Famous clubs from the world of English football like Leicester City, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Wolves and Sheffield United have all, at some stage, had a bitter taste of Championship relegation.
A drop from the second tier in the English professional ladder down to League One shifts the unfortunate teams further away from dreams of playing in the Premier League. Nonetheless, the battle to avoid relegation is a huge area of focus of Championship betting.
Normally ahead of a new season of Championship betting, the shortest-priced teams in the relegation market are those who have just been promoted from the third tier, League One. There is quite a gulf in class between the second and third tiers.
Therefore, the transition up to a higher league can be tough for newly promoted teams. While those newly promoted teams commonly dominate early Championship relegation odds, it’s far from being the complete picture.
Teams that struggled the previous season in the Championship, or teams that have shown little signs of improvement in the summer transfer market, are usually also in the preseason pot for Championship relegation odds.
A Championship season is never static at any point. A surprise team can unexpectedly come racing out of the blocks with a strong start and shake-up promotion odds. Similarly, a preseason promotion favourite could find themselves struggling and searching for their first win of the campaign after six matches.
The Championship relegation betting constantly shift in relation to what is happening in the current standings. Therefore, a third of the way into a new season could easily leave the Championship relegation odds looking a lot different to what they did in preseason, so it’s always worth keeping track of the market.
The bottom three teams from the Championship suffer relegation at the end of the season. But the battle to stay up typically involves more teams than that. The closer the end of the season gets, the greater the stresses on the clubs involved become.
Match situations are an important factor to consider for Championship relegation odds. When teams become involved in such a desperate fight to stay up, it can potentially lead to surprise results towards the end of the season.
If a team has to fight for three points in their final match of the campaign against a mid-table team, that could have a huge bearing on the match outcome. On any given day, that relegation-threatened team would be a match underdog, but the situation of the relegation standings can change things.
Similarly, if a team can secure their place in the division with a draw away from home, then it could lead them to their biggest and best defensive display of the season. There are a lot of nuanced aspects to Championship relegation odds.
The outright Championship Relegation odds are the most popular of all the markets covering this area. Betting on Championship relegation odds does not solely have to put a focus on a team to take the drop — there are different approaches to football betting on Championship Relegation to consider, such as:
Find here all the latest championship betting tips.
The Championship in its current 24-team format was introduced in the 2004-05 season. It evolved through a rebranding from the Football League First Division as things received a huge shake-up.
Sunderland became the first EFL Championship winners, winning promotion at a canter. Wigan and West Ham were promoted along with the Black Cats from that inaugural season.
At the other end of the table, the initial Championship season saw a huge relegation battle. Only three points separated 17th-placed Plymouth and the drop zone.
Ultimately the first teams to suffer Championship relegation were Rotherham United who finished bottom, Nottingham Forest and Gillingham, the latter losing their spot in the division by the narrowest of goal differences only.