How Do They Get These Odds?

It made me wonder when looking at the League Two odds, how do they get them?

Below is a list of the odds that bookmakers William Hill makes teams for the League Two 1st place next season.

Firstly, the top two teams are teams that have come down and surely they aren`t going to go straight back up – because as we know very well it is hard to change the losing momentum.

Then you look at the bottom teams. You get Barnet 40/1, ok you can expect that but then to have Bury and County at 33/1 – there must be something wrong with how they get the odds.

On the 1st January 2006, County had amassed a small total of 17 points and we were 5 points adrift of the rest of the relegation battlers.

After the Carlisle game we had 51 points, that equals 34 points from 24 games since Jim Gannon took over – surely not the form of joint-second favourites for relegation?

Wycombe at 5th favourites is also dubious – they only just made the play-offs despite going 21 games unbeaten at the start of the season.

In the second half of the season, Wycombe amassed 23 points from 20 games – yet you can get much lower odds on Wycombe than you can on County??

Swindon are league favourites despite winning just 2 of their last 13 league games, and they also have a new manager.

Hartlepool are second favourites despite winning just 2 of their last 14 league games, and with ‘Director of Sport` & Mr Motivator himself Chris Turner likely to play a part in Hartlepool`s season then maybe they are in for a relegation battle?

With the odds very puzzling, I decided to send an e-mail to William Hill to ask them how they get the odds – I will post the response on here shall I receive one.

Swindon – 17/2
Hartlepool – 9/1
Grimsby – 10/1
Walsall – 11/1
Wycombe – 12/1
Peterborough – 12/1
Darlington – 14/1
Shrewsbury – 16/1
MK Dons – 16/1
Lincoln – 16/1
Bristol Rovers – 16/1
Boston – 16/1
Accrington Stanley – 16/1
Wrexham – 20/1
Hereford – 20/1
Rochdale – 22/1
Mansfield – 22/1
Chester – 25/1
Torquay – 28/1
Notts County – 28/1
Stockport – 33/1
Macclesfield – 33/1
Bury – 33/1
Barnet – 40/1