It’s still extremely early in the Eurovision 2020 season and only one song has been officially selected so far. Nonetheless, it’s still possible to walk into your local bookmakers and place a bet on who you think will win.

And in recent days, people have clearly been doing just that as Italy has shot up to the top of the bookmakers’ ranking.

Eurovision 2020 Odds: Italy favourite to win — 26 January

Currently, Italy is sitting comfortably at number one on Oddschecker’s odds comparison table. Bookmakers such as Ladbrookes and Coral are offering odds of 8.0.

With so many people effectively betting blind, it’s not surprising that money is flowing towards the most successful Big Five country of recent years. Since returning in 2011, Italy has only missed the top ten on two occasions.

But this recent flurry of activity around the land of Il Volo and Mahmood looks to be motivated by the release of Sanremo previews from Italian journalists and bloggers. A chosen few were let listen to the soon to be released Sanremo 2020 entries and then write up their opinions on each track. Those to receive favourable reviews include Elodie and Elettra Lamborghini.

For a flavour of what to expect, read our round-ups of the reviews HERE and HERE.

Other Eurovision 2020 betting favourites

The rest of the top-end of the table is dominated by perennial overachievers.

Russia and Sweden are joint second with odds of 10.0. Expect these numbers to begin to shift in the coming days, particularly for Sweden when the Melodifestivalen acts begin to arrive later in the week.

A glut of entries are next, all trading at 16.0. They are last year’s champs the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia. The first two have revealed their artists while Australia’s national final has yet to take place.

The top ten is completed by Spain, France, Ireland and Israel. The United Kingdom is 11th.

Before you spit out your tea — or beverage of choice — bookies odds tend to be biased towards both Britain and Ireland. Many of the outlets used by sites like Oddchecker originate from one or other of the two countries. And local punters have a habit of always backing their own act.

In fact, most oddsmakers have yet to set odds for over half of this year’s competing countries. On Oddschecker, the only company to offer odds for all 41 countries is Betfair Exchange, and that’s a betting exchange platform rather than a traditional bookies — odds are set by fellow betters rather than the bookmakers.

Eurovision 2020 Betting Odds — 26 January

Eurovision 2020 Betting Odds 26 January (1)

Odds correct as of 23:00 CET 26 January 2020.

Do you agree with the odds? Are the betting community getting a bit too excited a bit too soon? Let us know in the comments.

Follow all of our Eurovision 2020 odds here.

71 Comments
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ESC 2019
4 years ago

Italy, this is a big joke, haha. They are not gonna win.

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago

I’m pretty sure it was before we’ve seen this awful staging

Philip
Philip
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

Indeed, there was hardly any staging done, they just stood there.. still painful when i think about it..

gilpgilp
gilpgilp
4 years ago

Il Volo was robbed by a plastic Swedish entry. That was the year for Italy.

ESC 2019
4 years ago
Reply to  gilpgilp

so Italy wasnt plasric 2015. They looks like Ken dolls. And the song was awful

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago

Whatever about the Eurovision, it is a dangerous business that can ruin lives. I should probably have an ad-blocker, but on this very article there’s a company offering me €60 in free bets. I’m sure for some people it’s just for fun, but it can have devastating consequences. The contest is just a hook to draw more victims in and make more money off their addictions. Sad.

Roy Moreno
Roy Moreno
4 years ago

It’s always those countries when there are no songs and then it changes

Rasmus
Rasmus
4 years ago

If you were educated you would know that they ONLY have Sweden, Russia, Italy in the top in the start beacuse of recent enries success. When they have choose their entries they can fall low. So take a chill pill.

Bart
Bart
4 years ago
Reply to  Rasmus

How polite of you…

Milla
Milla
4 years ago

And I wonder where’s Iceland? With all the praise for Iva..

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago
Reply to  Milla

just like portugal skyrocketed from 31st to 4th in the odds when salvador won fdc, if iva wins songvakeppnin i expect a similar overnight surge

ESCJudge
ESCJudge
4 years ago

Wiwibloggs… no words.

World has for sure gone mad… especially with people posting everything that comes to mind even if it is stupid/unnecesary/useless…
If you have nothing to publish, don’t publish anything.
#professionalism #quality #accuracy #specifics

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago

for now odds are useless but it’s good to see they have faith in italy! a guarantee of talent and acclaim

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago

They were 2nd last year. Remember this forced hype on Tamta just because Eleni was 2nd year before? Same goes with Italy already.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

except we’ve been getting this treatment for a few consecutive years

Geo
Geo
4 years ago

Useless odds, same as Franceso Gabanni was favorite and he ended up on 6th position in the final. Or the juries’ darling – Sweden, who is punished year by year by the televoters, for basically sending the same recycled pop junk (no risks taked, not a genre changing)… Meh

Gab
Gab
4 years ago
Reply to  Geo

Sweden had one of the best entries last year. But uneducated people won’t understand it.

Ash
Ash
4 years ago
Reply to  Gab

He did and Europeans are stupid…

Milla
Milla
4 years ago
Reply to  Gab

If people can’t tell the difference of Sweden’s songs in Eurovision then yes. We have sent many guys, but the styles and stagings have been different. I can’t say that Måns Frans and John the past five years have sounded the same or brought the same stagings. And just about every song in Eurovision sounds like something you have heard before. There is nothing original out there. Then you must create a whole new music style.

Rasmus
Rasmus
4 years ago
Reply to  Gab

5th was still great:). 9th best in the televote to.

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago
Reply to  Geo

Still he’s in top 10. If you’re like 14th in odds, you’re doomed. That’s the problem. It decides how top10 looks like

Milla
Milla
4 years ago

Italian journalists and bloggers.. Well, the italians many times have their own taste in my opinion. And if Italy send a great act to Rotterdam it will be ruined by awful staging like always. So I don’t care much for those odds.

Burger
Burger
4 years ago

It’s pointless now, there’s not that many known artists let alone entries, remember in 2016 Cool Me Down was an early favourite to win in January and then it didn’t get selected in the selection. Most of the early betting odds can only be attributed to recent year performances and the previews available, the.n the odds relies on reactions and views on YouTube, which also is not very reliable.

Teddie
Teddie
4 years ago

Oh shoot, not again. To hell with them odds already. Given how accurate the bookies were in the recent years (at least in the last weeks preceding the event) we should just consider them spoilers and ban them from publication.

Bigger
Bigger
4 years ago

Using bookies and making fair judgements should usually only be done one or two days before the Final. But even then it might be just based on air. Prior to that the odds change all the time. Especially now we only know one song, and it might not even be the version that will be sent to Rotterdam, so it is purely based on -money-. Someone rich might “for fun” put in a lot of money for example Russia or Sweden or Cyprus. Then those countries might jump suddenly to the top. Anyway, even though odds are a bit ridiculous… Read more »

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
4 years ago

I mention this every year but just remember, the odds don’t simply reflect the likelihood of winning. They also serve to minimise bookmaker losses. Obviously, Sanremo is just around the corner and it is only logical that bookmakers are receiving more bets on Italy than countries that aren’t getting as much attention.

Teddie
Teddie
4 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Sure they don’t but somehow they correctly predicted Duncan’s and Netta’s wins way ahead of semis which was a major bummer.

James
James
4 years ago

Bookies: Heidi-heidi-heidi-ho!

Gil Dadia
Gil Dadia
4 years ago

Israel is returning strong this year…ella lee will probably be the representative and she is just irresistible… I put my coins on her. Good luck ti everyone

Boozyfloozy
Boozyfloozy
4 years ago

How can there be favourites already? Ridiculous ?

Sabrina
Sabrina
4 years ago

Sadly, I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of the odds and their negative effects on Eurovision. People will keep betting, we can’t control it. And many people sadly vote with the odds in mind. I wonder how many entries could do better in the final but didn’t because some of their fans decided to vote for someone “who actually has a chance of winning”. In any case, vehicles that cover Eurovision could do us a service by stop giving them so much importance. Especially when the odds mean absolutely nothing, which is the case at this point of the… Read more »

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago
Reply to  Sabrina

Fans are a tiny portion of the voters and fans who are affected by the odds are a tiny portion of ESC enthusiasts. For the rest odds bear no significance and many don’t even know about them. Besides, you don’t need the odds to know who the favourites are. Being a part of the Eurovision bubble is far enough.

Sabrina
Sabrina
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

Two separate things: Yes, we’re in a bubble, we’re a tiny part of Eurovision viewers. But I bet (oops) the bookies pay attention to our first reactions (though of course more in social networks than in blog’s comments, since they’re easier to monitorate), making us sort of “test screeners”. The fandom is like the first gate (though we’re waaaay less powerful than some may assume…). The second is that, in the week of Eurovision, it’s quite normal to find articles in the “big press” pointing who are the favorites and using the odds to pick them. I imagine presenters also… Read more »

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago
Reply to  Sabrina

I see your point. 🙂 I guess it all comes down to who your country’s commentator is and whether you decide to read those articles beforehand (though this surely isn’t any front-page news, so there’s still a good chance that you’ll either overlook it or ignore it).

Sabrina
Sabrina
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

With more people watching it in Youtube without comments, maybe the odds’ influence is decreasing also. We’ve had surprise qualifiers, jury winners, televote winners, top 3 placed entries (if I remember it well, Sunstroke Project barely was pointed as a top 10 contender). It would be great to have a surprise winner, showing everything can happen. I guess the last one was Conchita, but maybe it was easy to predict in the day of the final, I can’t remember.

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

How about juries who vote based on odds so it wouldn’t look like they have no idea what they’re doing?

Sabrina
Sabrina
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

Also a problem. And when a juror is bashed by not placing a favorite high, I guess more of them become afraid of doing the same. On the other hand, it’s clear that some juries downvote the other frontrunners when their country is fighting for the win. Though it’s more a problem of the jurors being unprofessional than bookies’ fault in this matter.

Tuvia
Tuvia
4 years ago
Reply to  Sabrina

I don’t know, buddy. For me the odds have the opposite effect. I will vote for the underdog. The song I really like that has crappy odds, because the ones with good odds “will manage well without my vote.”

Sabrina
Sabrina
4 years ago
Reply to  Tuvia

But isn’t it a different way to react to the odds? And please don’t take as a criticism, because in your place, I would probably to the same! During the semis, I can see a lot of people taking this road. I can’t vote, but in 2019, I would vote for Portugal, Poland, Romania, Albania… because they were supposed to be borderline qualifiers. In the end, we’ll vote for love (of a country, an artist, a song). But the odds may direct our love for those who need the most or have more chance to win.

Andrea
Andrea
4 years ago

Is there anything more toxic than odds when it comes to Eurovision? I started following the contest closely since last season and during the Eurovision week I felt “hopeless” because of these bets. Remember when Italy’s staging was revelaed and all of a sudden our winning chances heavily decreased according to the odds? I genuinely thought Italy was going to end up out of the top 10. The sooner we stop paying attention to these things, the better it’ll be for us all.

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

I try to avoid reading articles about betting odds like the plague, or just leave comments of their irrelevance to the contest. I hate it when I encounter people online who think that odds boost a country’s chance of winning when history has repeatedly proven otherwise.

The beauty of ESC is how unpredictable results can be on the night. Bookkeepers are floaters needing a lifevest because they always float to the next thing that would be of benefit for them until it wasn’t. Screw them.

Barbara
Barbara
4 years ago

We haven’t even heard the song They already win!???

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago

Odds don’t matter, so I don’t give a damn anyway. It’s basically “which countries have been doing well the past few years” list at the moment, with some hyped acts like Spain or Belgium taking the top spots as well.

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
4 years ago

I have a feeling that the Eurovision odds keep influencing the actual contest more and more… Imagine the pressure of being the bookmakers absolute favourite and finishing second. Or imagine how bad it would make you feel when you are giving it your all with an entry only to see odds of 1/300 on you winning. I think bookmakers should somehow be restricted from betting during rehearsal and Eurovision week, even tho thats practically impossible. And I know it’s fun to follow what the bookmakers think but I do believe that it has too big of an impact on the… Read more »

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago

Yeah, also for the producers who decide the running order – are they really gonna place a so-called favourite in third or second place? It kinda becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

Acts that are odds’ favourites are usually pretty good (they’re favourites for some reason after all), so naturally they don’t get the worst spots.
I really don’t think odds have any influence at all, they’re just a reflection of what’s currently happening. Viewers don’t think about the odds when they’re voting and neither do the juries. Ireland was 4th with the bookmakers in 2018 and didn’t even make it to the right side of the scoreboard, Switzerland was supposed to win in 2007 and didn’t even qualify.

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

Why shouldn’t they get the worst spots, though? The producers maintain it is purely to help distinguish each entry and not have similar acts together. Quality isn’t relevant. The viewers and juries will decide what merits reward, nobody else should be making that judgement before voting even starts.

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

Quality is a factor though. Producers don’t want all the best entries to be performed one after another or too early in the running order. They want the show to be entertaining for the viewer throughout its running time and they want the best acts to place well. They may use the semi results as an indicator, they may not do that, but they have to take the so-called quality into consideration. Just imagine the Netherlands getting the “death spot” in 2019 – would that be good for the contest?

MTD
MTD
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

It would have been brilliant to put The Netherlands @ #2, as they never really had any real broad impact getting high televote scores. They just got enough 5-6s across the board to eventually win. Basically, that tells us that Arcade was just average.

The Netherlands last year was a compromise winner due to math, not because it was a favorite – both, the televote and the juries picked others as their winners.

Bigger
Bigger
4 years ago
Reply to  MTD

Or maybe it was not that Arcade was an average song, but it was that 2019 was a relatively strong year with many other strong songs from i.e. Italy, Norway, Switzerland, which took away many points, thus even things out, resulting in less extreme points for Arcade.

Have you thought about that? That sounds more plausible to me. That same could’ve happened to Italy, which is not an average song too. Since they ended up quite close, that gives away that they together, with many others were real contenders for the win.

Robert
Robert
4 years ago
Reply to  MTD

Say what you want, conclude all you want.. Most Eurovision fans loved Arcade.. It was a clear favorite, therfore the one to beat and a clear and justified winner.. Can be bitter all you want but this is factual..!

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

The running order is treated like a playlist that you program in a radio station. You have to make sure your listeners tune in from beginning to end and there are no similar sounding songs. With that said, part of determining where to place a song in the order is knowing how soon can a delegation’s staging be put together onstage and otherwise. Going by last year, you’ll notice in the 2019 final that countries with large props were either grouped together back to back or are placed after a break to allow additional time for the delegations to prepare.… Read more »

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

Without a song to base an odd on, nor a stage performance to scrutinize so early on, they’re predictions are never set in stone.

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  James

Edit: Posted the wrong response. 🙂

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

Or, if I may quote Han Solo, “never tell me the odds.”

Mr Vanilla Bean
Mr Vanilla Bean
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

I told that to myself last year already but you can’t unread the headlines that you inevitably see when visiting a Eurovision website.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

Least I can do is let that be the end of it. I’ll probably buckle though. It’s inevitable.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

Making a solemn vow this season to skip all the bookie news after this article. Sucks all the fun out of it.

Kosey
Kosey
4 years ago

I hate the odds. It definitely affects how people view the song. I remember when Duncan Laurence’s song was released last year, he immediately went to the top of the odds. I think even Wiwibloggs article referenced this. Whether directly or subliminally, it has to affect what listeners think of the song. Then, I’m sure there are some jurors who vote for a song because it is high in the odds and they would be ridiculed if they voted for an outsider. So it becomes a highly suspicious cess pool of a circle.

MTD
MTD
4 years ago
Reply to  Kosey

This!

Stephanie
4 years ago
Reply to  Kosey

The day Arcade was released (March 7), the instant positive reactions sent the Netherlands to within striking distance – it was second favorite behind Russia by the end of that day. It wasn’t until 2 days later (March 9) when Scream was released that Netherlands went to the top of the table and never relinquished that position

Mr Vanilla Bean
Mr Vanilla Bean
4 years ago

It can never be too early to take the fun away from Eurovision. Literally the only way to escape that s*** is to not follow Eurovision and just watch the shows without commentary.

Skiwalko
Skiwalko
4 years ago

How do odds take the fun away from Eurovision? They’re not some evil entity controlling everybody’s minds or spoiling the results. They simply… exist. What is there to be so upset about?

James
James
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

The fan press makes it seem so. They can exist but they need not to be reported.

Mr Vanilla Bean
Mr Vanilla Bean
4 years ago
Reply to  Skiwalko

Because they influence the result thus making the voting less fun.

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago

I always watch it without commentary on YouTube .-.

Mr Vanilla Bean
Mr Vanilla Bean
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

Me too. Better this way.

Azaad
Azaad
4 years ago

Odds have been influencing how people perceive the contest for far too long now.

Sale
Sale
4 years ago

Please no emphesis on the odds, if all they should be banned they ruin the spirit of the contest!

Joseph Mendy
Joseph Mendy
4 years ago
Reply to  Sale

I so totally agree with you. All they do is away the voters. The viewing public should be able to vote based on performance. They should not be influenced by the Betting odds. EVER

Joseph Mendy
Joseph Mendy
4 years ago

It’s way too early for this betting stuff. WAY WAY TOO EARLY. We haven’t even got 20 songs or acts confirmed let alone 41.