Has The Racing Post Gone Mad?

BrianH

BrianH

At the Start
Joined
May 3, 2003
Messages
6,108
Location
Banstead, Surrey
On a day when Pricewise has one of his rare two point bets (Notability at 100/30 in the 3.30 Haydock) elsewhere in the paper they are recommending an 8 point bet on Greece to win the Eurovision Song Contest at 15/8.

In an event that makes the decisions that establish the winners of ice-dancing of ice-skating contests look like the judgement of Solomon an 8 point bet on anyone would set alarm bells ringing in psychiatric units around the country - but on a 15/8 chance?

(For what it's worth, the vote of the Banstead jury goes to the Abba-like effort from Bosnia-Herzegovina each-way first four at 18/1 with Totesport.)
 
Thought Segal's lack of analysis today was very shoddy . Home Affairs not even mentioned .
 
I heard a bit of the Greek song yesterday on the radio and it didn't sound too bad (well - typical Euro but quite catchy) and I thought of having a couple of quid on it until I saw the price.
 
Some people don't know a good thing when it's looking them right in the face.
I would have suggested a win double with Shaking Stevens to win the show on ITV.
 
Yep, me too, Greece were never going to lose with all the countries they're friends with, and 15/8 was a seriously good price.

Can't believe any of you actually listened to the music though. :lol: :lol:
 
15/8 cannot possibly be a good price in such an event where the result is bound to be influenced by the old pals act. It was a terrible value bet, regardless of the result.

At as for "all the countries they're friends with", who could possibly have bet that Greece would have got 12 points from Turkey?
 
Originally posted by BrianH@May 22 2005, 06:46 PM
15/8 cannot possibly be a good price in such an event where the result is bound to be influenced by the old pals act. It was a terrible value bet, regardless of the result.

At as for "all the countries they're friends with", who could possibly have bet that Greece would have got 12 points from Turkey?
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And Cyprus.

I laid Greece at 13/8 after hearing their (dreadful IMO) song. They touched at least 20's at one point. Some poor bloke on the bf specials forum started a thread stating he had laid Greece to his full bank at 7's and commented "it's like picking money off the floor". His next post on the thread read "Oh dear".

After watching Greece breeze it and then this morning reading that Martin O'Neil was leaving Celtic I had this terrible foreboding all day re the 20.7K I was waiting on Celtic for. Pity I never overrule logic with such feelings when it comes to betting.
 
That Israel song was pretty good IMO. There are too many Baltic countries though and its ridiculous. I think its highly unfair that countries like France give out the same amount of points as the likes of Macedonia. And who were in the bottom 4?

UK
Germany
Spain
France
 
I saw of the show last night and thought it pretty dire. The Greek song was possibly slightly less awful than some of the others.

What's the problem with Baltic states having a vote?

One last thing - shouldn't they make it a rule that all songs be sung in the national language of their country? Most of the stuff was sung in English, which must be a bit weird for countries' home supporters.
 
People kept slagging off the drums and that (well Terry Wogan did) but I thought the music, particularly the more Eastern and traditional music was good, uplifting and generally very good.

Last years winner was great too.
Martin
 
The rule used to be that songs had to be in an official language of the country. They added an English option a few years ago.
 
I turned it on when the UK entry came on. I immediately laid it at 90 and 95 on BF. It was dire IMO and given the usual politics were never going to help, it was an inconceivable winner for me. The only other song I heard was the Maltese one which wasn't bad.

I wish I had known that the Whigfield groupie had rated the Greek effort as dire. I would have got stuck in at all rates :)
 
Another rule that changed is that the song had to be new for the show - the Greek song was in the charts of a number of European countries already and the singer had been on a promotional tour.
 
Originally posted by Honest Tom@May 22 2005, 06:56 PM
15/8 cannot possibly be a good price in such an event where the result is bound to be influenced by the old pals act. It was a terrible value bet, regardless of the result.

I laid Greece at 13/8 after hearing their (dreadful IMO) song.
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This makes me laugh. The odds compilers put Greece in at 5/1 They were a general 6/4 before the "off". Did that not tell you everything you needed to know about the Eurovision? When you start to over think markets (political relevance!!, bad song in my opinion!) and look for reasons to go against the grain for the sake of it, you end up looking silly.
 
Since whe was the Eurovision song contest about music?

Can't believe any of you bet on a country because of the music.

15/8 cannot possibly be a good price in such an event where the result is bound to be influenced by the old pals act. It was a terrible value bet, regardless of the result.
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The old pals act, that's exactly why it was a very good bet, not even a bet; an investment.
 
Haven't seen who voted for them but at a guess Macedonia (where they in it this year?), Albania (if in it - they don't want another Balkans crisis), B+H, Malta and Cyprus?
 
wtf.gif


Now let me get this right - there's this competition in which 39 countries each enter a crap piece of music, 15 of them are kicked out when the best 24 are chosen (God knows what the other 15 were like) and then people in all 39 of the countries phone up to vote for the best tune.

They don't do that, of course. As they are not allowed to vote for their own countries, they make sure that they vote for the tunes supplied by their neighbours or by a country with which they have some strong link. Equally they make sure that they boycott the tunes from countries that they don't like.

Have I got it right so far?

OK, now on a forum that is more than 50% about gambling there are people who are saying that not only is the above a good betting medium, but also there is value in taking as short as 15/8 about the a tune from one of those countries.

All I have to ask is whether any of those people fancy a game of poker?
 
And, by the way, anyone who thinks that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece are friendly with each other clearly knows nothing about Balkan politics.
 
Originally posted by BrianH@May 23 2005, 12:52 PM
And, by the way, anyone who thinks that the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Greece are friendly with each other clearly knows nothing about Balkan politics.
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Macedonia is not recognised by the EU on the basis that they claim to be the ancient base of the empire of Alexander the Great (?), whilst there's an area of Greece also called Macedonia so the Greeks vetoed the EU recognising Macedonia itself.

An example of one of the most stupid ways of dividing up a region - the Balkans that is.

Have an exam which this is useful for in 50 minutes.
 
Originally posted by BrianH@May 23 2005, 10:50 AM

All I have to ask is whether any of those people fancy a game of poker?
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I've only ever played the strip version at school under the bedclothes with some lads who came in via the fire escape. Have to say I didn't win but it was hugely entertaining! :lol:
 
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