Championship Betting
Championship betting in England is 2nd only to Premiership betting in the amount of bets that are placed. All online bookmakers offer good odds on championship football matches with a varied range of different bets available. Championship betting comes in the form of the outcomes of weekly games, title winner, promotion, playoff winner, relegation and more. You can see with all these variants why bets on Championship Football are so popular. Also see the related Championship Playoffs Betting page for more football betting.
About the Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division in the Football League and the second highest-ranking division the English football league system. The league’s official title is ‘the Coca Cola Football League Championship’ due to its sponsorship by the soft-drinks giant but most often it is simply called ‘The Championship’.
Football League Established
The Football League is a competition league that comprises clubs from England and Wales. It was established in 1888 and as such is the oldest football competition in the world. Originally it had four divisions but since 1992 when the Premiership League was founded it has had its current format of 72 clubs divided into 3 divisions.
Overview
The Football League’s three divisions are:
- The Football League Championship
- Football League One
- Football League Two
These were formerly Football League First Division, Football League Second Division and Football League Third Division respectively but the names were changed in 2004 for sponsorship reasons.
League Structure
There are 24 clubs in each division and during the course of each season all clubs in the Championship play against each other twice, one home game at their own ground, and one away game at the opponent’s stadium. In total there are 46 such games in the Championship each season that runs from August till May.
Points are awarded to clubs based on the outcome of each game. A win earns three points, a draw earns one point, but loosing a game earns no points at all. The clubs in the Championship compete against each other for an opportunity to be promoted to up to the Premiership League that is the top league in the English system. At the end of each season the top three clubs in the Championship points table are promoted to the Premiership League replacing the bottom three clubs from the higher league.
Likewise, at the bottom the Championship league the last two clubs are relegated to Football League One.
The Championship is closely fought and at the end of the 2006-2007 season only 13 points divided the top six teams in the table.
In addition to the Championship tables there is also a knockout cup competition, the Football League Cup. Carling are the current sponsors of the competition and so it is also called the Carling Cup. The League Cup was first contested in 1960 and is open to all Championship clubs as well as those from Leagues One and Two. The winner of the Football League cup also earns a place in the UEFA competition.
Football Finances
The current Football League Championship is one the richest leagues in the world outside of the top leagues. In 2004-2005 total attendance for the season was nearly 10 million putting it at the fourth highest attendance out of all of the European football leagues behind the FA Premier League, the Spanish Primera división, and Germany’s Bundesliga. This ranked the Championship attendance higher than Italy’s Serie A and the French Ligue 1.
Many Championshps games are broadcast on television and Sky Sports holds broadcast rights for the games.
Bet on Championship Football with the Championship Football Betting section at FootballBetting.net!
