The Panel's EFL Tips: Tom Lee's Best Bets For The 2024-2025 Season

The Panel's Tips For The Championship & League One

• Tom Lee's Panel Tip 1: Burnley To Finish In The Top Two - 7/2 With Ladbrokes
• Tom Lee's Panel Tip 2: Bolton Wanderers To Finish In The Top Two - 4/1 With BetVictor

A world without VAR? 

Blood and thunder football with robust tackling and a distinct lack of gamesmanship the further down the pyramid you go? Sounds like a far off, longed for land to regular watchers of the Premier League.

But buoyed by a fresh, bumper TV deal, tiers two, three and four of English football aren't filling grounds by mistake, and punters are alive the possibilities served up by the Championship, as well as Leagues One and Two. 

Over the course of the 2024/25 season we'll be dipping in to highlight the best opportunities available on each midweek or weekend coupon, but as an appetiser these are teams to look out for from an antepost perspective.

The Championship

Poised to begin their 48^th season in the second tier of English football following relegation in May, Burnley will be firmly focussed on an immediate return to the top flight, just as they achieved as tier two champions in May 2023. 

New boss Scott Parker is not only an expert at getting teams promoted to the Premier League after his excellent work at both Bournemouth and Fulham, but notably his arrival has seen the Turf Moor outfit hold on to key personnel.

Speculation persists about the future of Sander Berge, with both Fenerbahce and Manchester United mentioned in transfer gossip surrounding the Norwegian, but even so Parker has plenty of strength in depth to choose from. 

Don't forget, the Lancashire outfit have spent just three of the last 11 seasons outside of the Premier League, going up as runners up in 2013/14, then as winners of the Championship in both 2015/16 and 2022/23. 

In a division famed for inconsistency, Burnley look set to buck that trend.

Rather than be sucked in by the 6/1 to win the division, take out some insurance and back the Clarets at a tempting 7/2 for a top 2 finish. 

Tom Lee's Panel Tip: Burnley To Finish In The Top Two - 7/2 With Ladbrokes

League One

Like Burnley, another club well accustomed to plying its trade at a higher level is Bolton Wanderers, for whom boss Ian Evatt pleasingly remains at the helm to try and heal the hurt of May's play-off final agony at the hands of Oxford United. 

The departure of influential loan player, Paris Maghoma, back to parent club Brentford is a blow, but the Trotters have been making some handy moves of their own in the transfer market, not least convincing left-sided Hungarian international Szabolcs Schon to join them. 

Schon spent two years in the Ajax academy and could turn out to be a steal. 

After last season's intense frustration, Bolton won't want the play-offs to be their ultimate target, far from it, and a bold bid to win League One is on the cards. 

Relegated Birmingham City and goal-shy Rotherham are other names who'll command plenty of respect, but at 4/1 for a top-two finish it's Bolton who are a confident selection. 

After all, momentum is building following not only consecutive League One finishes of ninth, fifth and third, but also notably silverware in the shape of the EFL Trophy in April 2023. 

Tom Lee's Panel Tip: Bolton Wanderers To Finish In The Top Two - 4/1 With BetVictor

*The price for Tom Lee's double of Burnley and Bolton to both be promoted automatically is currently 33/1