Sunderland +350 Favorite to Win 2019-20 England League One Title

• England’s League One kicks off on August 3
• Sunderland the favorites for promotion, Ipswich not far behind
• Portsmouth looking to make it back to big time

It’s not long now to the start of the English Football League season, and for teams in League One it all gets underway on August 3, 2019, at 10:00 am EST, with a full slate of matches.

English League One Promotion Odds

*Odds taken 07/29/19

At +350 Sunderland are clear favorites to win the title, with Ipswich next at +600 and then Portsmouth at +700. But League One is a notoriously difficult league to predict, and we’ll see if there is any better value to be had and who we think has what it takes to get promoted to the Championship.

Sunderland (+350)

Okay, so there’s not much value on offer here for the punter at 7/2, and it’s not exactly a surprise prediction, but we really believe that Sunderland could run away with the Championship this season.

It’s a massive club whose rightful place in the natural order of English football is in the Premier League, but after almost a decade of off-field mismanagement, they now face their second consecutive season in League One.

But it’s the fact it’s their second consecutive season there, that makes us believe this will be a good one for them. It’s a tough division that comes with its own challenges, but having had a season to get accustomed to the sometimes brutal treatment of the more skillful players, they are now better equipped to deal with it.

For the same reason, we think Ipswich – relegated at the end of the last campaign after 17 seasons in the Championship – won’t be going up this season, although we’d already pencil them in for promotion in 2020/21.

FT: Ipswich 1-1 Birmingham

Ipswich Town have been relegated to League One.#bbcefl https://t.co/bMKHQ8bO1O pic.twitter.com/mozBdKIyGo

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) April 13, 2019

Sunderland, who are well managed by the Scot, Jack Ross, have not gone big in the summer transfer market but have brought in three new faces, all with lower league experience.

More importantly, they have retained all of the players who took them to last season’s playoff final, where they were beaten by Charlton, and so will be more than prepared for the upcoming campaign.

Burton Albion (+2000)

If there’s one thing English punters have learnt over the last few seasons, it’s to never ever underestimate Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion.

Life is rarely dull at the Pirelli Stadium and last season was no exception when the Brewers – despite finishing ninth in League One – went all the way to the Carabao Cup semifinal, a huge achievement for a club in the English third tier.

FT: Boro 0-1 Burton.

Burton Albion are in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup!

Fantastic achievement. pic.twitter.com/WR7AinClha

— Coral (@Coral) December 18, 2018

They were hammered by the eventual winners, Man City, but the team showed its quality to reach that far in the competition, and there’s no doubt their relatively low ninth place in the league was largely down to the distraction of that cup run.

With a limited budget, the low player turnover at Burton often works to Clough’s advantage as he is able to keep a settled team and get them playing precisely how he wants them to. And we think this will be key to the Brewers getting top six and promoted via the playoffs.

Portsmouth (+700)

Pompey, as they are known, are a club who as recently as 2008 won the FA Cup as a Premier League team. But it was a dramatic fall from grace which saw a team that had spent seven consecutive seasons in the Premier League – from 2003 to 2010 – finish season 2014/15 in 16th place in the English fourth-tier.

Since then, their off-field woes have been remedied and they are steadily making their way back up through the divisions but have found League One a tough nut to crack. They took it close last season, to be fair, and spent most of the season in the top two before blowing up in the last few weeks, and ended up losing a playoff semifinal against Sunderland.

Manager Kenny Jackett has been wheeling and dealing over the summer and, as things stand, has brought in no fewer than seven new faces, all designed to take Pompey up a level. And we think Jackett has traded well. For us, Portsmouth have what it takes to make top two.

Our picks: 1st: Sunderland (+350), 2nd: Portsmouth, Promotion via playoffs: Burton Albion