Overall, it hasn’t been a great year for the bookies. To use an old football saying, the form book has gone out of the window this season. Some of the most daring bets that fans have put on for a joke have come true, meaning the bookmakers have had to pay out eye-watering amounts after some games this season. For example, nobody would have predicted Liverpool’s 7-2 thrashing against Aston Villa towards the start of the season. The odds of the current champions letting in seven goals would have been huge. With that in mind, are the bookmakers being more cautious with their odds this season? Here is a look at what affect the first few months has had on the bookmakers.
The title race
The good news is after the majority of the league have played 11 games; Tottenham are very much in the race this season. They are currently level on points with Liverpool following a confident 2-0 win over Arsenal, but take the top spot at the Premier League table due to their superior goal difference. The two spots below them are almost as close as the top two spots, as Chelsea trail the leaders by just two points and Leicester City trail by just three points. This means those top 4 spaces could easily be turned on its head in the space of a weekend let alone the rest of the season. So, what does this mean for the end of season odds? Well despite their current lead at this point in the season, many bookmakers don’t have Tottenham as the favourite to win the league. Bookmakers like Unibet have them joint third with Chelsea with odds of 9/2.
Elsewhere in the Football League
Elsewhere in the leagues, the Championship is just as close as the Premier League. After 17 games, Norwich are currently sat at the top of the table, three points above Bournemouth. Despite this, the Championship football betting still has Bournemouth more likely to win the league than the current league leaders. At this point in the season, Unibet is offering 3/1 odds on the current leaders remaining there until the rest of the season. Again, this a great price considering they are indeed top of the league.
So, what does this all mean?
There’s an unwritten rule in football that suggests the teams at the top of the table over the Christmas period are the most likely to be at the top of the table once the season ends next year. This year as the league has been so unpredictable, that is unlikely to be the case. Nobody has matched Liverpool’s unbeaten form of last season. That probably means that fewer people are confident enough to put an overall season bet on at this early stage. The great news means that this is forcing the bookmakers to put out some very impressive odds to lure more customers in.
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