Championship

The Championship is the top level in the Football League and the second highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League.

The Championship is a re-branded name of the old First Division. The name change took place in the 2004/05 season.

Twenty-four teams take part in the regular season, playing each other home and away for a total of 46 games per season. The teams finishing in the top two are automatically promoted to the Premier League and the bottom three are relegated to League One. In addition to the automatic promotion, the teams that finish the league season in third to sixth places compete in the Football League Championship Play-Offs, a knock out competition in which the winner is also promoted to the Premier League. The Championship play-off final is the most financially lucrative single match in the world for the winner. In fact, there is no single sporting event that is more valuable to the winners, who end up around £60 million better off than the defeated team. This is mainly due to increased television money from being promoted to the Premier League. Traditionally, the losing team keeps all the gate reciepts from the final so as to reduce the financial blow slightly.

In the play-offs, the third placed team plays against the sixth-placed team and the fourth placed team plays against the fifth placed team in two-legged semifinals. The winners of each semi final then compete in a single match with the prize being promotion to the Premier League and the Championship playoff trophy. The play off final is played at Wembley each season, although between 2001 and 2006 the venue was the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff because Wembley was being rebuilt at the time.

Betting on the Football League Championship is very popular in the UK and all major bookmakers offer odds on individual matches as well as longer term betting on various season outcomes, including play-off winner, champion and who will be relegated.

Championship betting