Can You make money on the Eurovision Song Contest? We present the online bookmakers odds for the front-runners as well as the underdogs of the 2018 Eurovision.

• 63rd Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is a very interesting phenomenon, especially for people that are from the USA or other countries outside Europe, but many times even the europeans are puzzled by the whole event. In some countries, like for example Sweden (which is a musical giant in European and even global market as well as a country with six wins in Eurovision to date), it is one of the most important cultural events in the year, while for others it is a political and social correctness charade that shows the split in the European society not unification. There are also countries that simply do not care about it. But for some reason (definitely not the quality of music, diversity, performances or the overall show), people from all Europe and some part of the world like Australia and China, gather in hundreds of millions to watch this biggest national song contest in the world.

Before we get to the bookmaker odds and our predictions, take a look at some of the most interesting or rather weird performances of the Eurovision Song Contest from the last few years:

• Who will win the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest? Check the bookmaker odds

This years Eurovision Song Contest is the 63rd edition of the contest. Because of last year’s win of the amazing Salvador Sobral with his "Amar pelos dois”, ended the longest drought in the Eurovision Song Contest history and won the contest for the first time in Portugal’s history in the competition, this year the competition will be held in Altice Arena in country’s capital, Lisbon. The semi-finals will take place on 8th and 10th of May while the grand final concert will be held on Saturday, on 12th May. So, who is the front-runner in this year’s contest?

Unsurprisingly, once again the most weird and disturbing song seems to be the favourite, as was with Lordi, Conchita Wurst or more recent example of Jamala. The sports betting operators seem to think that the Israeli artist called Netta will be this year’s big winner. Her song “Toy” is quite a unique one because despite the chicken sounds she makes along the way as well as the odd mixture of bad vocals and typical Eurovision beats, the song is about the...sexual harassment of women, which is the number one hot topic around the world at the time and seems like a typical Eurovision song. This one’s is definitely worth checking out, but for one’s own risk.

Apart from the unusual entry from Israel, the online bookmakers think that the Estonian Opera singer, Elina Nechayeva and Czech artist Mikolas Jozef seem to also have quite good chances. The full list of artist of this year’s 2018 Eurovision Song Contest and their odds offered by William Hill bookmaker can be found below:

• How to bet on Eurovision Song Contest?

Betting on Eurovision is still quite exotic type of wagering, even for more experienced punters. This does not mean, from the other hand, that most bookmakers do not offer such novelty bets and that this type of betting is not popular among the players (truth to be told, we do not find any more reasons for watching and getting excited by the Eurovision Song Contest other than for checking if the country that You have placed Your money on, have won). Even more so, because betting on this event is much more easy than most of You think. All You have to do is learn few facts and statistics about the contest as well as some rules and mechanisms behind the voting. Below, we will present the most crucial ones for Your betting on Eurovision Song Contest:

• 85% of the winning songs in the XXI century were sung in English. Therefore, there is a big chance that a song in this language will win again. If the country that You want to bet on is represented by an artist with Enrique Iglesias looks and the voice of Andrea Bocelli, he still can lose if he sings in flemish or hungarian and it might not be such a good idea to place Your money on this candidate.
   
• Who has better chances of winning? A man or a woman? Obviously there is no rule for that, but as statistics show,  52% of the finals of the ESC in this century have been won by women while men were triumphant only in 23% of the cases (the rest are the duets, bands, groups and even one “female” drag queen performer with a beard). Understandably, it is only logical to trust the statistics and place Your money on a woman, not a man or a group (especially an attractive one in contrast to a fat, bald man), but do not overestimate this aspect as Eurovision sometimes can surprise, as was in the case of Alexander Rybak (who won Eurovision once and will try to do it again this year) or last year’s winner, Salvador Sobral.
   

• Do not forget that the Eurovision Song Contest is a festival of bad taste - The more cheese and tacky the performance is, the better! There is a stereotype about this competition that says that the more controversial or stupid the performance was, the better chances it has for winning the Eurovision. Therefore, the more funny looking people, clowns, transvestites, weirdos in medieval outfits, the more flashy lights, loud, simple beats and childish choreography, the better chances for a win for such a performance and therefore, for You to win money on betting on it.
   
• The song have to be catchy - people watching Eurovision Song Contest are in fact very simple, narrow-minded grey masses that will vote for anything that gets easily into their brain and stucks for a longer period of time there, either because of the radio stations, Youtube, iTunes, or other media. Therefore, the simpler and catchier the song, the better chances it has for winning the competition. Unfortunately for all Mozart, Bach and Chopin lovers, these types of compositions do not appear in the contest, although we have to say that the song of the last year’s winner, Salvador Sobral, "Amar pelos dois” or the already mentioned Estonian entry with classic Opera act with Italian lyrics are examples that you can present a sophisticated music and even win the Eurovision Song Contest with such quality song.
   
• The number of votes depends on the current reputation of the country. Years ago, countries like Switzerland, France, Ireland and England were among the top contenders for winning the Eurovision Song Contest, whilst now they tend to classify lower than such “giants” as Albania or Malta. The current reputation of a country is quite important these days and as we already mentioned, Sweden seems to be at the helm of the pack when it comes to Eurovision. Other countries that seem to have strong following as well as appreciation for their music seem to be Denmark, Turkey (which is absent this year again), Azerbaijan, Ukraine, or Russia, but in the case of the latter it is more about the political reasons which we will discuss below.
   
• Voting for neighbouring countries and relations between the nations - the most crucial thing while betting on Eurovision Song Contest is not listening to the songs, following the news about the performers and opinions of the experts but knowing the mechanisms and facts about the this competition. Every person that saw Eurovision Song Contest Final Concert can understand that it is rarely about which song is the best, it is more about how many points you will get from countries that “like” Your country and how many from countries that “dislike” Your nation. Therefore, it is no wonder that Denmark gives the most points to Norway and the other way around or the same type of situation with Greece and Cyprus, Romania and Moldova and so on.
   
  It gets really political when it comes to Russia, which is really controversial because the countries that were previously part of the Soviet Union always give their most points to Russia entry. This is both because of the relations with the country as well as because of the high number of Russian citizens living in those countries and higher influence of Russia on these countries, which are quite numerous. From the other hand, if Russia somehow was beaten by someone, it tends to withdraw its entry for the next Eurovision edition (as was the case last year). This is a very important aspect of the show which when used wisely can win You a lot of money. all You have to do is learn some history and relations between some European countries and watch the previous Eurovision Song Contest.
   
• The media buzz around the song or the artist who is performing it - Whether the artist is controversial or he is representing some good cause with a protest song, or even if he has a typical pop song that is simply very catchy - there are various reasons behind the attention of the media. Before such competitions and even during them, it is crucial for media coverage. In this case, the old saying is right: It is not important how or what they write or talk, as long as they talk and write. The more times artist appears in national and even international media and the bigger presence he has in the internet, the better chances he has for winning the whole competition. A great example was the Finnish hard-rock band Lordi, who swooped Eurovision by the storm, even though nobody treated them seriously at the beginning. They simply build up such internet following and convinced people watching the show, that against all odds, they won.
   
• Last but not least is the order of performances - It may seem as an unimportant thing, but the order of performances in such a long show is essential. Most punters may not realise that Eurovision Song Contest can go on for more than three hours and in some countries it is broadcasted by very late time. Therefore, people that watched the first few acts may be well asleep or forgot the first songs at the end, and end up voting for the last ones. Even with recent changes with jury and public votes, it is still a major factor that needs to be considered before placing a bet on a particular contestant in any given online bookmaker. Usually, the latter performances have higher chances of winning because people may have better recollection of hearing and remembering them and they can get more votes from the public.