish community remains quite understated. There is a Swedish club whose members mainly consist of pensioners who meet up regularly to engage in different activities, but the younger generation tend to downplay their Swedishness and assimilate into the international expat community on the island.
“I think Swedes in the US feel a much stronger connection to their Swedish identity than Swedes in
Malta do,” says Pierre. “My sister has lived in San Francisco for 30 years and at Midsummer she pulls out the Swedish flag. She even has a Swedish flag on her car. You won’t see that here.”
That said, even in Malta, Swedes can’t go without their favorite treats from home. At the Swedish specialty store Little Sweden, I meet Katja Holgersson who first moved to Malta 18 years ago. Like many others, she started working as an online dealer and customer support staff in the iGaming industry. However, six years ago, she was fed up with spending her days in front of a screen. She now works at Little Sweden, started by her friend Linda some eight years ago.
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“I’m much happier here where I interact with people,” she says.
Little Sweden specializes in Swedish pick ‘n mix candy, and other typical treats such as Swedish chips and cheese doodles. The store even sells shrimp from the Swedish West Coast and make their own Swedishstyle kebab sauce. “Our bestseller is white (tobacco-free) snus, followed by the Swedish energy drink Nocco,” says Katja.
While most customers are Swedish and Finnish, the numbers of
Maltese clients is increasing. “Many Maltese discover Swedish meatballs and lingonberry when they to go to IKEA in Sicily to buy furniture. Once back home in Malta, they come here to get their supply,” she says.
As for the Swedes who visit Malta as tourists, now retired travel guide Fredrik claim they are different from your average, sunseeking Swede.
“I would say they are older and better educated. Many have already traveled extensively before coming here and they tend to have a keen interest in culture and history as opposed to merely lying on a beach all day long.”
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How Malta Became a Mecca for Swedish iGaming
For decades Sweden has punched above its weight in the iGaming industry, featuring world-class game studios, big operator groups, and a home market that loves betting and slots. Yet a large slice of that Swedish gambling ecosystem operates from the Mediterranean island of Malta — not Stockholm.
By Noelle Norman
When Swedish voices thread through the chatter of St. Julian’s cafés and co-working spaces, it is more than a holiday hum: it is the sound of an industry transplanted. Over the last two decades, Malta has become the primary operational hub for a cluster of Swedish onlinegaming companies and the talent that powers them. For many Swedish startups and scale-ups in online gambling, Malta offered an attractive proposition: an English-speaking island in the EU with a regulator – the Malta Gaming Authority, MGA – issuing remote-gaming licenses that make it straightforward to operate across many EU/EEA markets. Add to that an ecosystem built around online casino studios and suppliers, skilled talent comfortable with English, and a business environment designed to welcome digital gambling operators. The island’s early, deliberate strategy to build a digital-gaming cluster — with policy, infrastructure and incentives — made it an obvious landing spot for companies that wanted rapid access to Europe while operating under an EU jurisdiction.
In the early 2000s a handful of Swedish operators opened offices and support centres in Malta. Through the 2010s the island’s cluster matured as suppliers expanded studios and operators consolidated functions there. Today, there is a plethora of Swedish operators who offer their online casinos, live dealer casinos, and sports books to players in Sweden and elsewhere, while being based in Malta. These include companies and brands such as: Betsson, LeoVegas, and Unibet – all launched by Swedish entrepreneurs. A large portion of the games played in online casinos were also produced by Malta-located companies with Swedish roots, such as Play’n Go, developer of online games, and Evolution Group, which was first to replace Random Number Generators (RNG) with live dealers for online casinos (the dealers work in a studio while players join the game digitally from around the world).
Sweden used to have a state gambling monopoly, mainly through Svenska Spel (for betting and casinos) and ATG (for horse racing). However, the exodus of gaming companies prompted debate about tax revenues,
the location of skilled jobs and the best way to regulate an industry that can operate globally. The result was a new gambling law, introduced on January 1, 2019, which opened up the market to private operators under license from the Swedish Gambling Authority (Spelinspektionen). The goal was to bring foreign-based online operators –many of them in Malta– under Swedish regulation and taxation. The licensing regime has tightened the market (with stricter advertising rules, limits on bonuses, “Spelpaus” self-exclusion, and aggressive enforcement). As Malta aims to remain a reputable EU hub rather than be perceived as a lax alternative; it’s adjusting rules to keep pace. Will the changing legislation cause operators to deepen their Maltese presence or reconfigure to operate under Swedish licenses? Either way, the island-nation model of clustered iGaming expertise looks set to remain central to how major Swedish gambling brands do business in Europe. As for those Swedes whose lives now bridge Stockholm and Valletta, the arrangement is often pragmatic and positive: career acceleration, international teams and sunlit commutes.
Photo: AI Generated
Pierre and the Poker Revolution
At the age of 18, Pierre Lindh launched an underground poker club in Alingsås, Sweden. Police cracked down, and Pierre ended up in court accused of illegal gambling, but the incident helped establish him as a gaming personality in Sweden, Malta, and eventually – the world.
By Kajsa Norman
On October 28, 2006 the police stormed the club.
“Everybody put their cards down!” they shouted.
“Who is the organizer?” 150 young players shifted in their seats. Pierre Lindh had just turned 18 and raised his hand: “I am.”
The police had received a tip and figured the Hell’s Angels, or some other criminal gang was behind it all. Instead, they found sober teenagers playing for pocket change.
“It was very innocent,” says Pierre. “Everyone played poker back then. My friends and I had played for years
during breaks at high school and after we graduated I rented a venue where I started organizing games.”
The incident received nationwide media coverage and Pierre soon went from being an anonymous smalltown teenager to a budding gaming personality.
Through the Swedish Poker Association, he began lobbying for the legalization of poker in Sweden. Pierre soon developed a network of contacts in the world of gaming and was headhunted by Betsson— one of the region’s oldest and biggest online operator groups, with Malta
as a major hub. In 2011, he arrived in Malta where not only Betsson, but all major Swedish gaming companies were based.
“The industry here was, in essence, started by Swedes”, he says. “Sweden got broadband very early, and back in the 1990s, the Swedish government actively promoted Internet access.”
Pierre believes this contributed to the many early gaming innovations propelled by Swedes.
Pierre worked for Betsson for two years before starting the iGaming event company Next.io with his business partner Martin. That was 12
Photo: Freepik.com
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