CELTIC will begin their quest for a record-breaking tenth successive Scottish Premiership title when they play host to Hamilton Academical at Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon.
Neil Lennon's side are unsurprisingly big favourites in the ante-post betting with the Bhoys as short as 1/2 with Unibet to clinch the tenth consecutive league crown that they so desperately crave.
The Hoops were in red-hot form before the season came to a halt having made the net bulge 89 times across their 30 league matches last term – an awesome average of 2.9 goals per-game.
Lennon has thus far managed to retain the wealth of attacking talent that he has at his disposal and the Hoops boss has admitted that he is actively looking to add more firepower to his free-scoring forward line.
Standing in Celtic's way on Sunday is a Hamilton Accies side who were perched precariously above bottom-placed Hearts when the 2019/20 season was curtailed.
Brian Rice's battle-hardened side have forged a reputation as one of Scottish football's survival specialists and their knack for beating the drop may have to be relied upon more than ever in the forthcoming season.
Outright Betting
Celtic have won their previous 12 meetings with Hamilton and a home win on Sunday is heavily fancied at 1/10 with Bet 365.
Hamilton are huge outsiders at a whopping 28/1 with William Hill and the draw is also deemed unlikely at 10/1 with the same firm.
Betting Angles
As expected the bookmaker's prices for this match suggest that this will be a one-sided affair and as such punters will have to dig deep to try and generate some value from this fixture.
Therefore, I have decided to be a bit creative by making use of William Hill's Build#YourOdds feature and the combination that I like the look of is Celtic to score two or more goals and Hamilton to receive two or more cards which is priced up at an eye-catching Even-Money (William Hill).
The Bhoys made the net bulge at least twice in 14 of their 15 home games last season and I fancy them to notch at least a couple of goals on Sunday when they come up against one of the leakiest backlines in last season's Scottish Premiership.
Lennon will be desperate for his champs to lay down an early marker and it's worth noting that Celtic have hit 39 strikes across their last 14 matches when hosting Hamilton – an average of 2.7 goals per-game.
With that in mind, I suspect Celtic could be subjected to some rough treatment from a Hamilton outfit who could revert to the dark arts when trying to shackle their superior opponents
Rice's men racked up a nonsensical nine red cards across 30 Scottish Premiership tussles last term and that coupled with the fact that controversial whistler Willie Collum will be the man in the middle on Sunday adds to the appeal of siding with the above-mentioned combination.
I'm also going to delve into Bet 365's Bet Builder with the view to combining Celtic Half Time/Full Time alongside over 2 match goals at 4/5 with Bet 365.
80% of Celtic's home games last season produced over 2.5 goals and their final 13 matches of the last campaign featured three or more strikes.
What's more, I fully expect Celtic to fly out of the traps on Flag Day and the aforementioned Bet Builder looks like a nice way of trying to squeeze some value out of what should be a comfortable home victory.
This Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Hamilton will be played on Aug 2, 2020 and kick off at 16:30. Check below for our tipsters best Celtic vs Hamilton prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
