We’re well into the swing of things now, as our first ten qualifiers sail through to Saturday. So as Tuesday night’s dust settles, how does the betting currently stand? And, more excitingly, how did the bookies do with their first bunch of collective predictions?
The answer: a firm could do better. After scoring nine out of ten in both 2021 semifinals, yesterday’s rankings to qualify missed three (or two, depending on when you looked at it) qualifiers from the first show. While Austria and Switzerland had been battling it out for the bookies’ tenth spot – with Switzerland winning that battle – Iceland and Lithuania had languished far outside the aggregated top ten. Albania and Latvia, in spots eight and nine, looked more secure, but lost out in the final shake-up, dropping out as surprise non-qualifiers.
In terms of favourites to win, the surprises of last night have done little to shift things at the top. Ukraine, fresh from semi one success, holds its strong lead in the betting. Italy regains its number two position, edging the UK’s Sam Ryder back into third place. Sweden and Spain complete the top five as before.
The top ten favourites to win as of today, Eurovision hump day, are as follows:
- Ukraine
- Italy
- UK
- Sweden
- Spain
- Poland
- Greece
- Netherlands
- Serbia
- Norway
