Hearts vs Rangers Prediction: Back a Goalfest on the Opening Day

The 2024/25 Scottish football season begins on Saturday with two games from the top flight. Betfred’s Frank Monkhouse opens the show with Hearts vs Rangers at Tynecastle in the early afternoon kick-off, live on Sky Sports from 12:30.

Our Scottish football tipster expects plenty of goals as he takes us through his Hearts vs Rangers Predictions...

*You can check out all of our Football Odds over at betfred.com

Pre-season is officially over, and the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign begins on Saturday. We open at Tynecastle, where Hearts welcome Rangers to the capital for a 12:30pm start you can follow live on Sky Sports. With both teams targeting the three points needed to hit the front early, a thrilling 90 minutes is guaranteed.

Do you fancy the Jambos to make home advantage count, or will Phillippe Clement’s new look side start as they mean to go on? You can read our big-match preview here and make predictions using the Betfred website or mobile app. New customers who register in time for the start of the Premiership also qualify for a welcome bonus, and you can claim your share now.

Hearts vs Rangers Odds

Betfred traders have Rangers as the pre-match favourites to land the desired result and turn up the heat on title rivals Celtic, who host Kilmarnock on Sunday. But anything is possible in the top tier of Scottish football, especially so early in the season. There’s a real ambition in the home dressing room, and manager Steven Naismith hopes his players will feed off a special atmosphere inside the stadium.

Fancy Hearts to upset the odds and kick-start their season with a huge victory? You can back the home win at Betfred with an eye-catching 4/1 available, and that’s sure to be popular. The fresh faces inside the Gers camp plan to show what they bring to the team from Govan, and the Gers travel with confidence. An away win trades at 3/5, while the draw is 10/3. These rivals played out a six-goal draw in their most recent meeting.

Both teams to score @ 8/13

Our first of two picks in Hearts vs Rangers sees us back both teams to score at the 8/13 currently available to Betfred customers. That approach would’ve landed you a profit when the rivals last crossed paths and in four of their previous seven. Both teams were also on the scoresheet in two of the three games played at this venue last term, including a 3-1 away win in the League Cup and that stunning 3-3 draw in the Premiership back in May.

Looking for evidence to add more weight to our prediction, we highlight how these teams performed in pre-season. The locals lost 2-1 against Leyton Orient and 5-1 to Premier League big guns Tottenham, while Rangers finished 4-4 at Union Berlin and lost 2-1 to Birmingham City and to Champions League regulars Ajax. Take both teams to score at Betfred, then sit back, enjoy the show, and hope this game lives up to the hype.

Both score and Rangers win @ 15/8

We’re sticking with the stats for our second prediction at more attractive odds attached. Despite failing to win any of last month’s four friendlies against Ajax, Man Utd, Birmingham, and Union Berlin, Rangers boast a strong recent record against Saturday’s opponents. Of the six games played last season, Rangers collected five wins and a draw. We expect this renewal to produce another victory for the Glaswegians.

The visitors aren’t yet the finished article, and it’s likely manager Clement will add at least two more new faces before the transfer window slams shut. This new-look side is a work in progress, but there’s quality in the ranks, and the manager should have enough experience to get his team over the line and into the winner’s enclosure. Back both teams to score and Rangers to win this opener.

Frank Monkhouse covers Scottish Football for us here at Betfred Insights. You can check out all of his work along with that of the rest of our Football Betting Tips desk on our main Football page...