Updated Updated: 2024

Grammy Awards 2020 – Where to Bet

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How To Bet On The Grammys?

the grammys logo

Betting on any sorts of music awards is significantly different than sports betting. A sporting competition and its outcome are dependent on a number of factors that one take into consideration but, also, there’s a big “unknown” incorporated in an event, as things in sports rapidly change during the contest. 

On the contrast, the Grammys and other music awards ceremonies have a small number of variables and no surprise events can affect the outcome of the event. If you think the fact of having no unexpected situations influencing the event makes the betting process any easier, you might be wrong. 

The Grammys winners are decided upon long before the award night, giving potential bettors a fair amount of time to analyse the situation and assess winning chances of the nominees. But knowing that behind each awarded prize stands the committee which features individual tastes and preferences, it’s extremely hard to predict the results.

For those familiar with betting on sports, the case of the Grammys might be a surprisingly odd adventure, as here you won’t rely on objective summaries and rational decisions based on facts. Instead, the key to a successful bet is a mix of subjective views and in-depth research conducted a long time ahead of the event.

Best Times To Bet On The Grammys

Considering the nature of the event, you might want to consider betting at either of two of the following times:

  • As early as possible

Since the awards’ date is set and has been known for some time now, as well as the circumstances in which the voting process takes place, you can place your bet right now. Paddy Power already offers good odds for the Grammys, so if you’re sure of your choice it might be a good time to wager now. 

With over a month to go before the event takes place, bookmakers feature odds that can lead to very lucrative winnings because there’s still a high level of uncertainty around the potential outcomes of the event. 

  • As late as possible

Contradictory, if you still haven’t explored your options and evaluated the situation, it might be better to wait and bet closer to the awards’ date. There’s still plenty of time during which you can catch up on relevant news that could help you pick the right winners in relevant categories. With more information and better knowledge, the uncertainty of the final outcomes lowers and you guarantee yourself higher chances of placing a right bet.

Remember, though, that the closer to the event the date is, the less lucrative winnings you might expect. You might closely follow all the news and gossips but so are the bookies! They will modify the odds accordingly to the leaked and released information, ensuring positive results for their business objectives.

The Grammys – Betting Tips

Although due to extremely subjective nature of these awards, it’s simply impossible to provide a list of set betting tips but we suggest that you take into consideration a few factors that can help you place lucrative bets.

1. Industry Research 

Make sure you know ins and outs of the music industry, including winners of other music awards. In the case of the Grammys, it’s quite tricky as the event opens up the New Year’s event calendar and there are not any significant events happening beforehand. However, it’s recommended to take a look at the recently handed prizes at occasions of MTV Europe Music Awards, the American Music Awards or Teen Choice Awards.

For example: Billie Eilish celebrated winning the main prize in the Choice Artist Award category during the Teen Choice Awards, as well as she received the title of Billboard’s Woman of the Year and the Favourite Artist (Alternative Rock) at the American Music Awards. With an impressive track record of success in 2019, she might be a competitive candidate for the Grammys, too.

billie eilish singing
Billie Eilish is nominated for the Album of the Year award

2. Public Relations

We’d like to think that music awards are purely about the music. Well, we’re afraid not necessarily. The way artists are perceived by media and the general public might highly affect the final decision of the awards’ committee. Some good PR can turn out beneficial to a nominee, whilst a scandal might not only ruin an artist’s reputation but also deprive them of chances to win any prize.

We advise you to follow all relevant resources that can impact the final decisions regarding the Grammy awards. Stay informed on the artists’ activities, including the worth praising situations and this less exemplary behaviour.

3. Social Media

Speaking of the perception of the public, it’s impossible not to mention the power of social media. Most of the juicy gossips can be read on such platforms but also if you search well enough, you’ll come across content that speculates the outcome of the Grammy awards

Insights of the industry experts are always crucial to make the right decision in terms of betting so don’t underestimate them! Sometimes there can be even found the leaks from the awarding commission, so keep your eyes opened because right now all the information you can obtain can turn out to be really helpful.

About The Grammy Awards 

the grammy award

The idea behind the Grammy Awards was born in 1958 when the group of record executives raised their concerns about the growing trend of rock’n’roll which was threatening the “quality pop” genre. The aim was to cultivate better and higher standards of popular music and with this concept in mind, the first edition of the awards was launched a year after.

The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor and respect the musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1958.

The first Grammy awards took place in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hills Hotel. There were 28 award categories and, aside from one nominee in the Best Country & Western Performance and Best Rhythm & Blues Performance, nominees included stars such as Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Perry Como and Doris Day.

The Grammys are seen what the Oscars are in the film industry. Perceived as the most prestigious ceremony in the music vertical, the Grammys are “the dream comes true” for many artists, however, there’s quite a numerous group of well-known individuals who have criticised the awards. Among those are Sinead O’Connor who was the first musician to refuse a Grammy in 1991, boycotting the ceremony and calling to stop “this extreme commercialism”, as well as Bon Iver’s frontman Justin Vernon who believes the event is elitist and promotes big, mass productions and reinforces perception of music as a machine for sole money-making purposes.

The event has also been met with criticism coming from the journalists and media representatives, who often highlight the fact that the awarding committee chooses familiarity over risk and being simply conservative. The Huffington Post’s author Steve Stoute accused the Grammy institution of having “lost touch with contemporary popular culture” and noted “two key sources” for it: “over-zealousness to produce a popular show that is at odds with its own system of voting and fundamental disrespect of cultural shifts as being viable and artistic.”

Interesting Facts About The Grammys

✅Regardless of the criticism, the Grammys have been receiving over tens of years, they still take an important place in the event calendar. For a reason, the pool of voters, which are made up of vocalists to songwriters, engineers, and producers, receive upwards of 20,000 submissions each year

✅Speaking of the voters – they’re members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and individual members of NARAS (artists and other professionals working in the industry who meet certain criteria). They’re responsible for reviewing the awards’ entries and determining whether the work is entered in the correct category.

✅Also, in case you ever wondered where the Grammys’ name came from, here’s the answer. The name “Grammy” comes from the word “gramophone” – simple, yet impressive, right?! Paul Weston, a Columbia Record executive and one of the founders of the Academy behind the Grammy Awards, first considered the name “Eddie,” after Thomas Edison, who he called the “father of the Gramophone.”

✅And last but not least, it’s time to name the most non-obvious winner of the Grammy award. Any guesses? Don’t try too hard, as the chances you’ll get this right are quite small. Former President of the United States of America Barack Obama won a Grammy in 2006 and then again in 2008 when he was a presidential candidate. Obama won for best spoken word album in both years for “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope,” respectively. As if the career in politics wasn’t enough, right?

Previous Grammy Winners

Barack Obama might not be a typical “artist” you would expect at the Grammys, but the event features tens or even hundreds of names from the first pages of newspapers and glossy magazines. And, yes, all these people and their performances, productions and all sort of art must belong to some categories.

The number of categories in which awards are handed to their winners has varied from year to year, in the upcoming 62th Grammys, there will be 84 categories. In the past years, you might have heard about the categories that are no longer a thing these days, such as Best Instrumental Performance (present in 1964-1967), Best Hardrock/Metal Performance (2012-2013) or Best Contemporary R&B Album (2003-2011). Every year there are smaller or bigger changes introduced to the format of the awards, in the hope of keeping it relevant for the modern times.

With so many award categories, how one should know which ones are the big guns? For years, the “big four” has dominated the awards, making music fans paying the most attention to these categories: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Clearly, winning one (or more!) awards with those titles is a massive success both for the artists personally… as well as for their bank accounts.

The so-called “Grammy effect” has proven to boost sales of the artists’ albums and concert tickets. Adele, who won three of the big four awards in 2012 (Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year for her album 21 and its song “Rolling in the Deep”), saw her post-award sales bounce 207%— and she has since then sold more than 10 million copies of the bestselling album. Taylor Swift’s 1989, which won Album of the Year in 2016, saw a sales bump of 91% after its win.

Among the most successful and consequent Grammy winners are Stevie Wonder, who took home as many as 25 awards, Beyonce with 23 of them (and the biggest number of the Grammy nominations in the history – 66!) and the host of the Grammys 2020 Alicia Keys – 15 statues.

adele and alicia keyes

Who are we going to see celebrate big wins in January? One can’t be too sure, but we should definitely keep an eye on the ultra-popular in recent times Billie Eilish, a Grammy heroine Taylor Swift who might surprise us all with the big comeback and Lana del Ray, whose album “Norman Fucking Rockwell” reminded her old fans about the singer’s extraordinary talent. 

Although bookies don’t go as far as letting punters bet on 84 different verticals, they give you a chance to place a bet on the top categories that we’ve previously discussed. Now, it’s your job to make the right choice and hope that the combination of your research, knowledge and luck will pay out! Good luck when betting on Grammys!