Winners and losers from IMG gradings including Castleford Tigers and Salford Red Devils

IMG’s official gradings have been published for 2025: and there are a lot of talking points when it comes to clubs who have both surpassed and dipped below expectations.

Clubs across Super League, Championship and League 1 know where they will stand on the rankings for the next 12 months with a number of huge stories to dissect.

Some clubs have emerged as the real winners of the rankings for this year – while others have left themselves with huge work to do.

Here are our big winners and losers.

Losers: Bradford Bulls

The expectation in some quarters had been that the Bulls would be on the brink of Super League in this year’s gradings. That has not proven to be the case.

Bradford have marginally improved their gradings score but have dropped two place in the rankings, from 14th to 16th.

It could be that the Bulls are holding some improvements back for 2026’s gradings, when they may have a better chance of reaching a higher grading. But for now, it’s clear that the Bulls still have work to do to ensure a return to Super League in the years ahead.

Winners: Keighley Cougars

Perhaps the biggest irony of the whole gradings in 2024 is that the one club who were the most outspoken against the system have proven to be one of the biggest winners in the game.

Keighley have enjoyed a huge surge up the rankings, having gone from 30th last year to 19th this time around. Of course in terms of the division they play in next year, it means little: they will still be a League 1 club on the field after losing in the play-offs.

But if the end game for the sport is two divisions based entirely off grading, then Keighley have shown they are in the conversation to be a prominent fixture in any second tier that may or may not develop with their gradings improvement.

Losers: Salford Red Devils

The good news for Salford supporters is that the club fully expect to significantly improve their ranking next year due to a number of off-field metrics.

But the fact they sit 12th and bottom of Super League will cause some worry among Salford fans, perhaps.

As one of three Grade B clubs, their position immediately comes under threat should a Championship club make huge strides off the field and on it in the next 12 months.

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Winners: London Broncos

Another huge riser – and one a lot of neutrals would be happy to see, we’d wager. The Broncos were the big story when it came to IMG over the past year but they have made enormous strides in the last 12 months.

They now sit on the brink of the Super League places and expect their score to continue to rise over the next year at least. If they can finalise off-field investment and stabilise as a club after a turbulent few weeks, the foundations are clearly in place for London to push for a return to Super League.

Winners: Castleford Tigers

All the noise is about Wakefield Trinity: and perhaps understandably so, given how they’ve gone from the Championship to a Grade A club.

But anyone with even a modicum of understanding about the gradings system expected Wakefield to achieve something like that. Castleford, however, are a different story. Largely perceived to be under threat, the confidence they had internally about always being safe has been proven to be correct: and emphatically so, too.

The Tigers are immune from relegation and a Grade A club after ticking almost every box required of them off the field.

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