William Hill applies for a Greek licence

William Hill made the request to government officials despite the fact that Greece’s OPAP has a monopoly on betting in Greece. It is asking for permission to open its own betting shops as a European company in a European country and also for a separate Greek license, mirroring OPAP’s.

"This application has been made on the basis of the free movement of services and freedom of establishment under EU law," William Hill said in a statement on Friday.

Greek daily newspaper Imerisia earlier quoted OPAP CEO Basile Neiadas as saying that the government would not grant William Hill a license because of the monopoly agreement. William Hill Chief Executive David Harding told Reuters the firm would go to Europe’s lawmakers if Greece rejected its requests

"If within three months we’ve had no reply obviously we would then escalate it into Europe ... I suspect to most likely outcome is that it would go the ECJ (European Court of Justice) in due course."

The British bookmaker said that a recent European ruling that Italy should open up its gambling market would add clout to its requests. "William Hill believes that the Greek state are bound to accept both requests on the basis of EU legislation, as construed by the European Court of Justice and especially in its recent Placanica judgment."

The move is the latest in a string of legal challenges as gambling firms attempt to force European countries to open up their lucrative but tightly controlled betting markets.

British casino operator Stanley Leisure applied for a license to operate in Greece in 2005 but its request was rejected by the Greek government.

Brussels has already started two sets of legal actions against Italy, as well as proceedings against Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Hungary over restrictions in gambling markets.

Governments argue that by restricting the number of gambling operators they are protecting their citizens from the damaging lure of betting.