Eurovision is a huge event on
Betfair Spacecat - they are in running for both the semi finals and the final - and both markets will be very liquid.
Aye there's lots of in depth threads from last year trick that we might as well drag back up to the top, and then add to with last years lessons.
I'd say the best place to start is to try and listen to the songs while disregarding your own musical tastes. Most punters will place bets based on the song they think is best, which given the broad demographics that vote on these things isn't really what the idea is if you are looking to make some dosh. They have a quick run through the songs, decide which they like best based on their British tastes, and fire their dosh on that. British punters and Eurovision voters are very different beasts.
The politics/geography card is a bit overstated IMO - its more to do with different cultural tastes in music. Eastern Euro nations vote for each other mainly because they have similar tastes in music, not because of an obsessive dislike for certain countries. Thats not to say geography doesn't play a part, course it does, just look at the greece/cyprus relationship, but its not the be all and end all, so worth keeping an eye on but not going nuts over.
Altho as an aside to that, watch out for countries with large expat communities. Turkey/Russia in particular have a bit of a head start on the other nations because of that.
Mickey always goes on about songs with something a bit different about them and he's right, there's heaps of eurovision songs that fall into the same old same old category. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, key change chorus, all with the same generic chorus and bland lyrics. A lot of them are easy on the ear but seldom do well and can be a bit of a bettors trap imo.
Also, look beyond the song. Eurovision night is about more than that - its about characters, costumes, acts, the works, so always watch performances rather than just listen to audio.
And most importantly, the biggest help last year, is get access to the rehearsal performances in the few days before eurovision - they are widely published on many websites and its amazing to see how some songs which sounded superb in their national finals absolutely die on the eurovision stage, and vice versa.
Anyone who saw the Swiss entry's rehearsal last year knew just how bad it sounded live on stage, despite it being joint favourite, and sure enough they served up an
absolute stinker and went out in the semi when they were silly odds of about 1.15 to go through.
Anyhoo, thats just for starters
