Premier League Relegation Betting
If there is one thing you can rely upon in the Premier League, it is the fight for survival to be a dramatic, emotional and tense one. Perhaps more importantly for football fans, it is an entertaining one.
There are several teams in danger of the drop of course. The Premier League is becoming more and more competitive each year and there are no football betting certainties to be in the bottom three.
Even those only just promoted from the Championship are attacking the league positively these days. Therefore, every single point is crucial and success in the early stages of the campaign can be the difference between being a top flight team or a Championship team.
As with any betting market though, there are some favourites for the drop and for the 2012/2013 season it is Reading. Fresh from promotion last season, they may well have some momentum behind them, but whether they can adjust to the Premier League is another matter.
Available at 11/10, the Royals will be desperate for a decent start to prove to themselves they belong in this division. They have been wise in the transfer market with moves for the likes of Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny Guthrie, but at the moment they are the favourites for relegation.
Next in line are Southampton, the team that finished behind Reading in the Championship last season. Having enjoyed back to back promotions, they will look at replicating the success Norwich achieved last season following the same feat. They are 11/8 for the drop.
Speaking of Norwich, they are actually the third favourites to go down with betting odds of 6/4 to be relegated. This is despite an excellent season last year, finishing 12th and playing some excellent football in the process.
The combination of second season syndrome and the loss of Paul Lambert to Aston Villa means many think the Canaries will struggle. Much might depend on the start Chris Hughton’s men make, but there is no doubt they have a strong squad and will be confident of another decent year.
Available at the same odds are Wigan Athletic, the classic sufferers of the ‘this is their year to go down’ line. Roberto Martinez’s men will be determined to prove the doubters wrong once again.
There are then a number of teams available between 2/1 and 10/1 for relegation. This includes Swansea City who, like Norwich, lost their manager that guided them to a fantastic first season in the Premier League last time out.
Even the likes of Sunderland, Fulham, Stoke City and Aston Villa will be looking over their shoulders at some stage with the first aim of the new campaign to reach a point where they are comfortably away from the bottom three.
Like the last few years, this is a really tough one to call and around 12 Premier League teams are bound to have bets made on them for the drop. Bring it on!