The 2008 BigPoll, the Internet's largest and most accurate prediction tool for the Eurovision Song Contest has been open for a week. Already, more than 2,500 registered members have made a total of 48,811 valid country predictions about the upcoming Contest in Belgrade.
Readers are asked to predict the finishing positions of each country in both semi finals. After the conclusion of the second semi final on 22nd May, the 2008 BigPoll for the Eurovision Song Contest final will open. Readers and members of esctoday.com are encouraged to correctly predict the winner for the fourth time in five years.
Prizes for the most accurate predictions will be made available after the conclusion of the poll. Remember, you are asked to predict the final outcome, not vote for your favourite. This means including the likelihood of political and diaspora voting, the effect of the running order and who can and cannot vote in each semi final. In order to protect the poll from tactical predictions, we are not giving too much information away at this stage, and cannot report on which countries are doing well or are near the bottom.
So far, both semi finals are showing a two-horse race for victory, and two countries are currently predicted to score the dreaded 'nil points' in the semi finals. The poll is also analysing the differences in the predictions when all votes are included, compared to the results with only predictions from countries participating in same semi final. Interestingly, four countries are predicted to qualify when all votes are included, but do not qualify when only the scores from the semi final countries that can vote are included.
More information on the BigPoll will be announced in the near future. In the mean time, don't forget to register your votes. You can update your predictions at any time until polls close at 17:00 CET on the day of each live show.
How to vote
You need to be an esctoday.com member to vote. If you are not already registered, you can do so for free from the top of the homepage. Or click here to subscribe.
