York City Knights are bookies’ favourites to prop up Championship (From York Press)

York City Knights are bookies’ favourites to prop up Championship

3:54pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Knights RL

YORK City Knights kick off the 2012 season as rank outsiders for the Northern Rail Cup and favourites to prop up the Co-operative Championship table.

Odds supplied by online betting shop bet365.com could well be used now by Knights player-boss Chris Thorman to gee up his players to prove their doubters wrong.

Bet365 have the Knights way down in joint-14th place in the Northern Rail Cup list, pricing the Huntington Stadium outfit at 40-1 to lift the trophy come the end of July, alongside Championship One side Workington.

Only Toulouse, Doncaster, South Wales and perennial Championship One strugglers London Skolars and Gateshead have longer odds, with four teams from the division below York thought by the bookmaker to have a better chance.

York also prop up the odds list in the Championship, rated the longest shots to win the title, at 66-1, alongside Hunslet. The next team up are Swinton at 33-1, while the other promoted side, Keighley, are rated 16-1.

The favourites with bet365 for both the league and Northern Rail Cup are champions Featherstone, at evens and 10-3 respectively.