Las Vegas/San Francisco  - A 19-year-old Norwegian won the world Monopoly championship Thursday after his main opponent from New Zealand went bankrupt by landing on two expensive properties, game maker Hasbro announced.

Bjorn Halvard Knappskog won 20,580 dollars in real money for his victory - the equivalent of the bank in the standard Monopoly game.

Knappskog was seeded 16th in the competition and had to overcome three former world champions for his win. In the final game, he played against competitors from the United States, Russia and New Zealand and beat them by building heavily on his properties, allowing him to charge high rent when the other players landed on them.

"This was the best game in the tournament for me," said Knappskog. "This is my first professional tournament, and it was fun just to be here. I was really happy to be here whether I won or lost, but I'm also very happy to have won." (dpa)