Tips to Master English Championship League Betting

The English Football League Championship, despite being the second tier of English football is arguably the most exciting. Featuring 24 teams, the league season is always very dramatic, at both the top and bottom of the table, with promotion and relegation issues to be settled.

Three teams will get relegated and two teams will win automatic promotion but one of the most exciting aspects of the Championship season are the play-off’s, which are contested between the four teams that finish 3rd down to 6th. Ultimately, this gives a lot of teams something to play for going in to the last few games of the season and with the financial reward of promotion being so high, the pressure on the players involved is massive and this leads to some great drama on the pitch.

With so much at stake, there is plenty for fans to get excited about and to get betting on. The following tips can help those who are trying to master betting on the English Football League Championship.

Relegated Teams

More often than not, at the start of a Championship season, many betting sites will have the three teams relegated from the Premier League in the previous season among their favourites to gain promotion this time around. However, do not be inclined to think that this will be the case because history shows that relegated clubs tend to struggle in the Championship, especially if they have not played in the league recently.

At the time of writing, Bolton Wanderers, a relatively successful Premier League club, were relegated to the Championship in 2012 and did not even make the play-off’s the following season.

Always do some research and find out if there were any specific off the field factors affecting the relegated clubs that could carry over to this season and dent their charge for promotion. Many bookmakers offer markets on who will finish in the bottom half come the end of the season and the newly relegated teams tend to have quite long odds, regardless of their actual situation as a club.

Team News

There are many teams in the Championship that have small squads, either in terms of numbers, quality or both. If an influential player is missing from a Championship club’s team due to suspension or injury then it can severely hinder their chances of success.

As the majority of national and international television, radio and internet outlets tend to concentrate on the Premier League, any late team news concerning Championship clubs can be ignored and this is where money can be made. If you can, check local websites and radio stations for up to the minute team news because you might be able to react before the bookmakers do and profit because of this.

With the top leagues around Europe, such as the English Premier League and La Liga, betting sites react immediately and the same advantage is almost impossible to gain.

Championship Betting Markets

1. Better Odds – The first thing to point out here is that clear favourites to win matches in the Championship always have better odds than clear favourites to win Premier League matches, therefore match betting is a much better option in this league. Also, it’s very rare that a small group of teams are going to dominate the top four positions as seen in some of the top European leagues and this provides much better value when betting.

2. Accumulators – It’s not surprising that nearly all betting sites advertise accumulators heavily, especially for leagues such as the Championship. This is because it’s not very often that they will come in, especially in a league where many of the teams are evenly matched.

3. Promotion – With the play-off system in place in the Championship, it’s possible that a team finishing 6th can still win promotion to the Premier League. Keep looking out for teams that are in form and who are within 4 points reach of the play positions with only three or four games left of the season. Bookmakers will favour the teams who are currently occupying the play-off positions in their odds but many teams in the past have made a late push for the 6th position and then gone on to win promotion as they are the form team in the league.

Volume of Games

The amount of matches the Championship teams are required to play during a season is more than that of the top leagues in Europe. This means that clubs with lesser resources are required not only to play more often but also travel more often.

A team who is in the top half of the table could be travelling to play a team in the relegation zone and on the face of it this would look like an obvious away win, with betting sites offering odds to reflect this.

However, if the travelling team have just played two games in four days, which can happen often during a Championship season and the second of those two games was also away from home then fatigue is sure to play a factor. During the wet and cold winter months this can prove to be even more of an issue, especially for teams based in the far north or south of the country.

There is certainly a lot of value to be gained when betting on the Championship. The structure of the league itself and the overall competitiveness of the teams involved means there are always plenty of betting sites offering a wide variety of markets and it can prove to be more exciting than betting on the top European leagues.