League One promotion odds and prediction: Can the Hatters stop the fall and get back to the Championship?

The 2025-26 League One season promises to be an interesting one, with many teams having high hopes of promotion to the Championship.

The summer transfer window is in full swing, so teams have plenty of time to bring quality reinforcements before the season starts in August, at which point we'll have a clearer picture of which teams will have the best chance to contend for promotion.

In the meantime, we'll take a closer look at the League One promotion odds as they currently stand and check out a few of the main favourites in more detail.

Latest League One promotion odds

Luton Town

The main candidate for promotion are Luton, who were relegated from the Premier League to League One in just two seasons. Last season in the Championship, they finished as the first team in the relegation zone, tied in points with the first team outside of it, but with a worse goal difference.

In any case, Luton still have a good structure in place that helped them reach the Premier League in the first place, so it makes sense that they're the main favourites to get back to the Championship right away. That being said, we've seen teams fall down the EFL ladder before and then struggle to get back to where they were, so this will be a crucial season for the Hatters.

Stockport

After finishing last season in third place, five points behind Wrexham in second, Stockpot have to be taken seriously this time around as well, especially at such exciting odds.

Last season, Stockport were close to direct promotion, but after they finished third, they also failed to secure promotion through the playoffs after losing to Leyton Orient in the semi-finals on penalties.

If they can repeat performances from the 2024-25 season, Stockport will be in the mix for promotion once again and perhaps they'll do better after gaining experience from the promotion race and the playoffs last season.

Huddersfield

At one point last season, Huddersfield were among the main candidates for promotion. After all, they've gone on a 16-game streak without a loss, so many saw them in the Championship already. However, after losing 12 of their last 15 games, they even failed to reach the playoffs.

So, Huddersfield clearly have the quality to be among promotion contenders and if they can be more consistent in their form than they were last season, we could see them at least making the playoffs this time.

Our verdict on the EFL League One promotion

Last season Birmingham dominated and won League One by setting a world record in points, while Wrexham and Charlton were also promoted to the Championship.

This season we have many teams who have such ambitions, so it should be a very close and exciting race. We can see why Luton are the frontrunners based on the current League One odds and we do expect them to get back to the Championship.

However, the value bet, in our opinion, is Stockport. With 3/1 odds, they are not among the main favourites, but they have the quality to fight for promotion, just like they did last season when they finished third in League One standings.

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