2026 Odds Review #1: 11/01

Our first odds snapshot for the season sees Israel at the top of the odds on the exchange with caution over their Televote power the last few years, they're still in the early days of their artist selection show so early to say in which direction they are headed. The usual trio of Ukraine, Sweden and Italy follow where we know the potential artists but none of the songs except for Ukraine's Vidbir wildcards. Belgium are supposedly gearing up for a Loic Nottet return which somewhat explains their spot gatecrashing this predictable top 5, although their recent record of high optimism and then disasters is unmatched. Keeping pretty close company is Finland who have been teasing their UMK names this past week.

The 20-1+ area sees The UK, Norway, France, Bulgaria and Luxembourg jostling for position, the latter of which is the lowest priced country we've heard entries from. Notably, Denmark are also sitting in this area and at times shorter with the whole Greenland debacle bringing some caution with them and a potential solidarity vote. They are followed by Greece in the low 30s from whom we've had 15 second snippets.

Elsewhere nothing particularly catches the eye as unusual. I might suggest -considering the smaller field, the Israel factor and personal uncertainty over the calibre in Sweden and Italy there's value to be had hitting and hoping on anyone 70+ we've heard nothing from, track record be damned, but their relative positions in the odds are fairly typical. Our 2 known entries in Albania and Montenegro aren't faring too well, nor is our known act of Antigoni from Cyprus whose song we will be waiting on for a while.

The next week sees the all important semi final allocation draw, names dropped in Finland and Poland -a lively outsider always at this stage-, the Ukrainian songs released and national finals in Moldova (surely Satoshi?) and Malta.