The Eurovision Song Contest is a fabulous show, with sparkling outfits, catchy music, and the excitement and drama of the voting for the winner.
But for gamblers, the event has a financial element. Bookmakers from various countries offer odds on all sorts of sports and competitions, and the Eurovision Song Contest is no exception.
For this year’s competition, bookmakers started take bets on the winner since last December, five months ahead of Eurovision 2017’s being held in Kyiv. As of March 6, eight of the 43 countries participating in Eurovision were yet to select their entries, but more than half a dozen online betting websites are already offering odds on potential Eurovision winners.
Ukrainians were able start betting on their own country winning the contest again after Feb. 25, when rock band O. Torvold was selected as its contestant in Eurovision 2017.
In overall betting so far, Italy is tipped to be the winner of this year’s the contest, with Sweden second, and Russia third, according to bookmakers.
Ukraine, along with Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal, had — as of March 6 — odds of winning of 33 to 1, or the eighth-highest chance of winning, according to the Oddschecker website, which compares odds given by the world’s leading bookmaking agencies.
Still, experts say that until all of Eurovision 2017 participants are known, the betting on the event will simply be guesswork.
“The serious analysis will begin after the contestants from each country become known,” says Maksym Kravets of Favorit Sport, a Ukrainian betting agency.
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“But even the tastes of millions of people all over Europe are predictable. Last year bookmakers predicted the top three Eurovision 2016 contestants – Australia’s Dami Im, Russia’s Sergey Lazarev and Ukraine’s Jamala – but got them in the wrong order.”
In the modern world, betting is a multimillion-dollar business, and is an important part of any sport or entertainment event. Bookmakers add a dash of extra interest to any kind of competition or show, making them more attractive to the audience.
Bookmakers analyze an event, determine potential winners and outsiders, and set the betting odds – basically a measure of probability. The sum of winnings for bidders depends on the odds in a specific bet. The more favored a music band or singer is, the lower the odds assigned, says Kravets, which means that the winnings will be lower if the bet is successful.
As it is impossible to predict a win with 100 percent certainty, a window of opportunity to earn some good winnings opens. And the more uncertainty, the higher the earnings.
“During the last Eurovision contest, Jamala had odds of 9 to 1 and was ranked third (in the bookmakers’ chances of winning the contest). If a person had bet Hr 100 on her winning, they would have won Hr 900 (plus getting their Hr 100 bet back, taking a total of Hr 1,000 from the bookmakers.) So it is quite realistic to win on Eurovision betting,” says Kravets.
Making bets on a Eurovision winner is a popular entertainment among Britons, and betting is generally very popular in the UK. It is also quite popular among Europeans – EU bookies often offer various bets on the Eurovision Song Contest such as winner, finishing position, head-to-head contests, and many others.
In contrast, in Ukraine, gambling is not legal, but people can legally bet online through the websites of virtual casinos or bookmaker agencies – if those websites are located or registered in the countries where gambling is officially allowed.
In recent years Ukrainians have shown interest in betting on show biz events, like Oscar winners, popular talent shows, or Eurovision, Kravets says.
“There’s no doubt that Jamala’s victory in last year’s Eurovision and the holding of the contest in Kyiv this year will contribute to greater interest among Ukrainians in this event,” he said.
“Betting makes watching the contest and rooting for a song much more interesting.”
Understanding betting odds
Bookmakers commonly express odds as, for example 7/4 or 2/1, which can be confusing to the uninitiated.
But once a person understands the notation system, the system is very informative, giving not only the chance of a win, but a guide to how much money a person can expect to win on their bet.
Odds are simply an expression of probability. Odds of 5/1, for example, mean that something has five chances of NOT happening, to every one chance of it happening. For instance, the chance of rolling a six on a dice has odds of 5/1. In percentage terms, the chance is 16.66 percent (or 100 divided by six).
Odds like 1/5, on the other hand, show that something is likely to happen (in percentage terms, 83.33 percent), such as rolling a dice and it NOT being a six.
Odds of 1/1 mean something has an equal chance of happening – like tossing heads or tails with a coin, for example.
The more improbable something is, and the more money you bet, the more money you will win.
For odds like 5/1, that means for every Hr 1 you bet, you will get Hr 5 back if you win. If the odds are 1/1 then for every Hr 1 you bet, you will win Hr 1, and for odds of 1/5, for every Hr 5 you bet, you will win Hr 1.
In the dice example, if you bet Hr 100 on rolling a six, and won, you would win Hr 500 (and get your Hr 100 stake back as well).
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