However, Eurovision entrants’ fate ultimately in the hands of fans who can download the official app and vote for their favourite act.
To celebrate the arrival of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest this week, and our role as the show’s official Technology Partner, we’ve used Bing’s ability to analyse large volumes of data to predict the winner.
And the results of the Bing prediction are…
Well, as of today, all available indicators suggest a win for Italy! And the predicted top five, along with the probability of them winning the contest, is as follows:
- Italy – 18%
- Sweden – 16.1%
- Australia – 13.3%
- Russia – 11.4%
- Albania – 11.2%
Live on Bing, Cortana and MSN, the predictions will update regularly to reflect shifting trends taking place online. What’s more, you, the fans have the opportunity to influence the result by voting for your favourite act via the official Eurovision Song Contest application which is available for download now from the Windows Store, and on Android and iOS.
As part of our wider role as official Technology Partner of the Eurovision Song Contest, we’re hosting the app on the Azure cloud platform. In addition to voting, the Eurovision app features a fun second screen feature for following the live show, including information about every artist, song and participating country. And the Azure platform also plays a core role in sharing video with more than 40 broadcasters, worldwide, as well as providing video on demand. Furthermore, we are supporting the hundreds of volunteers and delegates that are working hard to ensure another Eurovision to remember. The 2015 contest will see each equipped with Lumia 535 smartphones and Yammer so they can stay in contact – and in key – throughout the show.
So, back to our predictions – how are they generated and why are they so accurate? The Eurovision Song Contest predictions are powered by Bing’s Prediction Engine, a platform that consumes web and social data to draw on the collective wisdom of the crowd. In addition, historical data from previous years’ contests has been integrated to provide the context required to account for patterns that occur from competition to competition.
Bing has a decent pedigree when it comes to predictions – earlier this year it correctly predicted 16 out of the 19 winners at the 2015 Oscars. In the world of sport, Bing successfully foresaw the results of 15 out of 16 knockout stage games at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
The Official EBU Eurovision Song Contest 2015 app is available now in the Windows Store – download here today.