Plenty of Poolie value as Odds appear already

By Albatross
June 1 2004

Pools for the title? Yes, you can already bet on Season 2004/5, less than 24 hours after the lineup for the division was settled. And if you're a Pools Fan looking for value, it pays to shop around....

No sooner has the lineup for Division 2 been finalised, Huddersfield clinching the last place yesterday, than the Bookies have issued odds for the new season. While Pools are not at the same odds as last season (now that's a surprise), we're still a long way from favouritism.

William Hills have Pools are joint 8th in the betting with Oldham at 20/1. This time last year our odds were 28/1, and we were 17th in the list. Favourites this time are Bristol City (9/2), with Sheffield Wednesday not too far behind at 11/2. Tranmere, Swindon, Hull, Walsall and Barnsley all have shorter odds than Pools.

The other two relegated sides are Bradford at 22/1 - not bad for a side that may not even exist by the start of the season - and MK Franchise at 25/1. On last season's showing - both were well adrift of the rest, with Franchise bottom by a distance - those are far from generous odds for those looking for value. Backing both to be relegated again might be a better option!

Favourites for relegation are Chesterfield, currently at 66/1 to win Division 2: the crooked Spirites have though scraped home for the last two seasons. Torquay are 50/1, Peterbrough 40/1, and then Brentford and Wrexham are on 33/1.

Meanwhile, Pools fans looking for better value may want to take a look at HartlepoolBet on the Official Site. The odds on Pools, courtesy of Bet365, have us at 26/1, meaning that we are in effect 13/2 to finish in the top three - certainly there'll be a few Poolies thinking that's worth a punt! There's also more value on Bristol City (6/1), and Sheff Wed are a more reasonable 13/1.

Ladbrokes have also issued odds, but Pools are a more stingy 16/1 - joint 6th favourites. Bristol again top the list at 5/1, with Tranmere 7/1 next.

To say that these odds show that the Bookies know little about Division 2 is a little unfair - they are not in the predictions game after all. Bristol are logical favourites after being in the top 3 for the last two seasons, and Wednesday's odds will no doubt have been adjusted to take account of the number of Owls fans who have still not learnt their lesson and will back their team to get promoted despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Beyond that it's almost a case of pulling numbers out of a hat....

While these early bird odds may be attractive to some, I doubt there will be too many takers. There's bound to be a lot of pre-season activity, and with clubs only starting to announce retained lists, never mind signings, it's difficult to make any sort of judgement on who will be seriously looking at the top end of the table. Certainly recent evidence has shown that there's not much for Pools fans to be worried about next season.