Leicester Lions have quit the SGB Championship, which includes Glasgow Tigers, Edinburgh Monarchs and Berwick Bandits, to move up to the SGB Premiership. This means the top-flight will be made up of seven clubs, with nine clubs in the championship.
Key changes include the return of the aggregate bonus point in both leagues after a strong response in favour from a poll held on social media in mid-season.
Promoters have also agreed to extend the Super Heat concept, again in both leagues, to cover the scenarios of meeting draws and also tied scores on aggregate.
With an extra club in their league, the Premiership have returned to a knockout format for their cup competition, and they have also retained the Pairs which will be staged over three rounds.
There is a new play-off format for the championship designed to eliminate the issue of the top two clubs being left inactive during early Autumn and both leagues will have a cut-off date of August 31 in order to allow for a timely start to the play-offs.
The championship had originally indicated their intention to run a two-home, two-away league format. However, analysis of the calendar suggested the additional fixtures would present a risk of clubs being unable to complete their schedules prior to the cut-off.
Therefore, the championship have agreed to continue with the one-home, one-away league format, and will also revert to an early-season regionalised group competition, with semi-finals and final for those who progress.
Berwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Redcar, Plymouth, Poole, Scunthorpe are in the championship and they have a points limit of 40 to recruit seven riders.
Top six qualify for play-offs and are split into two mini-leagues of three with the league leaders selecting their two mini-league opponents. Winners of each mini-league qualify for the Grand Final.
The KO Cup first round sees Berwick v Redcar and the quarter-finals are Berwick/Redcar v Glasgow, Scunthorpe v Birmingham, Poole v Plymouth, Edinburgh v Oxford.
A Super Heat will be held following every match which ends in a draw after Heat 15. The team scoring the most points in the Super Heat will receive tw league points and the team defeated in the Super Heat will receive one point.
And a Super Heat will also be held in the event of an aggregate tie following home/away matches with the team scoring the most points in the Super Heat being awarded the aggregate bonus point.
Should both meetings between two clubs result in draws, and therefore the aggregate scores are also tied, one Super Heat will be held which will resolve both the meeting victory in the second match, and the aggregate bonus point.
The AGM for the National Development League will be held on Tuesday November 29 and bosses confirm that initial acceptance has been given for Workington/Northside to join the league in 2023.
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