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Most bookies now have prices up for the Premiership.
Celtic are 2-5 with Bet365 & some of the online firms. They're 1-2 on Betfair, before the 5% commission, but there's only ?66 available at that 1.5 exchange price.
Rangers are 9-4 with Lads/Coral, Boyle and Betway.
As things stand, I'd rather be on Celtic at 2-5.
Can Rangers win the title? I'd say they can.
If a Glesga gathering last July had been told that Celtic would fail to win 9 league games and Rangers would "win" the Old Firm head-to-head tally, there would have been a lot of hopeful Proddies and similar numbers of worried Papes.
Celtic got 92 points from 29 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses last term. Rangers recorded 92 points from 29 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses as recently as 2022/23, but still finished 7 points adrift.
My personal view is that the babe-bonking Buddhist will win at least a statistically "normal" number of matches for a team enjoying 70% or so possession. Far more knowledgeable pundits than me disagree. They see Mahatma Martin's Rangers playing 30 sideways passes and being thwarted by "park the bus" tactics.
The problem for Rangers is that Celtic are likely to get more than 92 points next term. I didn't see as much of them as a lot of posters on here will have done, but they sometimes looked bloody terrifying - to a far greater extent than any other Celtic side in recent years.
The "outright" odds below the Old Firm are irrelevant. There will be a fair number of horses starting at 25-1 this afternoon that might be worth an investment. Hearts at 25-1 most certainly are not. It's difficult to see why they're one-sixth the price of Hibs & Aberdeen, both of whom are 150-1. European campaigns will most likely only make a minor difference over the season, Bloom isn't going to be throwing silly money at them and few at Tynecastle believe McInnes to be the Messiah.
No prices up yet for a "Without the Old Firm" market, but Hearts are not going to be one-sixth the odds of Hibs & Aberdeen in that list. Nor are there any "top six", "bottom six", "to finish bottom" or "relegation" prices available just now.
Bookies make the Championship a 3-horse race. They don't see past the relegated duo and Dunfermline. That can be seen as logical, after the promoted team and the relegated team finished 1st and 2nd last term, in a division long on equality but short on quality.
9-4 Ross, 7-2 St. Johnstone, 4-1 Dunfermline, 10-1 Partick, Raith, Ayr, 18-1 Airdrie, 33-1 Queen's Park, 40-1 Arbroath, 50-1 Morton.
I don't see why the Pars are so short. They've been in disarray since before the Germans arrived - and departed - but I suppose the same applied to Falkirk for 4 or 5 seasons before McGlynn arrived. Lennon is hardly McGlynn, at least not in terms of a likely serene canter to a title. The more fans a club has, the more ante-post bets will be taken by bookies in July, so layers are cautious about well-supported teams. I can see no justification for 4-1 though.
If the media and their fans can be believed, Queen's Park resemble Chernobyl with the alarms going off: meltdown is imminent, but the squad they're assembling suggests things remain relatively normal for now.
I like Dougie Imrie, I like Morton, I like Cappielow and I like a trip to Greenock but I reckon my faith in Imrie to mount a play-off charge, if given the rumoured "competitive" budget, is sound and objective.
No odds in the two lower divisions as yet, but East Kilbride is the only team I'd be wary of, were I chalking prices up.
With no Premiership clubs seeming to be in crisis and no Championship clubs about to attract serious "investment" from either flyboys or fools, I don't see a lot of value in the League Cup group odds that have gone up. An 8-team acca for ?1 on the faves pays just short of ?30 with Bet365.
A - 2-5 Falkirk, 7-2 Queen's Pk, 7 Cove, 20 Spartans, 50 Brechin.
B - 8-11 Ross, 19-10 Partick, 6 QoS, 33 Embra C, 40 Stranraer.
C - 2-7 Dundee, 5 Airdrie, 10 Alloa, 14 Montrose, 66 Bonnyrigg.
D - 8-13 St. Mirren, 23-10 Ayr, 13-2 Arbroath, 25 Annan, 40 Forfar.
E - 1-4 Hearts, 5 Dunfermline, 8 Hamilton, 33 Dumbarton, 50 Stirling.
F - Evs St. Johnstone, 13-5 Raith, 7 Inverness, 7 E. Kilbride, 10 Elgin.
G - 1-4 Motherwell, 6 Morton, 12 Stenny, 14 Peterhead, 25 Clyde.
H - 10-11 Kilmarnock, 7-4 Livingston, 9 Kelty, 10 East Fife, 20 Brora.
I've no inclination to invest "early doors."
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