The 2015/16 SkyBet Football League season is just around the corner and the principal sponsors have a whole host of exciting betting opportunities that we can look at for the entire season.
In this series of ‘Ben’s Bets’ we will take an in depth look at each division, in order and throw up a few markets that might be of value in the Ante Post category.
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League One – Champions
We’ve had a quick count up and I think there may be no fewer than 11 sides that will realistically thinking of automatic promotion and title chases this season.
Coventry (22/1) and Doncaster (18/1) have been particularly active this summer in a bid to make their impact on the top of the division, but I’m going to be looking a little closer to the top.
Sheffield United lead the market, as they do every season, but at 5/1 there’s no value in backing a side that has failed to get promoted for the four years they have been in the third tier.
Wigan have dropped out of the league above and as Yeovil fans we know just how hard it is to adjust so I’m going one more down the list – to Peterborough United at 10/1.
The Posh have come out this week and publically declared their upcoming season a ‘failure’ if they don’t get promoted and that is quite a promise.
They’ve signed well and having employed club stalwarts Dave Robertson and Grant McCann as Manager and Assistant is only a good thing.
The owner may enjoy the public limelight but he knows how to back his managers appropriately, combine that with their nous in the transfer market turning non-league prodigies into players worth hundreds of thousands and they’ve got a lot going for them.
At bigger odds, I’m looking at Yorkshire sides Bradford (4/1) and Barnsley (11/2) to get promoted, possibly via the play offs.
Relegation
League One relegation *shudders*, is a betting market we are far too familiar with at Yeovil, so we’ll keep this one short and sweet.
Crewe are Odds On favourites at 5/6 to drop into League Two and whilst they may be there or there abouts, I’m not going to risk £6 to win £5 nine months later.
Colchester too, are just too short to back and Port Vale are a surprisingly low 6/4 despite having signed some players more than capable at that level.
Blackpool to suffer back-to-back drops *shudders* is tempting at 2/1, but not exactly enticing, so I’m going for a side who might be the most average side in the entire league – they’ve finished safely in the mid table of the middle league for the last eight seasons. Finishing 14th, 13th, 9th, 19th, 20th, 10th, 13th, 12th – hardly worrying those at either the top, or bottom of the league.
That run has to come to an end sometime, I’m thinking that they, along with maybe Oldham and Gillingham have more to worry about than most this campaign.
Walsall to be relegated is 9/2.
Specials
I am looking at one club in particular here, a club who have signed well, have the desire to make a move in the division but maybe not the ‘oomph’ to make the big step into the Championship just yet.
Scunthorpe United have unveiled some big plans for a new ground and some shiny new players to play in it.
An Iron top half finish won’t tempt many at 5/6, but with signings like Luke Williams from Middlesbrough and Jamie Ness from Stoke, I feel it’s almost a certainty.
SkyBet don’t currently have odds available for top scorer yet, but I’ll be having a couple of quid on Paddy Madden – for old time’s sake if nothing else.
You can also take individual odds on Scunthorpe finishing higher than other sides too, Iron to outdo Chesterfield and Evens and Rochdale at 10/11 seem like they’ll be nailed on too.
But the stand out special is for Scunthorpe to make the play-offs at 3/1. A competitive division could be a fascinating one.
Stay tuned and we’ll be previewing SkyBet League Two and of course… Yeovil Town’s fortunes.
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