The United Kingdom are currently the bookmakers favourites to win the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest… but it’s December. Ben Robertson explains these early season Eurovision betting markets and why Olly Alexander’s announcement has moved the United Kingdom to favourite status. British Horse Racing (cc Flickr/Vegaseddie) One can gamble on the next year’s Eurovision Song Contest today. In fact, one could have placed a bet on your favourite Eurovision nation months ago; the first odds for 2024 were listed even before we knew what city Sweden would be holding this extravaganza in. The casual viewer might perhaps anticipate that these early season odds, when no songs or artists are known, would have all of the countries at roughly equal winning probabilities. Alas that is not the case. Such are the differing likelihoods of song quality, production levels, budget and so on that even these early odds see huge differences between competing broadcasters. Those early odds from the summer of 2023 saw nations like Ukraine, Sweden and Italy, not just our most recent winners but very consistent scoring nations, at the top of the odds. Nations like San Marino, Georgia and Montenegro were offered at odds over ten times more than those perennial big hitters . One other country has joined this pack of favourites in recent months, and that is Israel. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on Israel on October 7th, gamblers reacted by placing money on Israel to win the Eurovision Song Contest, and for a short window, Israel was the favourite to win Eurovision 2024. As of December 20th, 38% of all money matched on the Betfair Exchange’s Eurovision market has been made for or against an Israeli victory . As the world of Eurovision seeps into the geopolitical again, gamblers will likely be cautious about […]
See also Ryder Cup betting, odds: The United States is favored to win in Europe for the first time since 1993
Powered by Inline Related Posts