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Challenger Pro League (1B)

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What is the Challenger Pro League?

The Challenger Pro League is the second-highest football division in Belgium, the level just below the Jupiler Pro League. Its official name is Eerste klasse B, commonly shortened to "1B". It is the country's second and last professional tier: below it sit the national amateur divisions, with Eerste Nationale (Nationale 1 in French-speaking Belgium) as the highest amateur level. Those divisions have been split by region in recent seasons, so the naming and structure may still evolve.

The competition as we know it today took shape in 2016 as the successor to the old second division. Its name changed with the sponsors: from the Proximus League (2016-2021) through 1B Pro League to the Challenger Pro League, the name in use since the 2022-2023 season. In 2026-2027 the division features fifteen clubs.

For many teams, 1B is a springboard: young talents break through, relegated clubs try to bounce straight back to the top, and ambitious clubs build a future in professional football. That is why the Challenger Pro League is often more gripping than its "second division" label suggests.

Anyone who likes to spot talent before it makes the headlines will regularly find the players in 1B who turn up a few years later in the Jupiler Pro League or abroad.

How does the competition work?

The Challenger Pro League is played as a single regular season in which every club meets each opponent twice, home and away. With fifteen clubs, each team therefore plays 28 matches. Because fifteen is an odd number, one team sits out every matchday, which is why the division runs to 30 matchdays in 2026-2027. Whoever tops the table at the end of that regular season is the 1B champion.

Unlike the title race in the Jupiler Pro League, promotion in 1B is decided partly through an end-of-season round. The champion is guaranteed to go up directly, but the next clubs in the standings fight it out in the Promotion Play-offs for the second promotion ticket. That keeps the top of the table exciting to the finish, even for teams that just miss out on first place.

The format was simplified for 2026-2027 in line with the reform of Belgian professional football. Among other things, the midweek matchdays disappeared. For the viewer that means a clearer season, with most matches neatly at the weekend and a sharp contest for promotion and against relegation.

For 2026-2027 the picture is set: the champion is promoted directly, while the clubs in places 2 to 5 play the Promotion Play-offs for the second promotion ticket. At the bottom, the 14th and 15th drop to the national amateur level. So every matchday matters, whether to qualify for that play-off round or to stay clear of the relegation zone, and that gives the whole competition its direction.

Promotion to the Jupiler Pro League

Every season two clubs are promoted from the Challenger Pro League to the Jupiler Pro League. First place is the most direct route: the 1B champion goes straight up to the top level, without any further matches.

The second promotion ticket is decided through the Promotion Play-offs. For 2026-2027 the clubs in places 2 to 5 take part, and the winner is promoted as well. What is new in the current format is that there is no longer a play-off match against a team from 1A: both promotion places are settled entirely within 1B.

Read how the Jupiler Pro League works

For the promoted clubs the step up is a big one: the level, the budgets and the attention are all considerably higher in 1A. Even so, recent seasons show that clubs coming up from 1B can hold their own, and that is exactly what makes the promotion race in the Challenger Pro League so appealing to follow.

Promotion to 1A also means a sizeable jump in income, television exposure and playing budget for a club, which makes the promotion ticket especially valuable. That is why the closing stretch of 1B often sees a fierce fight to finish in the top places.

Relegation and the U23 teams

At the bottom of the table, the final standings decide who goes down. The last two clubs (14th and 15th) drop directly to the national amateur level, Eerste Nationale, or Nationale 1 in French-speaking Belgium. So the bottom of the table stays tense to the finish too, because nobody wants to leave professional football. For exactly how promotion and relegation link up between 1A and 1B, see our explainer on how the Jupiler Pro League works.

One important change in the new format concerns the Under-23 teams (U23). A few big clubs field their youngsters as a separate team in 1B (and the amateur divisions). Those U23 sides cannot be promoted to the Jupiler Pro League and do not take part in the Promotion Play-offs either: this is about development, not a second top-flight place for the same club.

From 2026-2027 those U23 teams also lost their former protected status. If they finish in the bottom two, they are relegated just like any other club. So the same sporting principle applies to everyone in the division: perform to stay in professional football.

The amateur divisions the relegated clubs drop into are still solid, but the gap with professional football is large: less television income, less media attention and often a semi-professional status. For the clubs involved, survival in 1B is therefore a crucial fight both financially and on the pitch, one that can run to the very last matchday.

The clubs of the Challenger Pro League

The 1B field is a mix of familiar names and ambitious projects. Traditional clubs and former top-flight sides such as Beerschot and RFC de Liège cross swords with teams like Lommel SK and Patro Eisden Maasmechelen, alongside the U23 sides of a few of the biggest clubs.

Because promotion and relegation reshuffle the field every season, the line-up keeps changing. Clubs relegated from 1A come in; whoever goes up or down drops out again. That makes the Challenger Pro League a lively competition in which the fixtures change from one year to the next.

The link with the Jupiler Pro League is a concrete one: last season's promoted clubs, SK Beveren, KV Kortrijk and Lommel SK, made the jump to the top level via 1B. So anyone who wants to discover the top-flight sides of tomorrow is best off watching today's Challenger Pro League. Many of these clubs also meet in the Belgian Cup (the Croky Cup), where teams from every level face off.

Some seasons also feature clubs with a rich history that temporarily find themselves outside 1A, which gives the division extra cachet. Thanks to that mix of youth, ambition and tradition, the Challenger Pro League has a loyal and growing following, even if it does not draw the same attendances and viewing figures as the Jupiler Pro League.

Following the standings, results and statistics

If you want to follow the Challenger Pro League closely, keep an eye on the live data. The standings show who is on top and in the mix for promotion, while the results per matchday show how the table is shifting. At the bottom too, in the fight against relegation, the picture changes every matchday.

See the Challenger Pro League: standings, matches and markets

At Napoleon Sports you will find the full Challenger Pro League offering in one place, together with the matches and the markets for each fixture. That way you can combine following the competition with a look at the available betting markets, updated live during the matchdays.

There you can check the table, the results per matchday and the competition's main statistics, all neatly bundled. Anyone who wants to follow the promotion race or the relegation battle up close is best off keeping an eye on those numbers week after week: in a division of fifteen clubs, a single matchday can already tip the balance at the top or the bottom.

Betting on the Challenger Pro League

You can also bet on the Challenger Pro League at Napoleon Sports as a licensed Belgian bookmaker. For each match there are markets such as the match winner (1X2), double chance, both teams to score and over/under goals, and you can bet live during the matches. You can also bet live on football from other competitions at Napoleon Sports.

Because 1B is less in the spotlight than 1A, it pays to do your homework: form, head-to-head records and what is at stake in a match (the promotion race or relegation) often tell you more than a club's name recognition. Use that context as background, never as a certainty.

Remember that a bet should be entertainment and that no outcome is guaranteed. Set a spending limit in advance. If you first want to understand how promotion and relegation work, read the explanation above or take a look at the Jupiler Pro League hub for the full picture of Belgian football.

Frequently asked questions about the Challenger Pro League

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