Published 18 August 2026. Updated 19 August 2026. Analysis and predictions are our opinion,
not a guarantee of anything. 18+, please gamble responsibly.
Celtic play LASK at Celtic Park on Wednesday 19 August at 8pm, the first leg of a Champions League play-off that decides which of them reaches the league phase. The return is in Austria on Tuesday 25 August at the Oberösterreich Arena, again at 8pm UK time. TNT Sports 1 has the first leg.
The stakes are the familiar ones for a Scottish champion at this stage. Come through the tie and Celtic bank the league-phase money and eight matches against European opposition. Lose it and they drop into the Europa League, which pays a fraction of the same prize and carries none of the same pull.
LASK are a poor draw dressed up as a kind one
The name on the team sheet reads like a gentle result for Celtic. The season behind it does not. LASK won the Austrian Bundesliga last season and took the Austrian Cup with it, a domestic double from a club that has spent the last few years in and around European qualification rather than drifting through it. They arrive as champions of their country, which is exactly what Celtic are, and the two-legged format gives them a second night at home to settle anything left open in Glasgow.
That is the part worth holding on to when you look at the prices. Celtic are a short favourite for the first leg, not for the tie, and those are different questions. An away side that loses 1-0 in Glasgow goes back to Austria with the tie alive.
The prices
The market makes Celtic somewhere between 1/2 and 4/7 to win on the night, with the draw around 14/5 to 3/1 and LASK out at 4/1 to 22/5. Seven UK books are priced up in the table above and the spread on Celtic is wider than a single-favourite market usually offers.
That spread is worth a moment. Celtic at 4/7 with 888sport against 1/2 elsewhere is £3.57 more profit on a £50 stake, on exactly the same outcome. Casumo are the outlier on the other two results, pushing the draw out to 3/1 and LASK to 22/5 when most of the market has them at 14/5 and 4/1. On a market this tight, which book you use decides more of your return than most people allow for.
We do not have an affiliate deal with any of the seven books priced on this fixture, so none of the prices above link out. They are listed as a straight comparison, which is what they are for.
The offers, and which one this match actually fits
Both of the welcome offers we cover can be used on this tie, but the qualifying rules pull in different directions, and Celtic being odds-on is what separates them.
Betfred is the bigger headline number. Ad: new customers can bet £10 and get £50 in free bets, paid as £30 in sports free bets and £20 in Bet Builder free bets within 24 hours of the qualifying bet settling. The catch for this fixture is the qualifying price: the first bet has to be at Evens (2.0) or greater. Celtic at 4/7 does not clear that. The draw at 3/1 and LASK at 22/5 both do comfortably.
William Hill sets a lower bar. Ad: new customers using promo code R30 can bet £10 and get £30 in free bets, paid as 3 x £10 after the qualifying bet settles, and the qualifying odds are 1/2 or greater. Celtic at 4/7 clears that, so a straight bet on the home win qualifies here when it would not at Betfred.
So the useful version of the comparison is not which offer is bigger. It is that if the bet you actually want is Celtic to win, only one of the two takes it as a qualifier. Both need a £10 debit card deposit, both exclude e-wallets, and both sets of free bets run out after seven days. Full significant terms are on the offer cards below, and they are worth reading before you deposit rather than after.
What looks the smart angle
Celtic at odds-on to beat the Austrian champions at home is a fair reflection of home advantage and nothing more. The interesting number is the draw at 3/1. Celtic Park in a European play-off tends to produce a fast opening and a nervier last half hour, and LASK have every reason to defend the tie rather than chase the leg. A first leg that finishes level or 1-0 either way would surprise nobody.
If you take a view on Celtic, the 4/7 is the price to have rather than the 1/2, and the gap between those two numbers is the whole argument for comparing before you bet. This is opinion and analysis, not a prediction, and a two-legged tie has a habit of making the first ninety minutes look misleading in hindsight.
Elsewhere this week
Three more play-off ties go on the same night: NEC Nijmegen host Bodø/Glimt, Hapoel Be’er Sheva play Sabah FK, and Slovan Bratislava meet NK Celje. Tuesday’s half of the draw has already produced Fenerbahce against Lyon, Dinamo Zagreb against Viking FK and Levski Sofia against AEK Athens.
Domestically, Arsenal play Coventry City on Friday 21 August, the pick of the weekend’s Premier League card and a fixture that will carry a far deeper set of markets than a play-off tie does.
If you are opening an account for Wednesday, the two offers above are the ones we hold terms for: Betfred’s £50 in free bets if your qualifying bet is at Evens or bigger, or William Hill’s £30 with code R30 if you want the odds-on Celtic bet to count. New customers only, 18+, one per person, and the free bets expire seven days after they land.
Sources: UEFA, Celtic Way, odds snapshot from the-odds-api.com taken 18 August 2026.
