With the start of the season under a month away the bookies are sharpening their pencils as they fine tune their odds in an attempt to get us to part with our hard-earned cash in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
If you´ve got a spare fifty pence which you can afford to lose, and you´re in for the long haul, then we take a look at the best places to put it to get your money back with a little profit.
Who do the bookmakers think will finish top of the pile, get relegated, win the Grand Final and be the season´s leading try scorer.
League Leaders Shield
The dominant side from the last few years are again favourites to lift the League Leaders Shield and the best odds that you can get on St Helens finishing the regular rounds in top spot is 2/1 (at the time of writing). Wigan are second favourites at 4/1 with the Catalans Dragons a distant third at 7/1 and Warrington Wolves the same bet as the Leeds Rhinos at 8/1.
Newcomers Leigh Leopards will attract some local money at 40/1 or 50/1 and the rank outsiders are Wakefield Trinity at 100/1.
We are struggling to see beyond the bookies favourites but with Paul Wellens taking over as coach, his first appointment in such a role, there is a small chink of light for the chasing pack. Surely Daryl Powell´s Warrington can´t do as badly this season and perhaps last season´s ´Phoenix´ side, Leeds Rhinos, are a decent outside bet.
Grand Final Winner
The odds to lift the Superleague trophy are almost identical to those for the Minor Premiership with Saints again strong favourites. The odds for the outsiders are reduced a little with Leigh 40/1, Hull KR 40/1 and Wakefield 66/1 with the outsiders given more chance of winning in a knockout scenario than over a full twenty-seven round season.
Finishing Bottom
Wakefield Trinity are the bookies favourites to finish the season at the bottom of the pile with odds of 7/4 while Hull KR are 9/4 to prop up the rest. Salford Red Devils are third favourites to have a season of struggles at 8/1 but then there is a big just to Hull FC at 25/1 and Castleford Tigers at 33/1. Leigh are currently not listed on SkyBet, the only site offering a bottom finisher market at the present time.
We feel that this is a lot more difficult to call than the league leaders of Grand Final winners and believe that the bottom of the table will be highly competitive in 2023 with no particularly weak side drawing plenty into the mix.
Leading Try Scorer
The leading try scorer market is much more of a lottery that those discussed above, and the odds reflect that. Wigan´s Bevan French is the clear favourite to get over the whitewash the most times at 5/1, with Saints Tommy Makinson at 10/1 alongside Leeds Rhinos Ash Handley.
You can get 16/1 on Liam Marshall, and 20/1 on Saint´s new boy Tee Ritson, Warrington´s Matt Dufty, Wigan´s Jai Field, Catalans´ Fouad Yaha and Tom Johnstone, and Salford´s Joe Burgess and Ken Sio.
It´s a total lottery.
