
The League One 2025/26 campaign is right around the corner, promising more twists and turns at both ends of the table. Our football expert Nathan Joyes is on hand to discuss the betting odds, favourites and dark horses to achieve promotion to the Championship.
Having just missed out on promotion at their first attempt at this level, David Chanillor’s Stockport County are well fancied to come out on top. Having scored the second most last campaign, as well as conceding the third least, Chanillor’s team can leave their play-off heartache behind and achieve automatic promotion - and perhaps even the title.
Stockport have been able to attract several players to Edgeley Park, strengthening heavily defensively. Goals certainly won’t be an issue as proven last campaign, and key names coming in such as Tayo Edun from Peterborough and Arttu Hoskonen from Cracovia will make them hard to beat.
Sure, there’s been a few key players that have left, but the spine of the team remains and having run Wrexham close last campaign, it’s difficult to ignore their credentials this time round with the league looking rather open this time round.
Priced as big as 10/1 with
BetMGM, Stockport will be popular in the betting, and it’s difficult to argue otherwise. I’ll put them forward to come out on top each-way at their double-figure price.
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Looking to hunt down Stockport will be Huddersfield and Luton, hoping to return to the Championship as quickly as possible. Luton are in fact the bookmakers favourites at 3/1 with bet365 to bounce back, while Huddersfield are second favourites at 6/1 with William Hill.
The Hatters have been extremely active in the market, making no less than eight signings, including adding forward Nakhi Wells to their frontline. At the other end of the pitch, they’ve brought in Rotherham defender Hakeem Odoffin - who was voted their player of the season last campaign. They’ve also spent over £1m to bring in goalkeeper Josh Keeley from Tottenham - a young man between the sticks with plenty of promise.
Pre-season has also been solid with four wins and a draw against Spurs, conceding just one goal along the way. New faces and a strong summer, Luton will be many punters’ favourites to bounce back at the first attempt.
Huddersfield have had a season to get used to life in League One - but they won’t want to stay there for long. With no standout team - such as Birmingham City - to contend with, Huddersfield will hope to take advantage and achieve promotion back to the Championship. They will look to do that with Alfie May leading the line. The forward has left Birmingham having scored 16 league goals last campaign, and if he stays fit, the Terriers will be difficult to beat.
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The team being spoken about the most away from the big names is Lincoln United. Priced as big as 50/1 with BetVictor, the Imps are a real outside shot to spring a surprise but there’s plenty of optimism from within their camp.
A number of new faces have made their way to Lincolnshire, including Sonny Bradley from Derby County, Portsmouth’s Ryley Towler and promising young striker Joe Gardner on loan from Nottingham Forest.
Playing alongside James Collins - who scored 10 in 20 appearances last campaign for the Imps - there’s a nice squad coming together at Lincoln, who could be outsiders to steal a play-off spot come May.
Lincoln signed off last campaign with wins against Huddersfield and Bolton, before narrowly losing to both Stockport and Wrexham - and if they can put in those kind of performances once more, they will finish closer to the chasing pack than the bookmakers expect.

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