Soccer betting: Norwich City and Watford are favorites to move back into the Premier League
Can Norwich City and Watford get back to the Premier League in just one season?
The two relegated EPL teams are the top two favorites to win the English League Championship and get back into the top flight for the 2023-24 season. Norwich City is at +500 to spend just one season in the Championship while Watford is at +650 at BetMGM
Norwich has been relegated from the EPL a record six times and its last two EPL stints have each lasted a single year. The Canaries were relegated after the 2019-20 season and then came back into the EPL for 2021-22 after winning the Championship.
A league win in 2022-23 would mean two second-tier titles and two relegations over the last four seasons. That’s quite the rollercoaster.
Watford also spent just one year in the Championship before getting back to the Premier League in 2021-22. Watford was relegated after the 2019-20 season after five years at the top flight and finished second to Norwich in May of 2021 to get back to the EPL. But Watford was 19th a season ago while Norwich City was 20th.
Burnley was the other team relegated from the EPL in May and it opens the Championship season at +1200 to win the league. Burnley has lost key players like defenders James Tarkowski, Nathan Collins and Ben Mee and goalie Nick Pope as the team got knocked down to the second tier for the first time since 2015-16. Burnley spent just one season in the Championship before it was back in the Premier League for six seasons.
The top two teams in the Championship standings at the end of the season are automatically promoted to the Premier League while teams Nos. 3-6 take part in a four-team playoff for the third promotion spot. Norwich City is +135 to get promoted in any fashion while Watford is +190 and Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United are +275 to get promoted. Rotherham United enters its second-tier season with the worst promotion odds of any team at +3300.
A whopping 14 teams have promotion odds between +600 and +1200 — a clear sign that the Championship looks very even in the middle of the table.
Each team in the Championship plays 46 games and the 2022-23 season kicks off on Friday as Burnley visits Huddersfield Town. Wigan and Sunderland joined Rotherham as the other two teams promoted to the 2022-23 Championship from League One while Peterborough, Derby County and Barnsley were relegated to League One for this season.
Championship title odds
Norwich City (+500)
Watford (+650)
West Bromwich Albion (+800)
Middlesbrough (+900)
Sheffield United (+900)
Burnley (+1200)
Huddersfield Town (+2000)
Stoke City (+2000)
Blackburn Rovers (+2500)
Cardiff City (+2500)
Coventry City (+2500)
Luton Town (+2500)
Queens Park Rangers (+2500)
Sunderland (+2500)
Swansea City (+2500)
Hull City (+3300)
Millwall (+3300)
Wigan Athletic (+3300)
Preston North End (+4000)
Blackpool (+5000)
Bristol City (+5000)
Birmingham City (+6600)
Reading (+8000)
Rotherham United (+10000)
EPL promotion odds
Norwich City (+135)
Watford (+190)
Middlesbrough (+275)
Sheffield United (+275)
West Bromwich Albion (+275)
Burnley (+350)
Swansea City (+600)
Stoke City (+650)
Huddersfield Town (+700)
Sunderland (+750)
Blackburn Rovers (+800)
Coventry City (+800)
Luton Town (+800)
Millwall (+800)
Queens Park Rangers (+800)
Cardiff City (+900)
Hull City (+900)
Wigan Athletic (+900)
Blackpool (+1200)
Preston North End (+1200)
Bristol City (+1600)
Birmingham City (+2000)
Reading (+2000)
Rotherham United (+3300)
