UK Football Ante Posts 2026/27
Here are my football ante posts for the 2026/27 season:
Singles
2nd August 2026
League 1 - Luton outright 7/1 William Hill, Coral, Ladbrokes, each-way (3 places)
League 1 - Luton to be promoted 11/4 Bet 365, 5/2 William Hill, Coral, Ladbrokes
League 2 - Grimsby outright 12/1 Bet 365, William Hill, Betfred, each-way (3 places)
League 2 - Grimsby to be promoted 11/4 Coral, Ladbrokes, 5/2 Bet 365, Betfred
Multiples
Multi 1 - posted 2nd August - 26.75/1 four-fold with Coral, Ladbrokes, 24.26/1 William Hill
- Arsenal outright (Premier League), 7/4
- West Ham outright (Championship), 7/4
- Luton top 6 finish (League 1), 4/6
- Grimsby top 7 finish (League 2), 5/4
Multi 2 - posted 3rd August - 9.47/1 four-fold with Bet 365, 9.38/1 William Hill, 9.03/1 Paddy Power
- Arsenal top 2 finish Premier League (4/7 Bet 365, Hills, 8/15 Paddy)
- West Ham to be promoted Championship (8/15 Bet 365, 1/2 Hills, Paddy)
- Luton top 6 finish League 1 (8/13 Bet 365. 4/6 Hills, 8/15 Paddy)
- Grimsby top 7 finish League 2 (11/8 Paddy, 5/4 Bet 365, 6/5 Hills)
Bet Reasoning (3rd August 2026)
Premier League
ARSENAL brought to an end a 22-year title drought last year and ended up finishing seven points clear of their nearest pursuers, Man City.
The Gunners' success was built around a tight defence, which ranked top of the league in terms of xGA, and although they ranked behind Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool for xGF, they still finished comfortable, and deserved, champions.
Arsenal had finished runner-up three times prior to that and you wondered if they'd ever win the league again, but the capture of Gyokeres benefited them eventually, having lacked fire power for so long, and with their main title rivals undergoing changes in the dugout this summer, continuity and a settled, winning, side, could prove key this term.
Man City have since lost Pep Guardiola and Liverpool have a new man at the helm in ex Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, who is entitled to need some time to settle into his new surroundings.
Man Utd are a club on the up again and Chelsea have made some interesting summer signings - not only Morgan Rogers from Villa but, unlike some, I actually really like the additions of old boys Welbeck and Henderson, for which they have been knocked, as there are some unruly characters in the Stamford Bridge dressing room and they could help keep the younger egos in check irrespective of how many minutes they actually get on the pitch.
Spurs have recruited well and could also be a drastic improver this season under De Zerbi, however, it still only looks like two clubs, possibly three if Iraola hits the ground running at Liverpool, are realistic title challengers right now.
You just look at the strong Arsenal defence - with a top-class core of Gabrial and Saliba infront of Raya - and you know they have such a strong platform to build from again this season. For all Man City have Haaland, I am still not convinced they have replaced De Bruyne and their defence remains questionable at times.
With regards to summer business, Arteta's men have have been quiet (as have most with the World Cup dominating the summer) but they have been linked with want-away Newcastle midfield Bruno Guimaraes, who is back from a World Cup stint with Brazil and reportedly has told his employers he wants to make the move to North London, and fellow countryman Vini Jr, who has had issues with Jose Mourinho, his new Real Madrid boss, in the past, and may potentially be allowed to move on from the Bernabeu this summer.
Should Arsenal land either of the Brazilians then they would make even stronger appeal to go back-to-back.
Championship
Southampton finished like an express train last season before being booted out of the playoff final following 'spygate' in the lead up to their semi-final clash with Middlesbrough. Saints now start the season with a -4 pt deduction, however, which dents enthusiasm for their title chances, while Boro have lost several key men following their defeat to Hull at Wembley - standout performer Hayden Hackney has moved to Everton in a £19.3m deal and Dael Fry - another key man - has moved on to Birmingham following the expiration of his contract at the Riverside.
Sheffield United are respected now Chris Wilder is back in charge for a full season. They soon realised sacking him was a mistake last summer and re-instated him by September after firing Reuben Selles' after their horrific start - losing all six matches. While they likely won't have the handicap of a similarly bad start this time around, their squad might just need a little bit of freshening up nevertheless.
Although WEST HAM haven't had the smoothest of summers, with plenty of disruption going on behind the scenes (joint-chairman David Sullivan stepping down) and losing Fernandes to Spurs and Summerville to Al-Hilal in Saudi, they have still retained a good chunk of their Premier League squad and they might just have too much class for everyone.
Despite his family ties to the club, I was really surprised the Hammers have managed to keep hold of England international Jarrod Bowen - who many would have taken to the World Cup. There are rumours that Amanda Staveley might be leading an investment group looking to buy a 25% stake in the club, so if those rumours have some substance, perhaps that is how they've managed to convince Bowen to stay - he'd walk into most teams outside of the top six in the Premier League, let alone any side in the Championship.
West Ham will certainly have a good budget to offset their Premier League wage bill. Not only do they have parachute payments to soften the financial blow of relegation, the ca. £165m they've generated from the sale of Fernandes and Summerville is massive, while they have shifted a ridiculous amount of season tickets too - over 50,000 now - which means they will be one of the best-supported sides the Championship has ever seen.
Nuno Espirito Santo, harshly treated at Nottingham Forest after his relationship with the owner broke down, has won the Championship in the past with Wolves, of course, and knows what it takes to get out of the division. Wolves went up with four games to spare during his first season in charge and he will be a big pull for potential signings. Retaining him, for his knowledge of the division, is a coup in itself.
West Ham have been linked with Manor Soloman, who is surplus to requirements at Spurs and was sent out on loan to Fiorentina in January, and he'd be a great addition to the Championship - a league he knows from his time at Leeds - with his pace.
Midfielder Arne Engels is also on their radar - if they can snare the Belgian away from a host of other clubs circling in Europe - by offering stronger assurances of game time. The £25m-rated 22-year-old is entering the final few years of his contract so Celtic are seemingly willing to cash in.
Simon Adingra and Wilson Isidor at Sunderland have also been linked with summer moves to the London Stadium.
Work is certainly needed to improve a squad that ranked 17th for xGF and 19th for xGA in the Premier League last season, but at least West Ham won't have to worry about VAR in the Championship - having a late goal disallowed in their game against Arsenal during the run-in left a bitter taste and some would argue they were a bit unlucky to go down in the end. They're now dropping a division.....they rate the ones everyone else has to beat, including Wolves, who were an absolute disaster last season but who have replaced Rob Edwards with Gil Vicente boss Cesar Peixoto - who knows how he'll fare in the Championship?
Bowen could tear up the Championship and the core of what should be a good squad for the Championship remains - I'd just like to see some defensive reinforcements, but Axel Disasi, who was on loan from Chelsea in the latter part of the season, has been linked with a permanent move and there is seemingly money available to strengthen before the window shuts.
League One
LUTON are a strong each-way outright fancy in League One.
Leicester and Sheff Wednesday, who are at the top of the betting, have had a bit of squad churn this summer, whereas Luton finished 2025/26 like an express train, they've signed Kasey Palmer (key man on loan last year, and runs midfield), and now Jack Wilshere has had time to settle into his first job in management, I think they'll have a big season.
There were rumours (and they may have been just that) that Leicester had been interested in bringing in Wilshere, so he's got a few admirers for what he did when taking over from Matt Bloomfield last term, and Luton did win the Football League Trophy last term.
Luton ranked fifth for xGF and third for xGA in the league last season, so they were a little unfortunate not to sneak into the play-offs with a late surge that seemed to pick up pace from March onwards. They were unbeaten in their last 11 matches, winning eight, and Wilshere now has a clearer idea of what is needed at this level.
There is a good foundation for the Hatters to build on and Kenilworth Road will remain a tough spot for visitors - if they can convert some of those home draws into wins and become a little bit tighter away from home then they have the potential to better their seventh-place finish last season.
The experienced George Johnson looks a strong addition at centre-back following his free transfer move from Bolton and although full-back Harrison Ashby never fully broke into the strong Bradford side while on loan from Newcastle from January onwards last season, he's shown during a previous loan at QPR that he's capable of performing at level above League One.
Luton suffered back-to-back relegations after dropping out of the Premier League and they have continued to re-shape their squad this summer. Christ Makosso, who was loaned out to Oxford last season, has been sold to Auxerre for £2m and is one of the latest departures, but Luton still have a squad more than capable of competing this season - they were sent off 4/1 favourites last season.
With respect to the other teams in this division, Huddersfield would have made more appeal had they replaced Liam Manning with a coach with more experience than Martin Drury, as they have an expensively assembled squad that hideously underperformed for Lee Grant last term and didn’t fully convince for Manning (albeit difficult circumstances) or Drury during his caretaker spell, either, in truth.
Plymouth deserve credit for sticking with Tom Cleverley when the going got tough and they, too, are potentially big improvers this term, as they also finished last season well - but all too late.
It will be interesting to see how Stockport - who have been thereabouts for the last two seasons - fare now Dave Challinor has been replaced by Rochdale's Jim McNulty.
With regards to my own beloved Bradford, we had an absolutely fantastic season last season, finishing fourth, but our performances in the second half of the season dropped off and we stopped creating chances in abundance as we had done up to September. I am not totally convinced Graham Alexander has filled the gaping hole in central midfield now Jenson Metcalfe has moved up a division to join Millwall and Max Power, his central midfield partner, has forced through a move back to Wigan for personal reasons.
The current replacements, Henry Cartwright from Leicester and Callum Connolly from Stockport, have big boots to fill. The latter hasn't convinced in midfield in pre-season.
It may be that there are further summer arrivals coming in - a recent Yorkshire Post piece with Alexander suggested his summer recruitment hasn't stopped, so it might be best to reassess Bradford's chances when it looks like the transfer window is closer to shutting.
Central midfield concerns aside, workhorse Jake Beesley could be smart addition up top and Adam Phillips will add goals from midfield. Jon McCracken has been brought in to rival GK Sam Walker and could potentially upgrade another area.
With a few strong signings, my enthusiasm for City's chances would increase, but I am looking at two big teams for League One in former Premier League champions Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday, who are keen to make up for lost time after a dead season in the Championship last year, as well as play-off regulars Stockport and the anticipated improvers mentioned above - Luton, Huddersfield and Plymouth - and I'm thinking it would be a superb managerial performance from Alexander if Bradford were to finish in the play-offs for a second season in a row.....we'll see if any further faces arrive in the coming weeks!
League Two
League Two looks competitive this year but Salford, for one, don't intend on hanging about. Winger Luke Molyneux is a fantastic capture for the fourth tier after having a fine season in League One for Doncaster. Even more impressive is the capture of striker Macauley Longstaff for an undisclosed fee from Championship side Millwall.
Although things didn't quite work out for Longstaff at the Den, he bagged 29 goals in 49 games for Notts County in League Two three years ago and Salford will be the envy of the division. However, they have replaced Karl Robinson with Peter Cklamovski in the dugout after their play-off defeat to Notts County.
I know little about the new manager, who has worked in Japan apparently, but Salford and their 'class of '92' owners must have done their due diligence, given the money they are chucking about......maybe his appointment will prove a masterstroke.
Bristol Rovers finished 2025/6 strongly under Steve Evans and have had a busy summer of recruitment (typical Steve Evans) so you'd imagine they will be in the mix - just as the market implies they will be as they are 8/1 for the title behind Salford (5/1).
I just wanted something at a bit bigger price, however, so GRIMSBY make some appeal at 12/1.
The Mariners appointed former Crewe boss David Artell a few seasons ago and they finished two points out of the playoffs in ninth in 2024/25, before suffering a play-off defeat at the hands of Salford after improving to finish seventh last term.
Grimsby have a decent core of former Bradford players - including promotion winners Jamie Walker and Andy Cook - as well as some talented younger players such as Jaze Kabia, so I'll be looking out for their results, but that sentiment aside, the stats suggested they could have actually finished higher than seventh last year - they ranked second only only to Barnet for xGF and fourth for xGA.
Given their apparent year-on-year improvement under Artell, I'm hoping this season is the one they can secure promotion, and if an unbeaten pre-season (which included a win over Wigan last weekend) is anything to go by, the signs are promising.
Port Vale are respected following their relegation, while it wouldn't surprise if Rotherham suddenly bounced back to form in League Two either. Steve McLaren is in the background there now and you cannot knock the League Two scoring record of their latest recruit, Paul Mullin, who is looking to put behind him a frustrating season of loan spells at Wigan and Bradford in League One.
Barnet posted good xG numbers last year and were another I considered backing around 10/1. They only just missed out on the playoffs last year due to a bang-average home record but they were outstanding away and their points total on their travels was bettered only by MK Dons (league runners-up). I just wanted to see the Bees add a bit more quality to their attack to convert the chances they are creating.
Chesterfield underperformed for us last year but have enough quality in their squad to give it more of a go this year if they can avoid dropping so far off the pace this time.
York, as a promoted side with momentum and financial resource, would have made appeal had they not bizarrely replaced their manager this summer after their last-gasp promotion from the National League.
All in all, the Artell project at Grimsby and a hungry (and apparently lean-in-pre-season) Andy Cook swayed my decision.
