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Greek Courts Shut Stanleybet Athens Outlet Again

Feb 13, 2009 - Athens

British fixed-odds sports betting company Stanleybet International said on Friday that a court has ordered its outlet in Athens to be shut again while a higher tribunal considered its right to challenge the Greek gambling monopoly OPAP.

Stanleybet opened a store in the Greek capital and one in the northern city of Thessaloniki late in 2009, but Greek authorities shut them down for not having an operating licence and for violating a law that forbids online betting. Stanleybet appealed against the move, saying that under EU law a company should be able to offer services anywhere in the EU with the result that an administrative court in January allowed the it reopening of the Athens outlet until a final ruling was reached.

OPAP in turn appealed to prevent the shop's reopening. "The Athens administrative court accepted OPAP's appeal. The court would not rule on whether Stanleybet's activities are legal or not, and did not justify its ruling," said Stanleybet in a statement.

Stanleybet said it would continue to defend its right to offer its sports betting services in Greece and across Europe where it operates more than 1,500 outlets in Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Croatia, Romania and Poland.

In recent years, Stanleybet has challenged OPAP's monopoly in a bid to enter Greece's sports betting market and has taken its case to Greece's highest court, the Council of State, after the government did not respond to their request for a licence to operate.

The hearing took place earlier in February with media reports predicting that the case may be referred to the European Court of Justice's opinion.

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