If you want to turn your Eurovision passion into profit, or are just interested to know how it’s done, then you have come to the right place. Our syndicate has been winning money from Eurovision betting for the last few years, and wanted to share with you a few things we have learnt along the way.
Eurovision provides an excellent betting opportunity for a number of reasons:
It's a niche area of interest
There are a wide variety of betting opportunities
… and most of all it is exciting!
Here we will give you our 5 key tips for betting on Eurovision. This should be enough to get you started, and we may dive into more details on these aspects in individual articles in the future. If you are fairly new to betting then you might also want to check out our Introduction to Betting series.
Tip 1: Keep your finger on the pulse
The odds on each county will change dramatically throughout the course of the season as artists are announced, songs are released, and rehearsals are performed.
All of these events can obviously significantly affect the chances of the country at the contest, but the betting odds do not always react accordingly. Sometimes the odds will react too much, or too little, or too slowly – and for smaller pieces of news the odds may not react at all.
When Fuego was released for Cyprus in 2018 their odds dropped from 26/1 outsider (60/1 on one website) to even-money favourite gradually over the course of several weeks. We were able to bet on this early and trade out later on, ensuring a profit even though Fuego did not go on to win.
Many countries' odds follow similar patterns each year, so looking out for these reactions as they can provide great betting opportunities. If you are using a betting exchange you can also take advantage of these odds movements by trading around these events.
Tip 2: A little knowledge goes a long way
Since Eurovision is a relatively niche area of interest, not many people are able to accurately assess the chances of each country, and therefore what the odds should be. Bookies will often offer Eurovision odds because they want to provide a good breadth of betting markets, even though they don't have specialist knowledge. This provides a golden opportunity for anyone with a bit of knowledge about the contest to come in and find great value betting opportunities.
Tip 3: It’s not all about the final
There are a multitude of Eurovision betting markets and events that crop up throughout the season. As well as the final, you can bet on the semi finals and all of the big (and some not so big) national selections. Within these events you can even bet on many outcomes in addition to the winner, such as qualification, top 10, match-ups, number of points etc. In fact, in 2020 our syndicate recorded significant profits despite Eurovision week being completely cancelled. Here is a breakdown of our syndicate profits for Eurovision in 2019:
Tip 4: Find the best odds
In order to get the most value from your bets it's important to find the best odds for the selection you're betting on. The easiest way to find the best odds is by using an odds comparison website. The sites best for Eurovision odds comparison are Oddschecker and Eurovisionworld. A lot of betting sites offer Eurovision odds, and the more you sign up to the better odds you will be able to get. We have compiled a review of the best Eurovision betting sites here.
Good odds are so important that they can make the difference between a winning season and a losing season. You can even use the odds to win money without much knowledge of about the contest at all by implementing matched betting techniques (you can find more information about matched betting here).
Tip 5: Bet in-play
During the contest there is significant amount of scope for odds movements, with nailed performances, crowd reactions, missed notes, and surprise 12 points - it's effectively like a whole season being condensed into much shorter time frame. You may not want to take yourself out of the moment especially if you have festivities in full swing, but if you are able to multi-task it can make for a fruitful and exhilarating few hours.
So those are our 5 tips for betting on Eurovision. If you have any questions, or want to know more about any of these aspects in particular then please let us know.
Happy Betting!
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