A bit late to be starting the odds thread oops but here's the current state of play on Oddschecker as of the morning of 3 May, two weeks out from the final and pre-rehearsals.

Edited May 3May 3 by gooddelta

And here's where my annual betting money has gone:

Slovenia to Q from Semi 1 - £5 at 6/4 (I've always thought this will happen so have to put my money where my mouth is)

Portugal to Q from Semi 1 - £1 at 5/2 (if not Slovenia then one slower song is going through, I'm sure...)

Denmark to Q from Semi 2 - £2 at 11/10 (rooting for her, wouldn't be a big win financially but I have to support her)

Slovenia top 10 finish - £2 at 10/1 (this relies on it being a shock jury/Facebook Mum vote fave, I know it's unlikely)

Germany top 10 finish - £5 at 5/1 (go on then Raab, don't let your top ten record slip now - this is banking on Tynna having had singing lessons, but either way it is the most contemporary/chart sounding hit in the mix so I hope that counts for something)

United Kingdom top 10 finish - £4 at 9/2 (unlikely I know, but willing the juries to support that talent)

Italy top 10 finish - £3 at 13/8 (I just can't buy that they will miss the top ten when sending a man)

Albania top 5 finish - £5 at 11/2 (the southern European votes have to go somewhere and this is the best option from the region by a mile)

Germany outright - £1 at 150/1 (I've got to have my one ridiculous wildcard)

United Kingdom outright - £1 at 66/1 (ok, two ridiculous wildcards and a dash of blind hope)

Netherlands - £5 at 12/1 (the numerous esteemed betting analysts and 'experts' online are saying it's a two-horse race between France and Netherlands, so I'll be coming for them if they're wrong)

France - £5 at 15/2 (ditto - I have reservations about this on the public vote but maybe her staging could be impressive enough to win people over)

Sweden - £1 at 10/11 (and my annual bet on my favourite song just because I have to, but there's really no money to win here)

Good shouts, let me do a few rounds of ridiculous betting. The odds settling on Sweden/Austria does feel a little premature, and I'm sure something will come up to shake them over the next 2 weeks.

(I use decimal odds, I find it's easier to compare similarly priced odds at competitive ranges, to convert to fractional it's just x-1/1)

Slovenia to qualify - £2 at 2.37 (same as Rich)

Iceland to qualify - £2 at 2.50 (the energy these guys have surely can't go unnoticed)

Italy top big 5 nation - £2 at 9.00 (if France fails to smash and I think it may do, this seems ridiculously easy money in that circumstance, could also take Italy top 10 I suppose in this case but it's slightly different)

Israel to win - £1 at 13.00 (this is a stone-faced consolation prize in case, but to me this seems to have the most value of the top lot)

Albania to win - £2 at 67.00 each way (my long shot and the each way has an okay chance of hitting)

UK top 10 - £2 at 5.00 (yeah, hoping a bit)

Have the budget to come back for more if I notice anything during rehearsals but if not that's hopefully something - but then I never win anything on Eurovision betting.

Italy for a Top 5 finish @ 8/1 is SO. TEMPTING.

I did each way on Albania a bit ago, not certain and I can see it in like 15th or something realistically but my gut feeling told me to go for it as it has gathered hype a bit.

Getting The Code at 40/1 to win last year was my luck used up for a while probably :lol:

I'm not pleased to see San Marino plummeting now at #23. San Marino and Estonia are my faves this year and I'm not ashamed to say it. :p

Estonia scream top 5 for me with a huge televote.

I don't know if this is the right place to say, but I miss OGAE Poll thread in this forum, although we can't find it online of course.

I have bet on both France and Israel to be a surprise winner

Israel is more likely to be disqualified from the contest than winning imo

19 hours ago, J00prstar said:

I have bet on both France and Israel to be a surprise winner

I HOPE you're wrong!

8 hours ago, Sour Candy said:

Israel is more likely to be disqualified from the contest than winning imo

THIS!

France winning - thoughts? Tempted to shove a few quid on. They're as low as 13/2.

France worth betting on, I could be way off but I think Austria will be the one to watch.

I've put money on France and Austria based solely on the fact that they are short, snappy titles which the winning songs tend to be. (In fact I was curious and it turns out that of the last 17 winners, 12 of them were one-worded titles (11 if you don't count The Code)). So based off of that completely useless information, France are my pick.

Whoever I bet on (before the show) doesn't ever seem to win...

Who shall I poison?

Definitely thinking about putting a stop to France and Austria (personally not as into them as everyone else lmao oops) and ofc Israhell... but I don't even want to entertain ANYTHING to do with the latter even if it was to win me money so I'm not going to bother.

I actually see big parallels between Sweden/Austria this year as I do Croatia/Switzerland last year. Upbeat, fun "meme" song more akin to typical Eurovision versus more serious and vocally impressive piece. Be interesting to see which way the public swing this time around.

Sweden as low as 8/11

Israel shortening across the board and are now third fave to win, but still only as low as 14/1

France out to 22/1

I'm very tempted with Austria to win @ 3/1. Really not sure this year!

Yeah having now actually listened to all the main contenders I can't see France winning whatsoever.

I can see Israel coming 5th at best like last year. They have an aggressive ad campaign on social media again but it wasn't enough last year so I doubt that it will work this year either.

One win so far:

Portugal to Q from Semi 1 - £1 at 5/2 (if not Slovenia then one slower song is going through, I'm sure...)

Should have put my £5 here though instead of Slovenia, damn.

Similar, with Iceland through and Slovenia out I'm up at least 50p so far

I've put my £3.50 Portugal winnings onto Montenegro, because who the hell knows what will happen now and 7/1 was a good price for it.

All the NQs last night were English, so maybe people will appreciate the Balkan ballad.

Also would have put money on Latvia but not really worth it as my £3.50 would only have returned about £4.25.