Portsmouth heavily backed for Championship promotion as optimism grows ahead of campaign
Belief in Pompey among supports and punters is growing ahead of Saturday’s Championship opener with QPR.
Pompey are being backed by punters for promotion amid a wave of buoyancy around the club ahead of the new Championship campaign.
And that has seen a swathe of betting activity surrounding the Blues this week, ahead of Saturday’s league opener against QPR.
In fact, almost a quarter of all bets staked in the Championship promotion market in a 24-hour period at the start of the week landed on John Mousinho’s men.
That’s according to Oddschecker, who use the most up-to-date betting information from 25 of the United Kingdom’s betting companies.
Optimism is high among Pompey fans at the dawn of their side’s third Championship campaign, in a summer where the club’s transfer spending has been hiked.
That’s seen the likes of Marko Milovanovic (£3m rising to £4.25m), Abu Kamara (£2.5m) and Rocco Shein (£2.1m) arrive in addition to fees paid for Daniel Bielica, Luke Brooke-Smith and Eoin Kenny. Odin Bailey has arrived as a free agent with Benjamin Arthur today joining on loan from Brentford.
That business has generated enthusiasm among bettors who like what they see with Mousinho’s squad going from 20/1 to 12/1 with the bookies, amid that wave of activity.
Recent activity has tailed off in that market with Pompey drifting slightly to 14/1, but the odds point towards a confidence Mousinho’s men will be avoiding a relegation dogfight this term - and open the season in style at Fratton Park this weekend.
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Oddschecker spokesman Chris Rogers said: ‘Bettors piled in on Pompey for promotion with the countdown to the new Championship season almost over.
‘Portsmouth were as big as 20/1 last week but their odds shortened to 12/1 giving John Mousinho's side an implied promotion probability of eight per cent.
‘Almost a quarter (23%) of bets favoured Portsmouth for promotion over that 24-hour period.
‘If the bookies' odds are anything to go by now, Portsmouth could be set for a steady mid-table campaign.
‘Pompey are now 14/1 to win promotion back to the Premier League and 9/2 for relegation (18% implied probability).
‘John Mousinho's side heads into the season opener against QPR as the 5/4 favourites with the visitors priced at 2/1.’