Eurovision 2026

These low televote points indicate a LOT of votes for just a handful of acts

Betfair might need to put up a "Will there be a Eurovision Song Contest in 2027?" market in about 20 minutes.

Israel fave now.

Israel fav!!! If ESC didn't know they'd r1gged it as much as biden's 2020 win, theyd be sweating it big style!

Big points for several countries and Bulgaria still from below evens to 3.

into evens again now.

Norway cooked

Israel cooked

Must be loud booing if EBU couldn't even drown it out.

There you go; job done, r1gged again

Israel still in it.

this female host speaks to the participants as if they are 7 years old.

Dara

this dramatic zoom-in over something that's already mathematically decided.

Man i love her

Nice show of diversity, equity and inclusion from the hypocrites filling the crowd, regarding Israel

biggest result for Bulgaria since the World Cup bronze in 1994

wow landslide

I actually love her

superb, so well deserved

Very very easy haha

enjoyed that, great trading the results, wd all

May 16, 2026 -- 9:38PM, Danzaa wrote:

May 16, 2026 --  9:35PM, hemsby wrote:I’d be very surprised if Israel doesn’t win TelevoteAgree, but I see Bulgaria a strong 2nd, so if for whatever reason Israel don't win the TV - 8.4 is worth taking on

Easiest 2000 quid I ever made.
P.S - I use a website called TellyStats.com

Ro 3rd as well !

I'll take that

May 17, 2026 -- 12:01AM, Danzaa wrote:

May 16, 2026 --  9:38PM, Danzaa wrote:May 16, 2026 --

May 16, 2026 -- 10:31PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

Had a few sheckles on Romania at 40 for the televote.

Runner up

Bulgaria are winners !

Bangra seems popular

May 17, 2026 -- 12:02AM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:

May 16, 2026 -- 10:31PM, Angela Rebecchi wrote:Had a few sheckles on Romania at 40 for the televote.Runner up

Excellent call on Romania. Got egg on my face there! Top stuff

First time in 10 years the winner hasnt come from top 3 on EurovisionWorld. Was well down the pack. But that's the power of Dara

50/1 on the outright
6/4 on the top 10 landed.
Not as good as my Australia returns but I will take this returns all day long

1.5            £13,452.27

Bulgaria were 1.5 at this point to not lose to Australia by more than 40 in the televote. One of many insane prices in running there !

1.03            £1.92
1.04            £43.94
1.05            £3,689.62
1.06            £1,639.64
1.07            £1,130.93
1.08            £5,532.84

Finland top 5

Once again, a clear case of an easy money making route when there is a false hot favourite

Yes all the fan sites and people immersed in it for months were going for Oz and Finland top 2, both nowhere. We show up at the last minute and pick two outsiders at 40 that come 1st and 3rd!

Dara winning the jury vote is a big surprise though. I know that they changed the composition of the juries, with bringing in production and choreo people, I guess it made a material difference. And scoring Israel reasonably fairly, didn't see that coming either.

Until next year!

What where top
3 in each semi

Anyone know ?

Gotta love it. Australia were a disappointment on the Jury, but thankfully a diamond emerged this week (Dara) and all was good in the end
Anyone know when we find out who won the semis?

I thought it was some time tonight, but don't know

A few years ago, fed up with max red losses every year on ESC, I changed tactics; don't listen to (and be influenced by!) any of them, just play the market, simply laying everything that moved, no backing, no trading. As such, come Semi 1, I had the field all similarly green when, for some reason, this post stood out;

Lifter Joined: 19 Sep 14
Replies: 1011913 May 26 22:26 
Bangaranga (Bulgaria) clip looks great. Another big fish in the televote pool

Spent the last few days trading Bulgaria to my biggest ever ESC win; not huge in financial terms, but a most enjoyable change from years of max red disasters, so thanks for that Lifter

I'll take Foty for the 2nd year running for my 50/1 shout on Dara

Where is that?

Bobsyauncle • May 1, 2026 6:54 PM BST
I think we get a Finland Greece flip flop before the final

Bobsyauncle • May 4, 2026 1:11 PM BST
Australia by far my biggest green. Think Delta will perform way better with the televote than expected. Provided she isn't shafted by the running order in the final.

Bobsyauncle • May 11, 2026 6:05 PM BST
Here comes the Greece plunge :)

Bobsyauncle • May 14, 2026 4:46 AM BST
Those taking it for for granted that Oz struggle in the televote are ignoring the fact Delta is a world class superstar, levels above her competition.

Bobsyauncle • May 14, 2026 4:11 PM BST
What is it then?
Cos UK defied the odds to finish second last year wasn't it?
So on that basis why is it so hard to see Australia winning it the best singer and staging?

Bobsyauncle • May 15, 2026 10:29 AM BST
I just don't support the view that Delta will struggle in the televote. While she is singing a pretty mediocre song, it still has the absolute golden vote winning staging that will appeal to the masses.

Like strictly all over again, recollections may vary. Unfortunately for you, the bf forum doesn't yet have vanishing messages. Aside from your '50-1 shout' on Dara, cos I can't see it :p

In all seriousness, once again this result shows that 80-90% of the game is the jury vote. Other than the change in composition, it's hard to see how/why Dara was rewarded by them, when in the past entries like cha cha and fuego have been penalised. And Italy doing well with them, wtf? Ro getting punished when it was such a high level of quality and vocal, I guess they might just never get on board with the darker stuff, however strong it is.

Case in point, Bulgaria only comes 5th in the semi jury, only 7 points ahead of Ro. Yet wins the final jury comfortably. Explain that to me !

Ro getting punished when it was such a high level of quality and vocal,

You think winners in Eurovision are decided by quality and vocals ?

Nominally the jury vote is.

Used to be ballads that would win, nowadays it’s quirky modern sounds that do it

May 17, 2026 -- 6:44AM, Cider wrote:

Like strictly all over again, recollections may vary. Unfortunately for you, the bf forum doesn't yet have vanishing messages. Aside from your '50-1 shout' on Dara, cos I can't see it :p

Only realised it was the Strictly guy when the AUS odds started shortening, and the gloating started due to AUS being a shoo-in. Just a load of waffle. Blocked

Those 2 extra younger juries must have helped a lot. Bulgaria also won "artistic award for best stage presentation" so I guess there were big points awarded to how sleek the staging was. As to why they only comes 5th in the semi jury, maybe them becoming more of a fav had an affect

OR it is a bit more cynical behind the scenes and jurers opposing Israel realised Bulagria is the one they needed to support as the tele was so strong

UK would NOT have won if they had put up the Bulgarian entry. Would have been seen as too cheesy.

Blocked how old are you 5?

Also Cider- as you searched all my posts, you didn't find the one from before the final last night when Fig asked me who my money was on?
Also mentioned it a few days ago as well.

The dynamics are very weird. Ro had a similar trajectory in the market until after the final jury show. Only if the juries knew the televote in the semi for Bulg before the final jury voting, then you could think they might want to get behind a possible winner. Or pushed that way? But surely that would leak.

If the conspiracy theory is that the jury show for the final bled into the market, it doesn't fit with Oz and Finland getting smashed in the OR before the off.

Selectively choosing all my slip up comments ha ha
Admittedly I was out on Australia. Thought they would be the winners going into the final, but the odds I took on them were mostly each way so no harm done. When you are landing a 50/1 shot and a large whack on top 10 at 6/4 (also mentioned) it's always going to be successful returns

You're claiming shouting up a 50-1 winner. You didn't. You did after time backing Bulgaria after it had plunged in the market. I hadn't read the thread until this week, so obviously it was possible that you had 'shouted' it at the time, as you claim.

Ok even going into the final when I said it to Fig it was available at 14/1 and taking on an odds on shot. But ok.

Eurovision is organic isn't it, very rare to get a Lena type who you know will win from before the rehearsals. Most of us will therefore have developing thoughts and positions, with mistakes chucked in. There's no need to make stuff up though. Hold your hand up and admit you got your main strategy completely wrong, it's allowed.

Yeah I did, but it still landed top 4 at decent odds.
And just like with Queen Carney, in the end I found the winner, but this time at collosal odds :)
Can't you just be happy for me?

I love this result for future years. It's good info for next time. We rarely get a winner that was hidden until the final few days. Usually, it is at least in the top 3 in the big polls, and any post-rehearsal surge for an outsider falls flat. I was hesitant to back Bulgaria in the outright because of that. The 4-minute mile has now been broken, and one can be more confident in the "impossible". Then again, this was a very weak year with the market searching for a default winner, and there wasn't one, which opened it up.

May 17, 2026 -- 12:54AM, timbuctooth wrote:

I thought it was some time tonight, but don't knowA few years ago, fed up with max red losses every year on ESC, I changed tactics; don't listen to (and be influenced by!) any of them, just play the market, simply laying everything that moved, no backing, no trading. As such, come Semi 1, I had the field all similarly green when, for some reason, this post stood out;Lifter Joined: 19 Sep 14Replies: 1011913 May 26 22:26

Nicely played Tim

Didn't just win though did it, landslide, winning the juries as well! Astonishing really that it was trading 40 when performing in the semi, after all of the rehearsals were in the market. Doubt that has happened in modern times, or will do again, that the pv and jury topper traded that high by the first time it was broadcast. Or the question I have posed several times, why Greece was trading 4.5, quite unbelievable it was considered a genuine runner for the OR.

I suppose the other big note from the post mortem was how long the big hitters clung onto hope for Finland. Just relentless confidence in their televote, actually mistaken for insider knowledge, so confident was the weight of cash for them.

May 17, 2026 -- 9:46AM, Cider wrote:

I suppose the other big note from the post mortem was how long the big hitters clung onto hope for Finland. Just relentless confidence in their televote, actually mistaken for insider knowledge, so confident was the weight of cash for them.

Very true. It enabled me to cash out from 1.90s to evens, despite things not looking good. During the results was the big surprise, and what looked like insider knowledge, as they were still favs despite Bulgaria smashing the jury. Always had it as more of a jury song, so yeah, was game over at that point

Definitely, I'd switched to Israel being the primary threat. As their televote was not really quantifiable, but likely strong. Australia, similarly reliant on achieving a lead in the juries was out to 20ish. But someone or people expected Finland to have ran away with the televote. Another fascinating betting heat and psychological challenge.

May 16, 2026 -- 8:13PM, Bobsyauncle wrote:

May 16, 2026 --  8:04PM, five leaves left wrote:Hi bob. Whose your money on? It's always been Oz and France for me against the front 2. Dumped France during the rehearsals. So it's all down to DeltaBeen on Australia heavy from 16s ranging down to 10.Also Bulgaria EW at 50s and top 10, had a bit on Greece as well.Dream finish tonight, Oz 1 Bulgaria 2.

n1 Bob. Some of us knew long before the awful latecomers

May 17, 2026 -- 12:16PM, five leaves left wrote:

May 16, 2026 --  8:13PM, Bobsyauncle wrote:May 16, 2026 --

Happy days indeed Fig. Roll on Strictly

Bulgaria and Romania close in jury semi final then in the final Bulgaria pulls 3x that of Romania.

EBU knew Bulgaria won the semi final televote and therefore were the best bet to kill off Israels chances of winning. Seems plausible that they gently influenced enough jurors of Bulgaria being a televote magnet and enough being on board to understand the remit i.e. boost Bulgarias jury score to stop Israel winning and the contest being on a monster downward trajectory.

Conspiracy? Possibly. But as soon as the Friday Jury Final was over we saw Bulgaria go 40s into 14s with around 15k matched 14s to 25s. You can counter that by saying why were Finland and Australia being well backed still? Obvious retort to that is how many have this info? Very little. And they're not going to be sitting in front of the exchanges having monster trades on everyone. You would be most happy having what you could get on Bulgaria and let the market do whatever it wants. Food for thought.

Evil commie globalist bast@rds! As good, compliant and obedient little marxists, they must eradicate all and any signs and influence of religions, starting with the first religion, the Jews. Evil, I tell ya, pure evil

Evil commie globalist bast@rds! As good, compliant and obedient little marxists, they must eradicate all and any signs and influence of religions, starting with the first religion, the Jews. Evil, I tell ya, pure evil

Winning a couple of million for fixing a song contest seems small fry for a globalist.

Whose getting all the money?

Do you think all these globalists do anything other than fix song contests?

The question is how that song ever finished 2nd,beggars belief to me.

lapsy - because their supporters would slam in votes if someone farted their national anthem as their entry.

I'm amazed they never just banned them - they did for Russia.

Would be much easier than letting them into this contest, then trying desperately to reduce their chances of winning.

You want to ban Ukraine as well? These arguments are incessantly daft. People vote in public votes for all sorts of reasons, and ev has always been impacted by diaspora and 'friendly nations', then you get to juries nobbling the supposed competition.

Were they second on merit and is it fair on other countries?

Surely the answer is no to both.

If that is what this competition is becoming it has lost its soul.

Why do you care? You seem obsessed by Israel, I wonder why that is. Why are you not equally moaning about Ukraine's politically motivated televote?

Am i right?

As usual, no. The public vote, the votes are added up. When they were totalled up for individual countries, Israel reached third in the table. Do you think Moldova reached 4th on 'merit'?

The juries allegedly award points on musical and artistic merit, which is meant to offset the public, who vote based on motivation. And yes, wanting a particular country to do well is merit based.

And the glaring, inconvenient example for the racists is that Ukraine came 5th. But there is tumbleweed about that (a far less creditable entry than Israel as it happens).

A pile o chite Cider^ That song didn't deserve 2nd musically or artistically and not even a top 6, if you think it did it says a lot.

The Ukranian song was far superior.

The professionals put Ukraine in 15th, Israel 8th

Even without the pogrom, Israel this year would have been in the running. It is undoubtedly however contaminated by politics and racists, like most people I expected the virtue signalling to infect juries like it has in the recent past. Absolutely nobody knows for sure where Ukraine or Israel would have finished, without the external factors. But people miss the blindingly obvious, if it wasn't for all the Israel hate, you probably wouldn't get the contrarian voting.

I think it got no points from the UK jury. Embarrassing and unprofessional. But sadly, inevitable. They gave Ukraine 7, naturally :)

There's always been some support for countries based on other aspects than song - but only two stand out - Ukraine and Israel.

The Ukraine one was fairly organic (a natural televote that won it), but Israel have tried to buy country televotes in an organised campaign (see Spain's results for example last year).

If Ukraine won every year, then yes, I'd agree with removing them too. Any act that just ignores song and only becomes a voting campaign to stitch up a win should always be removed from a singing contest like this.

If it only gets them to third, it's not that organised!

Israel haven't won at all due to the political element. Ukraine, at least once, arguably twice since I've been involved.

If Israel, or any other entry, were repeatedly winning due to external factors then yes they would need to take some mitigation. But we're not in that space.

To pretend it isn't about anything other than the widespread racism that Jews have suffered around the world since the pogrom would be completely disingenuous. The fear on Saturday was palpable, and that fear wasn't that the considered best song wouldn't win. In contrast, they celebrated Ukraine winning (the 'bubble' and the commentariat).

Anyway, in more positive news, Dara is at number 12 on global spotify. Entered at #9 in the UK chart.

This thread is littered with people making less than glowing comments about various countries and their songs.

Fair game, fair comment.


Mention one particular country and a few get crazy triggered. They go off spaffing and spurting like a dropped bottle of cola. "It's about religion, religious righteousness, and religious phobias", and claiming it's all fix.

You're nutz

This is a song contest between countries, and the voting system is built in such a way that political allegiances and other things such as who's civilians are  being attacked? and who is attacking a lot of civilians? come in to play and influence the voters and voting system.


If this was a song contest between religions, then your spaffing about religion would have relevance.
It's not, religion has no relevance to the comments about any country in this competition.

So stop whinging about religious bias ITT and shove a chocolate chip muffin up your starfish

lapsy joining the the thread just to b11tch about Israel's entry is everything to do with religion.

bearcub's racist tropes are everything to do with religion.

Just two examples.

As I've stated numerous times, our job is to judge what is going to happen, not what should happen (the job of trying to make money out of public voting events). Therefore the external factors, and how they might influence the professional juries (such as the UK), and the public voting are inevitably part of the analysis.

You think you know it all but know F A Cider.

I joined the thread to highlight the campaign of advertising of votes by Israel,i also said despite what i thought was a poor song that were a blinding bet EW @ 20/1 4 places.

If you think that is morally right and fair on other countries frankly that is your problem.

Who cares about fair on a betting forum. Get yourself over to digital spy. Plenty of fellow travellers over there.

Nobody can meaningfully get on EW (aside from gb2), but assuming it was 1/5 odds place there was not much gravy in that bet.

There's no way I know it all, likely closer to very little to be honest, but I do know that you only posted as it was another opportunity to demonstrate your vitriol of Israel. And yes, it is tiresome.

The advertising and campaigning by Israel for votes was made public when i posted,it was relevant of course to the thread and i didn't see it mentioned in posts for the previous days beforehand. You are ignoring that but knowing you i presumed you knew all that anyway as that is the way you come across.

You are showing yourself up with your lack of knowledge of betting when you are maintaining that 'not much gravy in that bet'. Say a small £10 ew,it returned £50, ie a 6/4 winner or a 250% return on your investment,you could also have laid back the win £10 on here and had a free bet on the win part which would have maximised your bet and the place part would have been 4/1. The price halved a day after my post and i presume though not certain BF would have been in the general ballpark of 10/1.

There has been no vitriol whatsoever on my part re Israel on this thread,this only concerned the unfair addvantage they were trying to manipulate, you are a liar.

Not sure I would be referencing a lack of betting knowledge of someone else, then immediately stating that a 6/4 winner is a 250% return on funds invested. More work to do on that ratio ;)

Yes anyone taking EV remotely seriously was fully aware Israel were likely to overperform on the televote and underperform with the juries. It is also Wednesday tomorrow.

You could easily have made that point without b1tching about the entry. Most followers of the event if being fair would have been very positive about the Israel entry in of itself, one of the stronger entries. But obviously with them, there are/were more pertinent factors to be considered.

I expect you to underline all this vitriol on the thread from me and back up your accusations.

Where is it?

May 18, 2026 -- 4:56PM, stu wrote:

I'm amazed they never just banned them - they did for Russia.Would be much easier than letting them into this contest, then trying desperately to reduce their chances of winning.

Moroccan Oil are a long-time Eurovision Song Contest sponsor/partner - maybe that's why?

May 19, 2026 -- 8:42AM, Cider wrote:

lapsy joining the the thread just to b11tch about Israel's entry is everything to do with religion.bearcub's racist tropes are everything to do with religion.Just two examples. As I've stated numerous times, our job is to judge what is going to happen, not what should happen (the job of trying to make money out of public voting events). Therefore the external factors, and how they might influence the professional juries (such as the UK), and the public voting are inevitably part of the analysis.

Let me know what racist tropes i posted that offended your sensitive little soul Cider

Isreal had a decent song, it was a poor year, imo
but worthy of top 4 at least,

The right song won for me, but restricting votes was
a good thing, take it down to 3 per person, there are
always ways around it, but if you are that bothered
maybe ruining a song contest for political gain.. should
see a ban.