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EUROVISION BETTING |
With the individual
rehearsals in Belgrade now complete, it's time for another check on
the betting for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Once again, you can see
all the latest betting odds here.
This is the fourth update for
2008, and once again there have many changes in the market,
based on reports coming in from Belgrade. While there is little
change in the favourites, the lower ranked songs see some major
changes as money starts to go on songs which have a chance to cause
an upset on Saturday night next.
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When we first checked the
odds in early March, the publicity around the Irish entry
"Irelande Douze Points" by Dustin The Turkey meant
that Ireland was favourite, but at that time several entries had
still to be chosen. When we re-checked the odds after all
the entries had been selected the Serbian entry "Oro"
sung by Jelena Tomasevic had taken over the favourite's
mantle, with Armenia and Russia close
behind. Our last check saw Russia's Dima Bilan take over as
favourite with "Believe", and in the past month it has
become an even bigger favourite for victory.
When it comes to the qualifiers,
we are now seeing some changes in both semi-finals. In the first
semi-final, Andorra has been squeezed out of the Top 10 by
Azerbaijan, while in the second semi-final, Malta has lost out as
Portugal's Vania Fernandes (left).
As always, there are now a lot of
other bets that you can make, outside of just putting your money on
the outright winner. You can have a look at those bets here. For this week's "Bet Of The
Week" we go for Spain, who are still available at 28/1. This is
a good each way bet, as you win money even if the song finishes as
low as fourth.
Based on the odds currently on
offer, this is how the final scoreboard will look next Saturday
night. The
figures in brackets are the projected points for each country. The
arrows indicate how each country is doing based on the previous
review of the odds.
If the bookmakers are correct,
this is how the semi-finals will turn out. It is interesting that
there is no change to the songs that the bookmakers are seeing as
the most likely qualifiers from each semi-final, however both
Azerbaijan (semi-final one) and P0rtugal (semi-final two) are now
into the qualification places. Based on the bookmakers odds, the first semi-final, which contains
Ireland, is still considered to be the stronger semi, although few
in Belgrade would agree.
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SEMI-FINAL 1 |
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SEMI-FINAL 2 |
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| 1 : RUSSIA |
11 : BELGIUM |
1 : UKRAINE |
11 : CROATIA |
| 2 : ARMENIA |
12 : POLAND |
2 : SWEDEN |
12 : MALTA |
| 3 : GREECE |
13 : SLOVENIA |
3 : TURKEY |
13 : DENMARK |
| 4 : IRELAND |
14 : ANDORRA |
4 : BULGARIA |
14 : HUNGARY |
| 5 : BOSNIA-HERZ. |
15 : ESTONIA |
5 : LATVIA |
15 : BELARUS |
| 6 : ROMANIA |
16 : NETHERLANDS |
6 : ICELAND |
16 : CYPRUS |
| 7 : NORWAY |
17 : MOLDOVA |
7 : SWITZERLAND |
17 : FYR MACEDONIA |
| 8 : AZERBAIJAN |
18 : SAN MARINO |
8 : PORTUGAL |
18 : LITHUANIA |
| 9 : FINLAND |
19 : MONTENEGRO |
9 : GEORGIA |
19 : CZECH REP. |
| 10 : ISRAEL |
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10 : ALBANIA |
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