Livingston vs. Rangers Betting Tips: Tavernier to fire Gers to title-chasing start

League football returns north and south of the border on Saturday, with the return of the Scottish Leagues and the English Football League. The Scottish Premiership is likely to be dominated by the two Glaswegian giants as usual and its Rangers who get things underway on Saturday Lunchtime, taking on Livingston at Almondvale. We've previewed the game for you and selected two bets that we think have a chance. 

Livingston have a slight jump on Rangers in this one, having already started their season with a successful series of Scottish League Cup group games, including three wins and a loss. A new look Gers have themselves been playing pre season friendlies, including an entertaining 2-1 loss at home to Spurs and will be desperate to get off to a great start in their conquest to drag the title back to Ibrox. 

Rangers had a superb season last year and although they finished four points behind eventual winners Celtic, they had a stunning run to the final of the Europa League, where they ultimately lost to Eintracht Frankfurt in the final. Manager Gio van Bronckhorst has moved quickly to strengthen his squad for a new title charge and has brought in the likes of Ben Davies from Liverpool, John Souttar from Hearts, Tom Lawrence from Derby,  Ridvan Yilmaz from Besiktas, Antonio Colak from PAOK  and Malik Tillman who has joined from Bayern Munich on loan. It could take some time for the new charges to gel but Rangers will be confident of picking up three points away at David Martindale's men. 

Predicted teams:

Rangers (4-3-3): Allan McGregor (GK); John Souttar, Connor Goldson, Borna Barišić, James Tavernier; Tom Lawrence, Glen Kamara, John Lundstram; Scott Wright, Antonio Čolak, Ryan Kent

Livingston (4-3-3): Shamal George (GK); Nicky Devlin, Jack Fitzwater, Ayo Obileye, Jackson Longridge; Scott Pitman, Jason Holt, Stephane Omeonga; Bruce Anderson, Esmaël Gonçalves, Jon Nouble

Our first pick is for Rangers to be winning at half-time and full-time at 5/4. The odds of 2/5 on Gers to win outright doesn't fill me with glee and I'd be willing to take a chance on them scoring early in this one. In the last two seasons this bet would have won in 5/7 matches between the two clubs.

My second selection is for Rangers talisman James Tavernier to score in the 90 minutes. William Hill have boosted the 30-year-old club captain all the way out to 3/1 while he's as short as 2/1 elsewhere. Tavernier scored nine SPL goals last season as well as being the leading scorer with seven in the Europa League. The Englishman takes penalties and has netted 42 in his club career. I wouldn't put it past him notching another one on Saturday dinnertime.