Thirty percent of bets since last night's semi-final have been on the Portuguese act. Moldova and Cyprus have also seen an uplift in support.
The fates of eighteen countries battling out to take part in Saturday’s Eurovision final were decided last night in Kiev. The votes of national juries and viewers decided which ten countries would progress to the final and which eight would be sent packing.
Of the eight to miss out last night, perhaps the most surprising was Finland. Judge on the Finnish version of The Voice, Norma John was 90/1 to win the whole competition and 1/4 to qualify from last night’s semi. However, her performance obviously failed to his the right note with voters as she failed to progress. Other entries who failed to make the cut were Georgia, Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Iceland. Just under 5% of bets placed on the Eurovision this year are already losers due to last night’s early departures.
From those that qualified it’s Portugal who were the big winners with Oddschecker punters with a whopping 30% of all bets placed on Saturday’s final since last night for Salvador Sobral. Bookmakers have also reacted by slashing their odds from 6/1 to 11/4 - meaning their chance of winning has risen from 14.3% to 26.7%. Also popular in the market are Belgium who, having drifted to as big as 66/1, were cut back into 16/1 with most bookies following their progression to the final.
After a few shock exits in last night's first #Eurovision Semi-Final. See who qualified for #ESC2017 pic.twitter.com/OijZxg7rtt
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 10, 2017
Another act who clearly captured the imagination of the public last night was Moldova. Before last night they had only accounted for 0.5% of bets, but following last night’s results, they’ve received 9.44% of all bets placed and that increased support has meant their odds have been cut from 200/1 to 100/1.
The surprise package of the first semi-final was certainly Cyprus. 600/1 outsiders for the competition before last night, a terrific display from Hovig got the country through to Saturday’s final and they are now just 300/1 outsiders!
Given the support we’ve seen for Sunstroke Project (Moldova) this morning we don’t expect their odds to remain at 100/1 for much longer, the act remain 13/8 to finish in the top 10 on Saturday.
