Bookmakers elevate Australia ahead of Eurovision final

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Hopefully it won’t be a case of Look Mum No Points (Getty) Getty

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Eurovision’s 70th grand final in Vienna now has a clearer shape after Thursday’s second semi-final, with Australia through and bookmakers moving the country up the odds. The Independent reports that Delta Goodrem drew some of the loudest cheers of the night, while the UK’s act Look Mum No Computer performed despite automatic qualification as one of the ‘Big Four’.

The contest’s mechanics reward spectacle as much as songwriting: a performance only exists once on the arena stage, but it is monetised for weeks through rehearsal clips, streaming playlists and betting markets that update in real time. According to Dagens Nyheter, betting compilations cited by Eurovision.com and Eurovisionworld.com put Finland as the leading favourite going into Saturday’s final, with Australia second and Greece third. Those rankings sit alongside a separate scoreboard that arrives earlier and is easier to measure: Spotify streams. DN notes that Sweden’s entry has recently been among the most-streamed Eurovision songs on the platform even as betting companies predict a mid-table finish, a reminder that the audience that listens repeatedly is not identical to the audience that votes once.

The Independent’s live coverage sketches the other side of the business: qualification creates scarcity. Five countries failed to make it through the second semi-final, meaning their delegations’ weeks of travel, staging and promotion end before the Saturday broadcast that delivers the largest audience. For those that do qualify, each additional minute of attention has downstream value—tour dates, catalog streams and brand tie-ins—while the contest itself keeps selling the same night twice, first as television and then as endlessly replayable clips. Politics still arrives at the arena doors: The Independent reports protests around Israel’s participation, even as its contestant qualified earlier in the week.

Saturday’s final will be broadcast from Vienna, with bookmakers still listing Finland as the one to beat and Australia close behind.