Russians bet on Eurovision 2017 five times less than in 2016

According to Bookmaker Ratings, a senior executive of online bookmaker Liga Stavok claims that this year the total amount of bets made on Eurovision by Russians is 5 times less than in 2016.

The Baltbet representative confirmed a significant interest decrease of Russians in the song contest.

According to him, at the beginning of the year, nearly 70% of bets were placed on the Russian participant, but the online bookmaker had to refund this money afterwards.

The reason for this was Russia's refusal to participate in the Eurovision 2017 caused by the ban of the country’s representative Yulia Samoylova to enter Ukraine. Since the Russian Federation is not represented at the contest, many citizens lost their interest in the event, and this affected both the number and volume of bets.

Last year, 500,000-ruble-bet on Sergei Lazarev’s win was accepted by the online bookmaker Liga Stavok. While in 2017, 25,000-ruble-bet on the Italian singer Francesco Gabbani is the highest one so far.

Baltbet reports 70,000-ruble-bet on the same Italian guy.