PRO PUNTER Dino Vita (@VitaDino) delivers his verdict on the ante-post Scottish Championship markets, picking out his best pre-season bets for the 2018/19 campaign.
WLB Season Preview 2018/19 | Scottish Championship
The Scottish Championship gets underway this week and it could be the most competitive league from north of the border. At least six of the 10 teams will believe they can take top honours.
Relegated duo Ross County and Partick will be hoping they can bounce back at the first opportunity, while Dundee United have recruited well, replacing Scott McDonald with Nicky Clark from Dunfermline.
Inverness could be the dark horses – demoted the previous season, it took manager John Robertson quite a few games to get his new team settled. However, after Christmas, Caley started to put a good run together, just missing out on the play-offs as they also won the Challenge Cup.
Falkirk and Dunfermline will both be hoping they can push for at least play-offs. The duo have lost players in the summer so will be interesting to see how they settle in the first few games. Dunfermline have won all four of their League Cup ties and will enter the new campaign with confidence.
Queen of the South, Ayr and Morton have also done well in League Cup and will have aspirations for making play-offs also. But with such a tight division, I think they’ll be hoping to avoid the play-off spot at the bottom, rather than the top.
The betting angles
Queens have kept striker Stephen Dobbie for another season and he has finished Top Goalscorer in the league in each of the past two terms. He is again the one to watch so back him at 7/2 (McBookie) to take a hat-trick of top gongs with Nicky Clark a nice alternative at 7/1 (McBookie).
Lastly, Alloa have done superbly well to come up through the play-offs but as the only part-time side in the division, I think they’ll find the step up difficult and I feel there the best bet in the league To Finish Bottom (2/1 McBookie).
As I’ve said, you could make a case for many of the teams in this division to win promotion so will be interesting to see how the league looks after 10 games and I feel that’s when we’ll know who’s the more likely to sustain a real promotion challenge.
Best Bets
2018/19 Scottish Championship – Alloa to finish bottom (2/1 McBookie)
2018/19 Scottish Championship – Nicky Clark to be Top Goalscorer (7/1 McBookie)
2018/19 Scottish Championship – Stephen Dobbie to be Top Goalscorer (7/2 McBookie)
