While Burley points out the bookies rarely get it wrong with Birmingham and West Brom tipped to go up, Colchester are favourites for relegation, with Barnsley, QPR and Southend also expected to struggle.
Bookies: a myth The job of a bookie is NOT to set odds that reflect the likelihood of the various outcomes of an event. It's to set odds that reflect the likelihood of people placing bets on the various outcomes in order to create a balanced book where the bookie wins whatever the outcome. Although not completely unrelated, this is nevertheless a crucially different undertaking. It's perfectly reasonable for us to be favourites to go down, us not to go down and the bookies to still be right. In fact, bookies tend to compete on favourites' odds, where more money is staked at lower returns, so it would probably suit them for someone unfancied to be relegated instead.