Odds Review: Week Ending 06/02

We start this week with the first of our 4 additions to the field in Ireland who have seen a drift. They were too short before and remain too short now. Slovenia remain much the same in the outright having already been rated extremely unlikely.

Spain have seen a bit of a wobble in their price with Blanca Paloma and ‘EaEa’ leaving Norway as the only real winners of the weekend. They selected the act with the most potential left in the running but the main shortening is based around Alessandra's early exposure.

Every year there's an internal selection that's an open secret with Brunette's name mentioned for months for Armenia who remain in the usual pattern of mid 30s to low 40s.

Neighbouring Georgia concluded their voice with Iru Khechanovi coming through. It's a pretty abysmal way to choose an entrant with the time frame not ideal but for once might work out OK. This was the preferred outcome due to the singer/songwriter pairing with Georgia sitting in what is surely their lowest price in a decade, if not of all time.

Keeping in the caucasus, it's the first time that Azerbaijan have found themselves the least fancied of the trio. Their final shortlist of acts has been released with Mamagama looking likely.

Serbia's national final is often an enigma and they are probably the main country where it's best to wait and see what comes through and how good it is rather than taking the early 'value' although they find themselves pushed in.

Greece have been all over the place with internal wranglings to make Ukraine and Suspline blush. Through 10 different compromises Victor Vernicos is their entrant (probably) and a snippet of their song (or demo) has been doing the rounds to little fanfare.

Sweden's Melodifestivalen began on Saturday with the poor first heat causing them to start ticking up. The growing feeling is Loreen or bust for their hopes.

Finally, Ukraine have managed to stop the rot in epic proportions being slammed down to 2.2 briefly midweek. They've settled around the 4s now in betting patterns similar to last year.

The semi final allocation draw resulted in an interesting split to say the least. There’s no country in the current top 10 in the odds in semi 2 to reel of just one stat to highlight the difference in expected quality.

Focus next week is on Italy during San Remo and the Czech Republic also announce the results of their national final. Semi final filler and midtable fodder will also be provided from all of Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Croatia, Romania and Denmark in the least super of super saturdays.