British sports betting operator William Hill has announced that all the profits from their Eurovision markets will be donated to the charitable effort “Support Ukraine”. William Hill announced the news in anticipation of the contest’s grand final this weekend via a tweet posted by the bookie’s official account.

We’re hugely excited for the Eurovision final in Liverpool this weekend, but let’s not forget that Ukraine were last year’s winners and would normally be hosting the event.

So, to mark the occasion, all profits from our Eurovision markets will be donated to the Support Ukraine… pic.twitter.com/rIRGVJr7XS

— William Hill (@WilliamHill) May 12, 2023

The extravaganza that is the Eurovision song contest has already begun and is set to be, by all accounts, the regular spectacular it has always been.

This is in spite of the contest 67th edition having to forgo the ceremonial allocation of being held by the previous winners. Current holders of the coveted prize, Ukraine, have not been released from the headlines since a ravenous conflict broke out in early 2022.

As a result of the ongoing circumstances, the contest was relocated to the north west English city of Liverpool in time to host this year’s competition. This is the first time in 25 years the United Kingdom has hosted the European songfest which will feature a total of 37 acts.

Interestingly, this is an extremely rare occurrence, with the last winner of the contest that was unable to host being Israel who won the most votes twice in both 1978 and 79 declining to stage the event in 1980 due to budgetary constraints. However, this situation was even less straightforward as second place Spain also turned down the opportunity leaving the Netherlands to host the show in The Hague.

By many metrics the betting markets related to the European song contest will be more than respectably sizable, with 3.3 million viewers bearing witness to Ukraine’s 2022 victory, with a total of 161 million viewers watching across the whole route of the competition.

This phenomenal audience garnered a betting revenue of close to an eye-watering amount of ￡10 million. The contest has many times been described as a tailor made environment for the betting market due to the emotionally derivative nature of the outcomes.

This could mean an applaudably large sum of money will be sent in aid to the charitable effort “Support Ukraine” in the borderland.

Preliminary odds prior to the final on Saturday have Sweden heavily pegged as favourites with a surge from dark horse Finland improving odds since their semi-final appearance.

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