Our best 2026/27 Championship outright betting tips include expert picks for the title race, promotion contenders, dark horses and value picks.
After Spygate meant that the 2025/26 Championship finale earned plenty of headlines for off-the-field shenanigans, focus turns to the actual football again as a new campaign rolls around.
Southampton, beginning on minus four points, are among the runners and riders once more, while West Ham lead the Championship betting after their 14-year Premier League stint came to an end.
Burnley and Wolves join them back in the second tier, with Lincoln City, Cardiff City and Bolton Wanderers heading up from League One.
Perennial challengers Middlesbrough and a host of other hopefuls are also in the mix ahead of what looks like a competitive renewal. These are our best football betting tips for the season ahead.
Championship Winner Tips 2026/27
West Ham are big 7/4 favourites for the title and there’s no doubt that if any team are to take the division by storm, it’ll be them.
The vibes weren’t great at the London Stadium when the Hammers’ relegation was rubber-stamped on the final day of last season, but the retention of Nuno Espirito Santo – a promotion-winner at this level with Wolves in 2018 – and club captain Jarrod Bowen sent out a clear message that they mean business and intend to bounce back immediately.
Bowen was perhaps unfortunate not to be with England at the World Cup this summer and a player with 20+ Premier League goals and assists in each of the last three seasons is surely the best in the division.
The squad is thin in other areas, though, so let’s swerve the short price and instead land on second-favourites Wolves at 11/2 .
A shambles they may have been for stretches of last season, there were also periods when they looked nowhere near as bad as their bottom-place league position – and the business they both have and haven’t done stands out.
Kieran Trippier and Raul Jimenez both arrive on free transfers, catching the eye as experienced Premier League-standard additions, while – at the time of writing – Ladislav Krejci, Andre, Mateus Mane and Fer Lopez provide a spine that is full of class.
The manager is an unknown, Cesar Peixoto replacing Rob Edwards, but if their squad remains untouched it’s impossible to imagine Wolves not pushing West Ham hard for top spot.
Championship Promotion Betting Tips
We’ll avoid Burnley, who aren’t in the best financial position and surely, at some stage, will break their five-year yoyo streak.
Middlesbrough, too, have done some eye-catching business, but have to prove that it makes up for the loss of midfield heartbeat Hayden Hackney, who made them tick and has been sold to Everton.
Instead, let’s back Southampton to draw a line through one of the more embarrassing episodes in their history and punch their way back into the top flight.
For all of the stories about angry players looking for a way out of the club at the end of last season, Saints have not only managed to keep hold of their core but added to it.
Shea Charles’ £30m departure to Fulham is the only major sale but excellent goalkeeper Daniel Peretz and Canada’s World Cup star Cyle Larin have converted their loans into permanent contracts, while Lewis Dobbin adds flair in attack.
More importantly still, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Nathan Wood remain at the back, Flynn Downes and Finn Azaz are in the engine room, and Tom Fellows and Leo Scienza have been retained to play wide.
Tonda Eckert’s side won more points than any other team in the second half of the 2025/26 season and surely would have beaten Hull in the play-off final at Wembley.
Their four-point deduction is enough to avoid backing them to win the title but there is a sense that what happened has actually pulled them closer together, and if they can pick up where they left off then 9/2 for promotion looks tidy.
Championship Top-8 Finish Tips
Southampton at 4/6 is well worth including in an a double if you can find something equally good to partner it with, but we’ll cast our net a little further down the list in search for a top-eight bet.
The new play-off format is bound to encourage middling teams with little previous hope of winning promotion – though Millwall, who finished third last year, catch the eye most at 11/8 .
Like Saints, Alex Neil’s side are yet to be forced into any business they would rather not do, failed January signing Barry Bannan the headline departee, while they have seem to have signed shrewdly again, combining overseas buys Mathis Servais and Tairyk Arconte with the likes of Danny Batth and Mark Sykes.
Kyrell Lisbie and Jenson Metcalfe are also exciting signings from within the EFL pyramid, as Millwall continue to build on their reputation as a club that has all their ducks in a row.
Further down the betting, let’s back Portsmouth at 9/2 .
Speculation that impressive boss John Mousinho may leave this summer has proved unfounded and they have been able to chuck a few quid at a squad that was already settled at the level after two seasons up from League One.
Pompey were remarkably unlucky with injuries last season but picked up key results at crucial times and should come on for the experience. If they can get on a roll, nobody will fancy a trip to Fratton Park.
Championship Relegation Betting Tips
Unlike the top-eight market, where seven teams are odds-on, just one side – Lincoln City – are considered likelier than not to go down.
The Imps are probably the weakest outfit in the league, but let’s swerve them – as we should Cardiff City, who played good football under Brian Barry-Murphy last season, and Charlton Athletic.
Preston North End are the main pick at 5/2 , after a summer defined largely by unhappiness; club captain Ben Whiteman has been acrimoniously sold to Wrexham and key positions are yet to be filled.
Paul Heckingbottom’s side were never convincing last season, despite avoiding real danger of relegation, and have lost both Dobbin (who was on loan from Aston Villa) and Bournemouth loanee Daniel Jebbison, both of whom impressed in attack.
North End have recorded bottom-half finishes in four of their last six seasons, never higher than 10th in any of them, and the mood around the club feels bad.
At a big price, it could also be worth a dart at Sheffield United at 20/1 , the Blades seemingly having very little money to spend and there clearly being some conflict in idea between manager Chris Wilder and the ownership.
Championship Top Goalscorer Tips
Bowen is understandably favourite at 5/1, but West Ham also have Taty Castellanos and are said to be in the market for further reinforcements, so the goals look more likely to be spread between their attackers.
Instead, we want to target centre-forwards who will dominate their team’s goalscoring – and Bristol City’s Lorent Tolaj looks a good thing at 16/1 .
The Robins have signed Tolaj from Plymouth Argyle, where he scored 17 goals in 29 appearances, having netted 19 National League goals for Aldershot in 2023/24 and 14 strikes in League Two for Port Vale in 2024/25.
Scoring goals comes naturally for Tolaj, who is not just a fox in the box but has the frame to bully Championship defenders.
The same logic also applies to Youssef Salech, the Cardiff striker available at 50/1 . It was a surprise when the Dane stayed in League One last season and he probably never took off as expected, though a tally of 14 goals in 34 games is still not bad.
He also netted eight in the second half of 2024/25 for a Cardiff team that was relegated and is at the sharp end of a team that plays attacking football and wants to create chances.
Best Championship Outright Value Bets
Southampton are the team to keep an eye on – any lingering hangover from Spygate, the four-point deduction and a possible ban for Eckert are the only reasons not to pick them for the title.
They are not strong enough factors to put us off the team that was the best in the division for six months of last season.
Despite the play-off format changing, Betway still have a top-six market live and Southampton have to be backed at 11/10 to finish inside that group of teams.
Indeed, the 4/6 on Southampton to finish in the top eight is well worth doubling up with something short-ish from elsewhere.
As above, though, the best value is in backing Tonda Eckert’s side to put right the wrongs of May and win promotion at 9/2 .
