Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
The Road to Riches Weekend of 4th-5th October
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Newcastle, Newmarket, Redcar and Wolverhampton.
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Chelsea v Liverpool and Leeds v Tottenham
- Rugby Union, the final round of the rugby championship, Australia v New Zealand and Argentina v South Africa
- Formula One, the Singapore Grand Prix
- Golf, The Baycurrent Classic on the USPGA and the Spanish Open on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis, The ATP Shanghai Rolex Masters continues
Free Tip
Rugby Championship Round 6 Australia v New Zealand Perth 6.30am Saturday
The last round of the 2025 Rugby Championship, one of the most even/competitive in years. South Africa lead New Zealand by a point both having won three games. Australia in 3rd are a long shot to win the Championship. They need to win here and hope Argentina upset South Africa this weekend at Twickenham.
It’s a shame that there is no Rugby Championship next year, the tournament is moving to being held every other year with the advent of the Nations Championship.
Last week at Eden Park, Auckland, the toughest of the New Zealand venues for an away side Australia were 20-3 down in round 5, fought back to 26-24 down in the second half then conceded a late try after a 70th minute yellow card to lose 33-24, a competitive performance.
Australia’s revival over the last six months has been good news for World Rugby. Their fitness level is impressive and the rugby league strain in their play has them attacking in numbers and at pace. Their defence needs some attention and they are short of depth at scrum half and fly half. They have been relying on veteran James O’Connor (Leicester Tigers bound shortly) at 10, and he is not a game controller/kicker out of hand when circumstances require, but he can prompt some dangerous attacking patterns.
For this week, the return fixture in Perth key forwards Will Skelton and Rob Valetini (on the bench) are back and we saw the impact of the power and physicality of both in their impact on the Lions series during the summer. Scrum Half Tate McDermott misses the match with a hamstring injury suffered last week and veteran Nic White has again agreed to postpone his retirement for this week.
Lock Skelton returned to his French club after helping the Wallabies to one win and one loss on their tour of South Africa, while loose forward Valetini has been in and out of the side this year because of a recurring calf issue.
Prices for this game are Australia +4.5 on the spread and 13/8 outright (New Zealand 8/15). With Skelton and Valetini back, I am going to have a small value bet on Australia outright. They are not far off.
10 points Australia to win at 13/8 Betfred, 6/4 generally
Sub-optimal
The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) is proposing reducing the number of professional sides in Wales from four to two in a radical plan which includes its "optimal solution" for transforming the struggling game.
A six-week consultation period is concluding where the Union presented its favoured option to stakeholders before a final decision on the plans, which was expected to be made by the end of September.
Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets are currently the four professional men's sides in Wales, but the WRU is suggesting the number of teams is halved. The news comes despite the fact that Ospreys have plans to move into a revamped stadium at St Helen's in Swansea for the 2026-27 season, while Scarlets have recently unveiled new investors.
Dragons said this week that elite professional rugby must continue in Gwent, while Cardiff are currently owned by the WRU.
It remains unclear whether the two future sides being proposed will be new entities or existing teams. There could be 50 players in each men's squad with a budget of £7.8m each.
The Union says the two squads would feature predominantly Welsh-qualified players, while there would be a rethink on non-Welsh qualified players. There will also be a transition to contracting of players and staff within central national academies. Phase two would involve the clubs moving to training at one site which will be known as a national campus.
The WRU said in July the current system was failing and unsustainable and that it was looking at a more radical strategy. This came after Wales' men's side had lost a record-breaking 18 international matches in a row and slipped to 12th in the world rankings, while the four regions have struggled in the United Rugby Championship (URC) and European competitions.
The number of professional sides in Wales was most recently reduced in 2004, when the Celtic Warriors ceased to exist after only one year of competing. That came after Welsh rugby had switched from the professional club model to a regional system of five sides in 2003.
Reaction to the intended proposals has been universally negative whether it be fans of the existing four teams, current players, former players or journalists.
The essential problem a franchise model has in Wales is that Welsh rugby is village v village, town v town, it’s tribal. Asking people from Maesteg and Neath to support Swansea, or Pontypool to support Cardiff hasn’t been an easy process that cutting to two franchises will make even harder.
As recently retired Wales hooker Ken Owens said after the announcement
“The issue with all this is, we’re forgetting about the cultural element of it and what the effect of dropping 2 teams, going from 4 to 2 is going to have on communities across Wales and no one’s really listening to that”
Other points raised include
- On match days 46 pro players will be involved rather than the current four team number of 92. This doesn’t seem like it is expanding opportunities at the highest club level possible for Welsh talent.
- It would only make sense if they remove the 25-cap rule as loads of players will simply go elsewhere if they can’t play in Wales.
- The 2 remaining teams will just fill the teams with non-Welsh players to compete and win in club rugby. Where does that leave the pathway for Welsh players? It’s short-sighted.
- The WRU rips up 20 years of work and dedication of the four Regions to solve their own inadequacies. All the problems in Welsh Rugby at the moment stem from the WRU.
- The £7.8m playing budgets would be less than the best funded pro clubs were operating on five years ago.
- If two new teams are made then who wants to play for a team with no history and no loyal and passionate supporters? All the best Welsh players will want that and find it outside of Wales.
- The top end comes first but it needs to be underpinned by grassroots...Wales has gone top heavy for too long and it has eroded the game’s foundations.
This will be the type of feedback being given in the current consultation process.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 27th-28th September
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Bath, Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield and Musselburgh.
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Newcastle United v Arsenal
- Rugby Union, the opening weekend of the Gallagher Premiership season.
- Golf, The Sanderson Farms Championship on the USPGA and the Alfred Dunhill Links at Carnoustie on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis, ATP Rolex Shanghai Masters.
Free Tip
2025 Ryder Cup Top European Points scorer
Looking back over the 2018-21-23 Ryder Cups Rory McIlroy, the one player we would confidently expect to play all five sets of European team matches in 2025 has played in the following positions
2023 1st pair once 4th pair three times
2021 3rd pair once 4th pair twice (didn’t play one round)
2018 first pair once, second pair twice, fourth pair once
So overall Position 1: 2 Position 2: 2 (but not since 2018) Position 3: 1 Position 4: 6
I’d suggest as the “banker” player this time he’d go out 1st (maybe Rahm/Hatton leading off first morning) and/or 4th pair (McIlroy with Lowry/Fleetwood) in 2025, but here I would also suggest he would run into Bradley doing the same with Scheffler and DeChambeau, his two “bankers” across two pairs.
Rory is 9/2 top European scorer, but the matchups that are likely are going to make that bad value. He’s a dog to Scheffler in most pairings, everyone is.
Fleetwood is suggested as another player who might play five rounds, but he is a McIlroy partner, twice out of four pairs in 2023.
So who else might play all four pairs pre-singles?
We can rule out Hojgaard, Fitz, Straka (a rookie and foursomes players). Rahm playing on LIV is 5/1 second favourite, but I am not a huge fan of LIV form. Hatton has temperament problems. Rose is a big ask to play five rounds as a veteran. Lowry is tied to McIlroy’s fortunes. MacIntyre and Aberg: maybe.
In 2023 Viktor Hovland played all five matches (3.5 points). In 2021 he played all five (1 point).
Firms offer 1/4 3 places at up to 10-1 about Hovland. Isn’t he great value to a) play a lot b) miss going out 1st or 4th against Scottie and/or Bryson and c) finish top 3 in this market?
10 points each way (1/4 1,2,3) Viktor Hovland Top European Points Scorer at 11/1 Sky Bet, 10/1 BetVictor and Paddy Power, 9/1 Betfred
All Change
The men’s T20 Vitality Blast will be reduced from 14 to 12 group-stage games from 2026 to streamline the competition and ease the workload on players in the latest reshuffle of English domestic cricket.
The reduction in the number of games will allow the competition to be played in a block with Finals day held before the Hundred starts in Augus, rather than before, stumbling back to life in September.
The hope is that this will enable counties to retain overseas players for the entire competition period, play games on more sellable days of the week and give players more rest between matches. It will also greatly reduce the number of back-to-back fixtures.
The 18 first-class counties voted through the change in line with the recommendations of the county-led men’s Domestic Playing programme review and in harmony with the wishes of the players’ union, the Professional Cricketers’ Association.
The counties will be divided into three regional groups of six with counties playing each other home and away, plus one home game and one away game against a county outside their group giving each county an opportunity to play every other on a rolling basis.
Attendance figures for the Blast have fallen sharply since a peak of 950,000 tickets sold in 2019, knocked first by Covid and then by the introduction of the Hundred in 2021. The review’s steering group, believes that rejigging the fixtures alone will not be enough to reinvigorate the Blast and more innovative moves such as the introduction of a central investment fund will be needed.
Where there has previously been widespread county opposition to any reduction in the number of lucrative Blast games, the Hundred windfall has given the counties more wriggle room.
Meanwhile the Hundred could be changed to a T20 competition as soon as next year. The 100-ball format is enshrined in the ECB’s domestic TV contracts with Sky Sports and the BBC until 2028 but both broadcasters are open to switching to T20 next summer if requested by the newly formed Hundred board, a change of heart from both.
The sale of, in most cases, minority stakes in the eight franchises for £520m this year has altered the power dynamics, however, with the new co-owners expected to have a huge influence over the future of the competition given the collective size of their investment. Four of the joint owners are IPL franchises, two are Indian‑American consortiums, and two are US investment companies.
The IPL owners in particular want to switch to T20 to align with the other franchise leagues where they operate teams in India, South Africa, the US and the United Arab Emirates. The T20 format will also be used in the Olympics when cricket returns after 132 years at Los Angeles 2038, which is particularly significant given India are bidding to host the Games in 2036.
The Hundred this summer is in effect a transitional tournament before the new owners formally come on board on 1 October, when the sales of Oval Invincibles and Trent Rockets are due to be completed.
While Sky and the BBC have resisted ditching the Hundred until this point, there is a growing feeling that it would be better to relaunch the competition with a bang next year rather than make a series of incremental changes. There will be other significant innovations next year, including new team names at some franchises, new commercial deals and a fresh digital strategy.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 20th-21st September
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Bath, Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield and Musselburgh.
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Arsenal v Manchester City and Liverpool v Everton.
- Cricket, England’s T20 series against Ireland continues in Dublin.
- Formula One, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
- Golf, The Ryder Cup next week at Bethpage in New York
Free Tip
English Premiership Rugby 2025 season ante-post
The new season starts next Friday, plays across 18 rounds until the top four in the regular season table play in the post-season knockouts next April-May with the Grand Final at Twickenham.
Last year Bath finished top in the regular season 11 points clear of Leicester with Sale Sharks and Bristol Bears rounding out the top four. Bath beat Leicester in the Grand Final.
For Bath this was the culmination of a five-year rebuild with new coaching, considerable investment in players (Finn Russell etc) under local entrepreneur owners.
Structurally each team operates within a £6.4m player salary cap (with one marquee player excepted) and logically this should lead to some parity depending on recruitment and roster management. It has been possible for Bath to go from the bottom three years ago to the top now and Leicester from 9th to 2nd in two years. This year though there has been relatively little movement into the league in the marquee player category. Many sides are struggling financially relying on benefactor investment.
Santiago Carreras and Henry Arundell to Bath, Louis Rees-Zammit back to rugby at Bristol, Australians Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper to Exeter are the highest profile arrivals this season.
Subject to meeting the eligibility criteria for promotion (ground capacity), the champions of the new Championship season (second division) season will play in a two-leg play-off against the team which finishes 10th in the Premiership table at the end of the regular season. The winner, based on aggregate score, will play in the Premiership for the following season.
This introduces an element of jeopardy to this season for two reasons. Newcastle, tenth for successive years but protected from relegation by lack of promotion eligibility of the Championship winners, have been taken over by Red Bull with significant player recruitment already and more to come. They are no longer short prices to finish bottom. Secondly Worcester Warriors are back, in the Championship as potential winners of the division, also with player investment and a 14,000-capacity modern stadium.
A couple of firms at the time of writing (Bet365, Betfred) offer each-way terms of 1/3 1-2 which give us the opportunity to take on Bath (6/4 favourites to win for a second year) for each way value. Here are the best prices at those firms:
Bath 6/4
Saracens 100/30
Northampton 5/1
Leicester 11/2
Sale Sharks 10/1
Bristol 16/1
Harlequins 28/1
Newcastle Red Bulls 40/1
Gloucester 40/1
Exeter 40/1
Leaving Bath aside for the purposes of this exercise, I do expect Leicester to take a step back following significant retirements and departures and Northampton to recover from their poor season last year. Saracens have Owen Farrell back but look short to me.
I like the look of Sale Sharks, 3rd last year, at 10/1 in a relatively stable year for squad strength across the league. They’ll miss the injured Tom Curry until after the Autumn Internationals but still have a squad with a lot of depth with George Ford, Ben Curry, Tom Roebuck and an entire England International front row when at full strength.
10 points each-way (1/3 1-2) Sale Sharks to win the Gallagher PREM Rugby at 10-1 Bet365, 9-1 Betfred.
Relaunch
A men’s Twenty20 Champions League will be relaunched as soon as September next year, after the tournament was backed by key member countries at the International Cricket Council’s annual conference in Singapore.
Test cricket’s future and a possible split into two divisions may also be decided by the end of the year, after the ICC formalised a working group to reshape the game’s calendar from 2027 onwards. It will be expected to present interim findings and recommendations to the ICC board, chaired by India’s Jay Shah, before the end of this year.
There is now a distinct possibility that the number of Test playing countries may be capped, on the basis that only a few currently make money from the game’s oldest format and that many nations do not have the resources to support the systems required for developing competitive Test teams.
The first iteration of the T20 Champions League was launched in 2008 and lasted until 2014, before the company then known as ESPN Star cut its losses after paying an inflated rights fee of $1bn for the event, having lost out on the first rights to the Indian Premier League.
Cricket Australia, India’s BCCI and Cricket South Africa were partners in the league, and ESPN Star’s rights fees helped to provide the seed funding for the first few years of the Big Bash League, before it began to generate its own significant broadcast rights revenue in 2013.
Since then, the T20 franchise circuit has exploded, and one of numerous complexities for the Champions League will be determinations about which clubs players choose to play for. Some of the world’s top T20 players can take part in at least two and often as many as four or five different franchise leagues per year.
It has not yet been decided how the finances of the new league will be split. Lobbying has continued for a parallel concept where a circuit of T20 tournaments are hosted around the world, bankrolled by Saudi Arabia, but the Kingdom’s future role may be as a potential host for the Champions League.
Among other decisions, the ICC board has approved a qualification model for the cricket tournament at the 2028 LA Olympics.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 13th-14th September
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Bath, Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield and Musselburgh.
- Football, Premier League fixtures include Manchester City v Manchester United.
- Cricket, Vitality Blast T20 finals day and England’s T20 series against South Africa continues in Nottingham.
- Rugby Union, the Rugby Championship: Australia v Argentina and New Zealand v South Africa.
- Golf, The French Open on the DP World Tour
- Tennis, ATP China and Japan Opens.
Free Tip
Rugby championship Round 4
New Zealand v South Africa Wellington Saturday 8.05am
New Zealand beat South Africa 24-17 at Eden Park in round three of the Rugby Championship last weekend. South Africa weren’t too far off the All Blacks in the end, they were attacking under the posts at the end with a chance to draw but paid the price for inaccuracy and a comparatively poor kicking game. Their “bomb squad” of substitutes had got them back into the game from 17-3 down early on.
The result consolidates the All-Blacks’ position at the top of the Championship and they now have 10 points, while the Wallabies are one point adrift in second spot with the South Africa and Argentina level on five points apiece.
It was a vastly improved showing from Scott Robertson’s hosts as they showcased their defensive strength with a number of outstanding defensive stands. The Springboks will need to shore up their suspect lineout in Wellington this weekend for Round four. They had the edge at scrum time but the kicking game was imprecise.
All week coach Rassie Erasmus has rued the ‘stupid errors’ that cost his side, and alluded to the coaching staff making mistakes with their selections for the match and forecasting changes for Wellington. These then occurred with seven changes to the starting line-up including dropping Pollard from the match-day 23, returns for de Jager and Wiese in the pack and Reinach and Feinberg-Mngomezulu at 9-10 and the return to a 5-3 bench.
New Zealand have a couple of enforced changes too because of injury plus a couple of big calls too notablhy at scrum-half.
South Africa went off +3 last weekend and are +4.5 (6/4+ outright) for this game, where they should be improved it being clear where they needed work this week, and away from Eden Park. This time we get the 3-point penalty goal onside so I will try the handicap.
11 points South Africa +4.5 points at 10/11 generally
Changing the Hundred
After six months of negotiations after a live-auction process in January six of the eight Hundred franchise sales were completed prior to the 2025 Hundred.
Investors include four IPL franchises and another two winning bids involved Indian businessmen and some other very Bottom of Form
influential business figures amongst them the chief executives of Google and Microsoft in London Spirit and ex-NFL superstar quarterback Tom Brady at the Birmingham Phoenix.
£419m from the six completions has been transferred to the ECB (the £100m due from the sales of Oval Invincibles and Trent Rockets remains outstanding as they have yet to be completed).
The Hundred is likely to look very different in 12 months, however, with the new investors eager to make changes. With such a big Indian presence in the new ownership groups there is a clear majority in favour of switching to Twenty20, the globally recognised short format.
The Hundred’s main broadcaster, Sky Sports, expressed reservations about moving to T20 when the idea was first floated two years ago and its contract runs until 2028, but the power of the new money may be enough to bring it around. The BBC would definitely prefer the shorter format as matches are easier to fit into their evening schedules, but the corporation is not contributing much to the £35m-a-year joint deal with Sky, so will have less influence.
The name of the competition is unlikely to change even if the 100-ball format is dropped, as the ECB has spent more than £100m marketing it in a bid to bring in a new younger audience, which has been largely successful.
While the ECB technically owns the competition, the eight franchises will have 16 of the 20 votes on the new Hundred board that will control its governance.
All of the £520m-plus windfall will be handed over to the 18 first-class counties in the hope of ensuring their financial health for a generation. The grassroots game will receive a £50m investment. Having been tied into ECB commercial contracts since the Hundred began in 2021, the franchises are now free to do their own deals and given the contacts and expertise of many of the new investors, income levels are set to soar.
The so-called “tech titans” who have bought into London Spirit, for example, are already understood to have secured a lucrative new kit deal with Nike that will begin next season, while Sun TV and Reliance Industries (who are buying Oval Invincibles and own Indian TV monolith JioStar) are already working on new overseas broadcast deals.
In the short term at least most of the extra revenue will be spent on increasing the salary cap to attract better players in the hope of establishing the Hundred as the second-biggest short-form tournament after the IPL. With the top salary bracket for men’s currently £200,000 there was a lack of big names in this year’s competition, with Australian stars such as Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell preferring to play in the more lucrative Major League Cricket in the United States. The aspiration is to treble pay within the next few years. Recruiting Indian players would be a genuine gamechanger, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India is likely to continue blocking them from overseas competitions.
The investors have secured a veto on expanding the competition to 10 teams, which has been mooted by the ECB, so while new teams in the North East and South West will not be added imminently the identities of some of the existing franchises will differ from next season.
New names including the Manchester Super Giants have already been agreed, while despite some objections from Surrey the Oval team are likely to be rebranded as MI London, named after the Mumbai Indians, whose owners Reliance Industries Limited bought a 49% stake in the team.
The optics of an injured Ben Stokes pulling out of the Oval Test after bowling himself into the ground in a five-match series with India being crammed into 44 days to keep August free for the Hundred were awkward for the ECB, which has already acknowledged this error. The schedule has been changed next year and England will play two Tests against Pakistan during the competition.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 6th-7th September
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Haydock, Kempton and Thirsk. Over the jumps at Stratford-on-Avon and on the all-weather at Wolverhampton.
- Football, World Cup Qualifiers including England at home to Andorra and away to Serbia.
- NFL, Week 1 of the new Season
- Cricket, England’s ODI series against South Africa continues in Southampton.
- Rugby Union, the Rugby Championship: Australia v Argentina and New Zealand v South Africa.
- Formula One, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
- Golf, The BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on the DP World Tour and the Procore Championship in California on the USPGA.
- Tennis, ATP Hangzhou Open
2025 NFL Season
We have added the NFL 2025 (17 week regular season) to our home page.
Probably the best value package we do. Just £99 for the 17-week regular season
“What to Expect” is live now, free to read here
Ante-Post part one, Team Markets is live now here
Ante-Post part one, Player Markets is live now here
Subscribe for all the game write-ups here
Free Tip
Rugby Championship Round Three
New Zealand v South Africa, Eden Park Auckland, Saturday 7.05am
This is looking like the most evenly fought Rugby Championship in years. In the first two rounds South Africa lost one of two home games to Australia, whilst in Round Two Argentina secured their first home victory against New Zealand. They’ve now beaten New Zealand home and away in the last three years, dramatic progress for a side who only entered the Championship just over a decade ago.
This is South Africa’s first appearance at Eden Park since 2013. Last year they came back from 17-27 in Johannesburg to register a four-point win 31-27. They completed the double in Cape Town over the All Blacks the next week. Their winning streak over New Zealand is now four in a row.
This is the most formidable home venue for New Zealand. The All Blacks have not lost at Eden Park since 1994. They've gone 50 matches without defeat in that time against 12 different opponents There have been two draws – South Africa in 1994 and the Lions in 2017.
To understand the magnitude of fortress Eden Park, consider that South Africa have won four World Cups since the All Blacks last lost there.
There was a common theme in the early stages of this Rugby Championship.
‘The All Blacks are playing like the Springboks, the Springboks are playing like the All Blacks’ ie New Zealand playing with forward power, the kick-chase and a territorial game, South Africa playing expansively.
South Africa were certainly ambitious and for 20 minutes produced some spellbinding rugby to go 22-0 up against the Wallabies in the first round. They then were too loose and were well beaten in the second half. In worse weather in Cape Town in round 2 with Pollard at fly-half and Etzebeth back in the forwards they reverted somewhat to type and won.
For New Zealand their approach came unstuck in Argentina in Round Two when poor discipline resulted in three yellow cards, they were beaten in the aerial game and Argentina kicked lots of penalties. Perhaps playing 30 minutes of the game down a man, we can make allowances for the All Blacks’ struggles in attack but unfortunately their backline failing to really fire has been a common theme over the past 12 months.
They also have an injury crisis at scrum half, with three players injured, the least severely injured is on the bench.
This should obviously be a very close game. New Zealand are -3.5 on the handicap spread but really with New Zealand mid-transformation to a more prosaic chance South Africa will never have a better chance to win at Eden Park. It’s potentially going to be wet on Saturday night, there is going to be a lot of kicking and in those circumstances there is no one better than Handre Pollard at controlling a game.
10 points South Africa to win at 6/4 Betfred, StarSports, 7/5 Bet365
Solvents.
Bath Rugby is facing mounting financial pressure, along with all the clubs in the Gallagher Premiership, as experts warn over the future of the sport. Despite their Premiership win in June which saw them win their first title for 29 years off the pitch there is less to celebrate.
Bath Rugby Limited turned over £20.8m for the financial year ending June 30, 2024. This was up on the £19.7m the year before, but it still made a loss of £3.6m, while its net debt stood at £17.2m.Each of the teams in the Gallagher Premiership was in the red for the financial year ended June 30, 2024.
Runners up Leicester Tigers. The club’s operating company Leicester Football Club Plc made a loss of £3.5m for the period despite turnover increasing to £21m from £19.4m the year before.
In the short term owners/benefactors are responsible for funding the clubs and their debts but the the prospect of the current overall loss-making trend being reversed looks slim. One estimate suggests that 60% of English clubs are technically insolvent at a time when broadcasting rights deals that have placed the domestic sport behind a paywall appear to have peaked and competition from countries like France, drawing top players out of the league with tax incentives, has proved challenging.
Potential approaches such as splitting broadcasting agreements or tapping into other formats, as cricket has done, might be approaches worth considering.
In addition the salary cap is still too high to aid a path to profitability. For the 2025-26 season, the Premiership has confirmed the salary cap is £6.4m, with a number of credits and exclusions, meaning that clubs can spend at least £7.8m plus an excluded player salary.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st June 2025. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £65,960 All bets have an ROI +2.55%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £69,960, a 1649% increase.
