There are two more ante-post markets for us to go through ahead of the Sky Bet Championship beginning on Friday evening and they are the promotion and relegation ones, offerings which are always competitive affairs.
We know where we stand in this division with three going up and three going down and often there can be some decent value accordingly, especially in the promotion market where Norwich City and Sheffield United will have been big prices last term.
Promotion
You can play this promotion market in a number of ways. There is the chance to edge a little bit on an outright bet by having the possibility of them finishing in sixth position and still going up while at the same time you can look at a side who you think are a big price in the outright market but maybe not quite strong enough to challenge for the title. I like the latter option whenever I attack this one.
You can put up the likes of Bristol City, Brentford and Nottingham Forest here but the side I’m prepared to take a chance on at Blackburn Rovers. You can still pick holes in the Ewood Park outfit but there is no doubt they have strengthened significantly from last season with the additions of Bradley Johnson, Stewart Downing and in particular Sam Gallagher. They are solid enough at the centre-back position and have a hugely rated goalkeeper. Bradley Dack is still in Lancashire which is a huge thing and in a campaign where spots in the top six are up for grabs, Blackburn could be the side who sneaks in and gets over the line.
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Relegation
There is no strategy choice in the relegation market. It is clearly identifying sides who will struggle and working out where the value lies accordingly. The one thing I would say though is that Bolton highlighted last season in this division the perilous financial situations that so many in this division are teetering on the precipice of and that certainly needs to be factored in with our betting.
Three relegation places up for grabs and Charlton look certain to account for one of them so we’re looking for teams for the other two spots. Birmingham City are the side I like the most. Che Adams is clearly going to be a big loss for them but they’ve lost the services of the likes of Jota and Michael Morrison as well which could be big absences. Worst still for me they have lost Garry Monk, who might not be the best manager in the world but he gets the best out of what he has. He’s been replaced by Pep Clotet who was useless at Oxford and while he may well be better with better players, his squad does not match up well to too many. I’m happy to be on them to fall.
At a big price I can see Derby struggling but there might just be a number of clubs in freefall that keeps them up, however the same might not go for Swansea City, who are under a coach who has never managed at this level and who is having to deal with losing his two star players in Daniel James and Oli McBurnie. You would expect Swansea to be too good to go down but they are a club that when a slump sets in they find it hard to come out and while their rivals Cardiff potentially blaze a trail at the right end of the division, any struggles at the Liberty Stadium will be felt even more by Swansea fans. It is never easy losing two standout players so there could be value in Swansea struggling enough to bite the dust.
Tips
Back Blackburn Rovers to be promoted for a 1/10 stake at 13.00 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Back Birmingham City to be relegated for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with Betway
Back them here:
Back Swansea City to be relegated for a 1/10 stake at 9.00 with William Hill
Back them here:
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