Kilbyin thehatfor Betfred Cupdraw

The draw for the Betfred League Cup takes place on Friday — and East Kilbride are in the hat.

Kilby are guaranteed to land a Scottish Premiership side as each of the eight pools in the group stage will include one top-flight side not involved in European qualifiers.

Scottish champions Celtic, r unners-up Aberdeen, third-placed Rangers and St Johnstone, who finished fourth, will enter the tournament at the last-16 stage due to their participation in Europe.

Each of the 40 participating clubs in the group stage, which will include Highland League winners Buckie Thistle as well, will play four fixtures across five dates — July 15, 19, 22, 26 and 29.

And Lowland League champions Kilby could find themselves up against the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell or Partick Thistle.

Not only will they land some big games, East Kilbride stand to pocket at least £15,000, based on prizemoney figures for 2016.

Teams who finished fifth/ bottom of the group in 2016 each received £15,000; fourth-placed clubs pocketed £17,000 and third-placed sides each netted £19,000.

The four worst runners-up earned £23,000.

On top of that, teams in the group stages who had their match televised by broadcast partners BT Sport, earned £10,000 for each game shown.

Friday’s draw is live on BT Sport at 6.30pm.