The five biggest IMG rugby league grading winners as Hull KR top rankings

After weeks and months of speculation, the IMG rugby league gradings have been confirmed and there are some big winners with some clubs gaining more than one point and taking big jumps up the ranks.

One of those sides is Bradford Bulls who have now been confirmed as a Super League club, placing tenth in the ranking, having made a huge leap from 16th.

It ends their prolonged stay outside the top flight and means Super League rugby will once again grace the pitch at Odsal but the Bulls aren’t the only side to make a big jump in the scores.

It’s worth explaining how IMG grades work with clubs graded against five pillars of fandom, performance, finance, facilities and community, all totalling a maximum of 20 points.

Clubs can guarantee Super League status by securing a Grade A score of 15 points or more with the top twelve sides in the rankings making up Super League, along with two extra teams to be selected by an independent panel and announced tomorrow.

With that said, here are some of the big winners for 2025 including the Bradford Bulls.

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IMG Rugby League grading winners from 2025

Hull KR

The Robins have had an incredible season on the pitch, winning the Challenge Cup, League Leaders Shield, and Grand Final, and they’ve now added a fourth crown of sorts having topped the IMG gradings with 17.85 points.

Despite placing fifth in 2024 and scoring just 15.97 points, Rovers have taken a leap in points and now sit first on the rankings with their performance score a key reason why.

They have gained over one whole point on performance, with their average rank moving from third to second as well as the major bonuses for winning the Challenge Cup (0.25 points) and the Grand Final (0.75).

Leigh Leopards

Ranked seventh in 2024, Leigh have taken another marginal climb up the rankings and performance points are a key reason why with the Leopards swapping their 2022 rank of 13th place for their 2025 rank of third.

That’s seen them gain over 0.5 points on the performance pillar alone with the Leopards increase of  1.2 points overall pushing them to fifth on the rankings.

Bradford Bulls

Taking the leap from 16th to 10th and ultimately returning to Super League mean Bradford have to be on this list and like those aforementioned, performance does have a role to play but it’s not quite as prevalent as others.

The Bulls gained over 0.35 points on performance but their stadium and utilisation is where they’re believed to have made major advances after jumping from 12.15 points to a whopping 14.81, meaning they’re almost a Grade A club.

Oldham

Oldham have just managed to scrape a Grade B, scoring 7.51, which marks an increase of 0.51 points and that’s testament to the brilliant off-field work of those at the club, as well as the on-field performances of Shaun Wane’s squad.

They are one of the clubs applying to join Super League and whilst you’d argue it’s unlikely this year, they will be a very strong candidate with another year of development.

Hull FC

The Black and Whites had a much-improved season on field but they’ve also done plenty off it and that’s seen them become a Grade A side, gaining just over half a point.

They’ve only just made Grade A with their score of 15.06 the lowest of any Grade A club but it’s still a big jump from last year’s score of 14.51.