Eurovision organizers say leaked Italy results which caused Israel to peak in odds were ‘incomplete’

The European Broadcasting Union issues a statement saying that apparent leaked Eurovision semifinal results from Italy last night were “published in error” and were “incomplete.”

The EBU, which organizes the song contest, does not elaborate on how the results, which showed that a whopping 39% of votes from Italy went to Israel’s Eden Golan, were “incomplete.” It says that it is investigating the incident, in which RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, seemed to accidentally publish the country’s voting numbers, but stresses that Italy submitted a “valid vote.” The EBU says it told RAI that the move was “in breach of the rules.”

Results from the contest’s semifinals are not meant to be published until after the final, slated for Saturday night, is completed. The leaked numbers from Italy, however, caused Israel to soar in the betting ranks from the 8th spot to 2nd place ahead of the grand final.

The semifinals are decided solely based on the televote, while the final is decided by a combination of “jury” votes from each country and the televote. According to the odds, Israel is slated to end up first in the televote, but fifth in the jury vote, leading to a second-place finish. Croatia is still considered the heavy favorite.