Paddy Power 'pays out' on team to win league title just weeks into new season

Bookmakers Paddy Power claim that they will pay out on one team to win their domestic league - after two matches.

While the Premier League only gets underway next weekend, all three divisions in the EFL have already started, with the Championship kicking off this week.

Europe's other top five leagues also begin later in August, with teams putting the finishing touches on their pre-season preparations this weekend.

It is in Scotland where competitive action is well underway across all four of its top domestic divisions, including the Scottish Premiership.

Celtic have won both of their opening two matches, with Brendan Rodgers' side defeating Aberdeen - who are so far pointless - 2-0 on Sunday.

Rangers, meanwhile, have drawn their first two league games under new boss Russell Martin.

The Gers played for half an hour with 10 men in their 1-1 draw against Dundee on Saturday after defender Nasser Djiga was shown a straight red card.

Celtic and Rangers have occupied the top two places in the SPL in every season since 2018/19, with Celtic winning the title on every occasion bar the 2020/21 campaign, when Steven Gerrard guided the blue side of Glasgow to success.

And after Celtic's win over Aberdeen, Paddy Power declared the title race to be over.

"Right, we've seen enough," they wrote. "We're paying out on Celtic to win the 2025/26 Scottish Premiership!"

The bookmakers made the same announcement last season - doing so after just one match.

"One game in and it's job done for Brendan Rodgers and co. with another Scottish Premiership title secured," they posted on that occasion.

"That's right. The title is heading to Parkhead. Confirmed. Done Deal."

Celtic are already best odds of 2/9 (via Oddschecker) to scoop the title again, with Martin and Rangers hoping to defy those odds to finally take the trophy back to Ibrox.

But the Gers boss' post-match comments after the Dundee draw drew mixed reactions from Rangers fans.

"It's early on," he told Premier Sports. "I'm really pleased that we didn't get beat.

"I know that sounds negative, but going down to 10 men so early in the game, and then the willingness to drive and try and win the game, I enjoyed that side. But we have to play with that mentality all the time. We'll make sure that days like today don't happen too often."