Eurovision Betting: Back Norway to overcome odds-on favourites Denmark

Margaret Berger - back her to win

With the second semi-final in the bag, we now know which nations will contest Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest final. Richard O'Hagan looks at the contenders to emerge from that semi-final and picks the likely winner.

The votes have been cast, the second semi-final is over and we now know the identities of the 26 nations who will compete in the final of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. Come Saturday evening one of these countries will have the unenviable task of following Malmo and hosting the 2014 competition. The big question now is which nation it will be?

Denmark remain the hot favourites, which is unsurprising given the pains that have been taken to produce a winning entry. Songwriter Lise Cabble has already written two songs which finished in the top 5 of a Eurovision contest and that knowledge shines through 'Only Teardrops', especially in the big, Eurovision-friendly, finish. For the British audience, singer Emmelie de Forest will evoke memories of Florence Welch, Kate Bush and, with her bare feet, none other than former winner Sandie Shaw. They are going to face some stiff competition, though, and that alone suggests that at 1.824/5 they are far too short a price to be attractive.

Norway came through the second semi-final and are second favourites at 10.5n/a. An interesting pointer, though, is that although the votes of the jury deciding the semi-finals are supposed to be something of a secret, the order in which the winners were announced suggests that Margaret Berger's 'I Feed You My Love' is a strong contender.

If you take the jury decision as an indicator of the way that they will vote in the Final - and votes from the jurists for the Final make up 50% of this mark - then the fact that the Norwegians were announced in a similar position in the order as the Danes two nights before suggests that they might be in a tighter race with their Scandinavian counterparts than the market might indicate.

The second semi-final also produced a number of interesting outside challengers. Iceland's Eythor Ingi is a noted performer in stage musicals, having played roles as diverse as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Marius in Les Miserables. He appeared inspired by the semi-final and although his song 'I Am Alive' is possibly a little too downbeat for a Eurovision winner, it is bound to find favour with some juries and at 5.69/2 he represents a good bet for a top 10 finish.

Georgia's entry, 'Waterfall', seemed to go down particularly well with the live audience. It is a more old fashioned type of song, of the sort which used to do well in the early years of the contest. There are elements of classical music, pop music and the theatrical in there, a mix reflected by the background of performers Nodi Tatishvili and Sophie Gelovani. Back them at 2.56/4 to finish in the top five.

None of which bodes well for Britain's entry. Bonnie Tyler has been steadily drifting in the market and not only is now a 110.0109/1 shot to win the competition (and a possibly generous 4.77/2 to even make the top 10), she is 8.27/1 to even finish top of the so-called Big Five nations, the group comprising Britain, France, Spain, Germany and Italy who don't have to take part in the semi-finals. Admittedly, that's better than the Spanish entry, 'With You Until The End' by ESDM, is doing - but that is because it is a truly horrible song and at 580.0579/1 justifiably the rank outsider in the win market.

Recommended Bet:

Back Norway at 10.5n/a to win the Eurovision Song Contest