The 2024-25 English Premier League campaign couldn’t have gone much better for Liverpool. In their first year under head coach Arne Slot, the Reds (25 wins, nine draws, four losses) had their second Premier League title sewn up by late April – thus knotting their eternal rivals from Manchester United with 20 championships in the top flight of English soccer.
Despite their convincing victory, Liverpool face an uphill battle if they want to defend their crown. The 2025-26 EPL betting odds at Bodog Sportsbook have the Reds as very slight favourites over this year’s second- and third-place finishers, Arsenal (20-14-4) and Manchester City (21-8-9). And there’s at least one serious dark horse to contend with in next year’s race.
Odds for the Title
Anything can happen in the Premier League, as Leicester City proved in 2016 when they won the league as +50000 long shots on the EPL futures market. But if you’re looking for more plausible title contenders for 2025-26, your choices are limited to the top eight clubs on Bodog’s soccer odds board at press time:
– Liverpool: +200
– Arsenal: +225
– Manchester City: +225
– Newcastle United: +1500
– Chelsea: +1800
– Manchester United: +3000
– Aston Villa: +3500
– Tottenham Hotspur: +4000
Liverpool have been at or near the top of the table since the beginning, although they have yet to replicate their First Division dominance from the 1970s and 1980s; the way money gets thrown around these days, the Reds may have to re-think their quietude around the transfer windows if they want to stay competitive.
Things have already gotten quite expensive for Liverpool. They ponied up to retain the services of forward Mohamed Salah and defender Virgil Van Dijk – but the Reds ultimately had to give up on defender Trent-Alexander Arnold, who’s off to Real Madrid on a free transfer. Rumour has it either or both of left back Milos Kerkez and centre back Dean Huijsen could come over from Bournemouth this summer to help fill the void.
Meanwhile, everyone’s looking at Manchester City to see what they will do with all their money. After watching their streak of four straight EPL titles get broken by Liverpool, the Sky Blues now have the near impossible task of replacing the outgoing Kevin De Bruyne. As always, greater concerns loom over City’s potential punishment for over 100 alleged breaches of the league’s Financial Fair Play rules – if justice ever gets served.
Arsenal have quietly rebuilt their reputation during all this drama. They’ve finished second on the table each of the last three seasons, under the watchful eye of manager Mikel Arteta. There was ample concern over their increasingly concentrated ownership under Stan Kroenke, but he did open up the vault to bring in goalkeeper David Raya (this year’s Golden Glove co-winner with 13 clean sheets, alongside Nottingham Forest’s Matz Sels) and others for 2024-25, so maybe the Gunners can keep improving at the margins for 2025-26.
Of all the other viable contenders in the English Premier League, Newcastle may be the only one with the “right” game plan. Their coffers are very full indeed after the club was taken over in 2021 by a group led by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund; following pretty much the same blueprint as Manchester City, the Magpies jumped to fourth place in 2022-23, but have yet to crack that ceiling after finishing fifth this year at 20-6-11. We’ll soon see what they have up their sleeves for this summer’s transfer window, which runs from June 1-10 and again from June 16-September 1.
Race for Europe
Speaking of money, it’s easy to be cynical about some of these would-be Premier League contenders when they seem more interested in the UEFA Champions League – or even the Europa League, where Tottenham (No. 17 on the EPL table at 11-5-22) just defeated Manchester United (No. 15 at 11-9-18) in the 2024-25 final. That result means United will miss out on European football for the first time since 2014-15.
Thanks in part to the new Champions League format, a record six EPL teams will compete in this year’s tournament: the aforementioned Spurs will join the top five teams on the 2024-25 table, which saw Chelsea (20-9-9) sneak in ahead of Newcastle for fourth. No. 6 Aston Villa (19-9-10) join the FA Cup winners from Crystal Palace (No. 12 at 13-14-11) in the 2025-26 Europa League.
Technically, there’s also the third-tier Conference League, where Nottingham Forest (19-8-11) will play after coming in seventh on the table. There’s a considerable drop-off in prize money between the Champions League and the Europa League, and less money still in the Conference League, but every bit counts – which is why these semi-contending EPL teams are willing to fight it out for sixth or seventh.
Relegation Battle
At the other end of the table, you have the clubs who are desperately hoping just to remain in the Premiership. Every year, the bottom three are relegated to the English Football League Championship, with the following teams suffering the drop for 2025-26:
– 18. Leicester City (6-7-25)
– 19. Ipswich Town (4-10-24)
– 20. Southampton (2-6-30)
As it happens, the way the EPL doles out its “Parachute Payments” and “Solidarity Payments” means these three clubs will have a leg up next year on the rest of the Championship. It’s no coincidence that three familiar faces will be re-joining the Premier League in 2024-25: Leeds United (29-13-4) and Burnley (28-16-2) were promoted directly, while No. 4 Sunderland 21-13-12 earned the final spot by defeating No. 3 Sheffield United (28-8-10) in Saturday’s Championship final.
We’re still waiting at press time for Sunderland’s opening 2025-26 EPL odds, but Bodog already has Burnley in last at +200000; Leeds are tied with Wolverhampton Wanderers (No. 16 in the EPL at 12-6-20) for second-last at +100000. Will this relegation battle keep producing the same teams over and over again? Anything can happen on the pitch, but all that money makes a big difference when it comes to roster quality.
Top Scorer
Did we mention Liverpool shelled out the big bucks for Mo Salah? It’s the most they’ve ever paid: nearly CAD$75 million over the next three years. And Salah is worth every penny, if not more, after winning this year’s Premier League Golden Boot with 28 goals. It’s the fourth time Salah has won this award as the EPL’s top scorer.
We were starting to wonder if Erling Haaland would ever give up his crown. Haaland had his moments this year for Manchester City, taking over as club captain and signing a fat new contract extension; however, he also played just 30 EPL matches to Salah’s 37, and finished third in scoring with 21 goals, behind Newcastle’s Alexander Isak (23 goals in 33 matches).
This year’s race could look dramatically different if Isak joins Salah at Anfield. The talented striker has been linked to Liverpool for several months now, but the Magpies secured their place in the Champions League when Manchester United beat Aston Villa 2-0 on Sunday, making Isak’s transfer much less likely. Even when they’re not relevant, the Red Devils find a way to ruin things for Liverpool.
Player of the Season
As expected, Salah was named Premier League Player of the Season for 2024-25, his second such honour after that magical 2017-18 campaign. Salah was also named Playmaker of the Season with an EPL-best 18 assists, six more than his nearest competition. It’s the first time any Golden Boot winner has swept these three honours.
But will Salah win the coveted PFA Player’s Player of the Year award? This is the honour everyone in English soccer is chasing, and Salah seems very likely to take home the silverware for a record third time. Salah should also be in the running for this year’s Ballon d’Or as the top player in the world, although he’ll face very stiff competition from Lamine Yamal (Barcelona) and Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain).
We won’t know the results until September 22, so the Ballon d’Or odds are off the board at Bodog Sportsbook as we pore over the final results from this year’s domestic European leagues. Having said that, the winner of the Ballon d’Or has been chosen exclusively by soccer journalists since 2016, and since 2022, it’s been one journalist from each of the top 100 countries on the FIFA Men’s World Rankings. For whatever reason, they’ve never even had Salah as one of their top three vote-getters, let alone the winner.
The 2025-26 English Premier League schedule won’t be announced until June 18, but league officials have already let the cat out of the bag: The first matches will take place on the weekend of August 16-17, and the season will end on May 25, 2026. Keep an eye on the EPL odds board at Bodog Sportsbook for the latest soccer lines, and we’ll see you on the pitch for another year of the best in sports betting.