Dundee United v Rangers Betting Markets
Derek McInnes took charge of the Rangers first team this summer and his remit is simple. End the run of Celtic titles. The Hoops have secured five consecutive successes, with the Gers having been successful just once in recent memory. That was in the 2020-21 season when Steven Gerrard steered the team to an unbeaten season to claim an emphatic victory.
To compound matters, Rangers didn't even finish as the runners-up last season and perhaps that is what prompted the board to plump for McInnes. The 55-year-old came narrowly close to claiming a title with Hearts and perhaps he can go one better with a better squad of players, with the Gers trading as strong favourites to open with a win.
The visitors are priced at 1.53 to claim three points, suggesting that the Old Firm side have a 65% chance of success at Tannadice Park. They were only able to win nine of their nineteen away games last season in the SPL, although McInnes is reshaping the squad and perhaps that will lead to a higher win rate on the road.
Can Dundee United pull off a shock? They were relatively solid on home soil last season. There were seven wins, seven draws and five defeats in total. The Terrors are trading at odds bigger than 5.25, with this giving an implied probability that is lower than 20%. However, they continue to have consistency in the dugout, with Jim Goodwin having been in charge since 2023.
Last season, the teams played out two draws in their three encounters. With this in mind, we should consider that the clash might end all square. The first meeting was a 2-2 draw at Ibrox before exactly the same scoreline was the outcome in early December and Dundee United came especially close to a victory.
Goals Under/Over
Over 2.5 Goals is trading at the same price as a Glasgow Rangers win. The odds of 1.53 intimate that there could be at least three goals in this Friday night encounter. It's easy to include this in a Scottish Premiership Bet Builder when you consider that each of the three clashes between Dundee United and the Gers last season resulted in at least four goals.
After the two teams played out a couple of 2-2 draws to kick things off, there was then a 4-2 victory for Rangers who were chasing down a title at the time. Dundee United effectively have a free hit when it comes to this game. Nobody is expecting them to win and they can certainly get on the front foot and try to create chances.
Some punters might want to push the boat out and go for Over 3.5 Goals considering that this outcome had a 100% strike rate last term. The same applied with the two last encounters in the previous campaign.
BTTS
The bookies think that BTTS Yes is a likely outcome and this is priced slightly bigger than Over 2.5 Goals. Odds of 1.61 suggest that there's a 62% chance that both sides will find the net. The past six meetings between Dundee United and Rangers have seen this outcome, with the home side having the impetus to attack in search of landing a positive result.
If you do think that McInnes will get off to a winning start since switching from Hearts, you might want to consider pairing the BTTS Yes outcome with an away win. This means getting an odds-against selection by combining two odds-on picks. It would come as no surprise to find Rangers winning the game 2-1 or 3-1 when it comes to this Friday night showdown.
A word of caution is that McInnes had his Hearts defence well-drilled last season. There were only eleven goals conceded at Tynecastle last term, although they were more open on the road when shipping twenty-three goals. On a similar note, Dundee United could only manage a sum total of twenty-four goals across nineteen home clashes, so they are not super-reliable when it comes to finding the net every time.
First Goalscorer
Lawrence Shankland scored sixteen Scottish Premiership goals for Hearts last season and the striker will be bidding to hit twenty or more next term. The 30-year-old can certainly prosper operating for an SPL title challenger, with McInnes sure to find a system that is going to suit the former Hearts captain. It's been a formidable career for a player who did used to operate for Dundee United when he scored 32 goals in 57 appearances.
Youssef Chermiti scored fifteen for the Gers last season and might form a strong partnership with Shankland, with the Portuguese forward starting to hit his stride from February onwards. There was a mid-February hat-trick against Hearts which came before a brace in the Old Firm derby against Celtic. The player also scored a brace at Falkirk and finished the season with a hat-trick at the same ground.
No Dundee United player was able to reach double figures in terms of goal tally for the season. Zachary Sapsford could be the danger man for the Terrors and he has already notched a couple of goals this term. The Aussie fired home the winning goal at Stirling in the League Cup before finding the net against Arbroath in the same competition.