Is there a profit to be made in the Championship?

Is there a profit to be made in the Championship?

By Charlie Rowing Nov 13, 2013

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The Championship may not have the glamour and profile of the Premier League, but for a soccer bettor the second tier in England offers a great potential opportunity to make a profit. Read on to learn more about Championship soccer betting at Pinnacle Sports.

Team parity: Opportunity to make a Championship profit

The Championship is regarded as a tough league because of its competitive nature created due to the 24 teams’ relative parity. The phrase ‘anybody can beat anybody’ is often banded about in the Championship.

Bettors should be interested to see if this statement has merit. We looked at the data for the 2012/13 Championship season to see how often underdogs prevailed over the favourites.

Interestingly if you had bet 10 on the underdog to win each game in the Championship last season, you would have made a profit of 786.50.

Despite being relegated by one-point, Peterborough were the most successful -13 wins – team as underdogs last season. In addition Watford upset the odds on 12 occasions, while Barnsley, Charlton, Huddersfield and Ipswich all contributed 11 wins each as outsiders.

Another point highlighting the strength of the teams in the Championship is the performance of the teams relegated from the Premier League the season before. Over the past five seasons those who have been relegated have averaged a position of 8th the following year. Four of the 15 teams have gained promotion at the first attempt. Interestingly, only six teams (including the four) have ever been back to the Premier League since their relegation, while Wolves suffered back-to-back relegations last season.

Because the relative strength of each team is so similar, there is an opportunity to make a profit in Championship betting by conducting extensive research rather than simply backing the favourite. However, as the data sample is small it is advisable to conduct research over five seasons to eradicate any results that may have skewed the data.

Championship format

The Championship is renowned for its excitement as 24 teams compete for the ultimate prize of promotion to the Premier League, which can be worth as much as 90 million.

At the end of the 46-game season the top two teams are automatically promoted, while the teams finishing between third and sixth qualify for the playoffs, and the bottom three are relegated to League 1.

The Championship Playoffs create additional anticipation at the end of the season as the four teams compete in two-legged semi finals. The winners then compete at Wembley in the final, with the victor gaining promotion to the Premier League.

How to bet on the Championship

There are a number of ways to bet on the Championship with Pinnacle Sports. Bettors have the opportunity to mix up their bets with a variety of different betting formats such as:

1×2 Championship Betting

This is the most common bet type. You simply bet on whether a team will win, lose or draw a match.

For example, imagine these odds are for a Championship match between QPR (1.990) and Brighton (4.100) with the draw at 3.570.

If QPR won the match and you staked 10 on them to win, you would have won 19.90– although that would include your initial 10 stake. Therefore your profit would be 9.90. If QPR had been beaten or drew, you would have won nothing and lost your initial 10 stake.

Handicap Championship Betting

Handicaps are useful when one team is heavily favoured over the other, as you can bet on who will win a match, with a set number of goals taken off the favourite’s score.

Let’s say the handicap for QPR is -0.5 goals (1.990) and Brighton is +0.5 goals (1.962). If the game ended 1-0 to QPR, then a bet on them would win as 1-0 covers the -0.5 handicap.

If the result was a draw, or a loss for QPR then a bet on Brighton would win as they would cover their +0.5 handicap.

Totals Championship Betting

The Totals market sees the bettor predict whether the total number of goals for a match will be over or under a set amount.

Imagine the total goal mark for QPR vs. Brighton is set at Over 2 and 2.5 goals (1.877) and Under 2 and 2.5 goals (2.020).

If you bet 10 on the game to be Over 2 and 2.5 goals – and the result was 2-1 (a total of three goals) you would have a return of 18.77 (8.77 profit), while you would have won nothing if you had bet on the goals total to be Under 2 and 2.5.

Click here to see the latest Championship odds.

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