Championship Outrights: Betting Predictions for 2020-21
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The 2020–21 EFL Championship is the 29th season of the second English tier in the current format. The season will see 24 teams competing for the promotion to the English Premier League. However, only three teams will get there. Furthermore, three teams are going to get relegated. These are all the things you can bet on with Championship outrights!
Thanks to their variety, Championship outrights can be real fun. They can also be very profitable. Of course, only if you know how to pick the right bets. To learn how to do this, stay tuned as we’re now going to discuss everything regarding soccer future bets in the English second tier.
2020-21 EFL Championship in a Nutshell
To understand how Championship outrights work, first, you need to understand how this competition works. Basically, Championship is the second tier of English football, below the Premier League and above the League One.
The goal of each team in the Championship is to get promoted to the elite English soccer league. They can do that by either becoming the Championship winner or by finishing as the runner-up. The two top teams at the end of the season are promoted directly. However, there’s one more Premier League slot left.
We’re talking about the Championship Playoff winner. Teams from #3 to #6 get to play the Promotion Playoffs in a round-robin format, in which #3 takes on #6, while #4 and #5 are pitted against one another in the semifinal. The semifinals have two games each, that is, one home game and one away game. The Playoff Final, however, is a single match, traditionally played at the Wembley.
Championship Outrights: Who Will Win the 2020-21 Season?
One of the most popular Championship outrights is the one focused on season winner. The team that finishes at the very summit of the table at the end of the regular season is crowned the Championship winner.
Apart from getting promoted straight to the Premier League, the Championship winner also gets a hefty money prize from the English Football League. That’s another reason why all the teams in the league are super-motivated to finish in top place.
For this reason, the so-called “to win Championship outright” comes with pretty attractive odds. The competition is very tough, so predicting the winner is far from easy, especially in the early stages of the competition. Another reason for this is that English soccer fans are very loyal and many of them express their club loyalty through betting.
As a result, Championship outright odds on popular clubs may suggest that they’re big favorites. However, those teams might not be too great in terms of player quality. Stoke, Middlesbrough, Birmingham City – these are some of the examples from a previous couple of seasons.
It’s a bit different situation in the 2020-21 season, where the biggest favorites are those teams that have either played in the Premier League last season or were very close to getting promoted.
Championship Outright Winner Odds
- Norwich +600
- Brentford +600
- Watford +600
- Bournemouth +1200
- Nottingham Forest +1200
- Stoke +1400
- Cardiff +1400
- Derby +2000
- Swansea +2000
- Middlesbrough +2000
- Millwall +2000
- Preston North End +2500
- Huddersfield +3300
- Blackburn +3300
- Bristol City +3300
- QPR +4000
- Barnsley +4000
- Birmingham +5000
- Coventry +5000
- Luton +6600
- Reading +6600
- Sheffield Wednesday +10000
- Rotherham +10000
- Wycombe +20000
FatCatBet’s Pick: Norwich
Which Teams Will Get Promoted Directly?
Despite finishing at the very bottom of the Premier League table last season, Norwich did show they can be great in the attack. This team managed to score against some of the toughest teams in the league, so goal-scoring should not worry them in the Championship. Defense was their biggest problem, but this season, they’ll be facing teams with much less lethal attackers than the ones playing in the top league.
Therefore, one of our English Championship outrights needs to be focused on Norwich. This team definitely seems capable of winning the league. If not, they should finish in second place, thus getting promoted to the Premier League directly.
The other team that should get a direct ticket to the Premier League is Watford. After all, the Hornets have a fantastic squad, with some really good players, e.g. Troy Deeney, Glenn Murray, Danny Welbeck, Gerard Deulofeu, and others. Watford’s problems aren’t players, but managers. Believe it or not, but Watford has sacked 10 managers since 2021.
FatCatBet’s Pick: Norwich, Watford
Which Teams Will Get to the Promotion Playoffs?
There are some sportsbooks that let you make Championship futures on the team you believe will finish between third and sixth place. Judging by the experience form the last couple of seasons, teams that get to the Playoffs are usually those that were close to getting promotion in the season before.
That said, two of our Championship outright betting picks are going to be Brentford and Cardiff, which played in the last season’s Playoffs. The other two teams should be AFC Bournemouth, who got relegated from the Premier League last season, and Nottingham Forest, who were very close to getting to the Playoffs last time, but had lost their two final games of the regular season.
FatCatBet’s picks: Brentford, Cardiff, AFC Bournemouth, and Nottingham Forest
Which Team Will Win the Championship Promotion Playoffs?
Brentford played the Playoff Final last season but lost to Fulham. They lost that game after extra time, in which their goalkeeper made a horrible mistake, conceding a goal from almost 50 yards.
If they manage to keep their key players in the squad until the end of the season, they should be able to qualify for the Playoffs. And if they get there, they should win it this time.
FatCatBet’s pick: Brentford
Which Championship Team Will Get Relegated?
The teams that have recently arrived to the Championship from the League One are the most likely candidates for relegation. Of course, this isn’t always the case. This season, for example, Coventry City seems determined to stay.
The other two recently-promoted teams, however, do not look as good as Coventry. Wycombe Wanderers and Rotherham United are likely to get back to the League One at the end of the season.
The question is who is going to be the third Championship team to get relegated? Bookies say Sheffield Wednesday, but we have to disagree. Our pick is Luton Town, a team that had the second-worst score difference in 2019-20, with 82 goals conceded. They finished with only 3 points more than the closest team from the relegation zone, but this time, we don’t think they’re going to be that lucky.
FatCatBet’s pick: Luton Town