:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/52838997/78063320.0.jpg)
We're back! Now that Christmas is over and you've paid for the giant train set, socks, beauty treatments and Commodore 64's it's time to get back to doing what football fans love the most, putting down cheeky fivers at the football.
The next chance to do so on Reading comes tomorrow at Derby, so how do the oddsmen think we'll be getting on at Pride Park?
All odds are best available and taken from Oddschecker.com on Friday morning and in all seriousness, please do gamble responsibly. #gambleaware
Match Result
| Derby Win | Draw | Reading Win |
| 10/11 | 5/2 | 7/2 |
Derby are the strong favourites for this one at odds just a tad below evens at 10/11. Those odds are hardly surprising given they've not lost at home since September 24th and have won six of the eight games since then. What's even more concerning for the Reading strikers is that Derby also haven't conceded a single goal at Pride Park since that defeat, a run that stretches to an impressive 12 hours.
Couple that with Reading inability to shut the door away from home, with 15 goals leaked in the last five matches and it's hard to see us walking away with all three points here. Such fears are well reflected in the odds, as a successful £10 bet on Reading to win will see you pick up a cool £35 profit.
First Goalscorer
| Player | Odds |
| Y Kermorgant | 9/1 |
| D Samuel | 9/1 |
| D Rakels | 9/1 |
| G McCleary | 10/1 |
| R Beerens | 12/1 |
| J Mendes | 12/1 |
| J Swift | 16/1 |
Derby dominate this market with James Wilson (9/2), Nick Blackman (9/2), Darren Bent (11/2), Matej Vydra (11/2), David Nugent (13/2), Tom Ince (13/2), Andreas Weimann (15/2), Johnny Russell (8/1) and Abdoul Camera (17/2) ALL being ranked a better chance than a Reading player to score first.
Good gravy those are some impressive attacking options, good luck Tiago....
From the Reading side it's a predictable mix, with Yann Kermorgant top of the pile at 9/1. I'm not sure if he's still on penalties after his latest miss but nearly 10/1 odds for your lone striker is always good value.
If you do fancy Tiago Ilori to score on his Reading debut, you can get 60/1 with 32Red.
Championship Betting
Reading's odds have fluctuated wildly over the last month or so, ranging from as low as 3/1 out to as much as 9/1 after the defeat at Leeds. Now we're back to somewhere in the middle, with the latest best price of 13/2 with SkyBet. Newcastle (1/14) lead the way, with Brighton (1/6), Leeds (9/4), Sheffield Wednesday (100/30), Derby (6/1) and Huddersfield (6/1) all more fancied than us right now.
If you do fancy us for promotion I'd still highly recommend waiting until after this weekend's games to back us. It's very hard to see Reading walking away with a win at Derby and any defeat usually causes the odds to drift, so you could be looking at some much more tempting odds in 48 hours time. That's unless we stuff them of course....
A top six finish is 10/11, to win the division we're 125/1, while to get relegated we're valued at 500/1!
That's all for this week, as mentioned please gamble responsibly and enjoy the weekend.