Published 2026-10-07 by destaque.ai, a Portuguese technology company that measures brand visibility in AI answers. Ler em português.
Method
Ten questions, asked on 7 October 2026 in European Portuguese from Portugal, with no prior context. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot and Meta AI were asked once each, in the app; Copilot, Gemini and Grok were collected by hand, in a new chat, with memory off. Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode and Perplexity were asked three times each. Counts are per assistant, so that the three asked three times do not weigh triple: an assistant's verdict is the club it picks in more than half of its answers, or none. Each answer was read against a criterion written before reading, and every reading keeps the sentence that supports it. We also measured six models from memory, through the API and without search; they are in the dataset and out of every count, because no fan receives those answers.
Findings
- The league: the 8 assistants that answered all give it to FC Porto (8 of 8). Google AI Overview did not appear for that search.
- Where that comes from: 10 of the 11 league answers that show sources cite betting or tipster sites. Across all questions about favourites it is 29 of 52, more than the Portuguese sports press (15).
- The biggest club: Benfica is the first club named in 14 of 15 answers. Asked for one name, only 4 of 9 assistants commit: Benfica 3, Porto 1.
- The most passionate fans: Vitória SC is in 11 of 15 answers, the only club outside the big three that appears at all.
- The fourth tier: the Campeonato de Portugal is confused with the top flight in 8 of 14 answers, which then name a big club as favourite.
Eight assistants, the same answer: Porto
We asked who is the favourite to win the Liga Portugal this season. All 8 assistants that answered give FC Porto: ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Mode, Grok, Meta AI, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. Google AI Overview did not show up for that search, so it has no verdict here.
The unanimity is not the interesting part. The interesting part is where it comes from.
To know who is favourite, AI checks the odds
Of the 11 answers about the league that show their sources, 10 cite betting or tipster sites. The most cited source is the betting-tips section of the newspaper Observador, in 7 of 11. Licensed bookmakers and tipster sites appear too, and so does a cryptocurrency forum, bitcointalk, in 3 of 11.
Across the league and the cups, betting sites are cited in 29 of 52 answers with sources, against 15 for the Portuguese sports press and 14 for Wikipedia. Copilot, talking about Porto, puts the bookmakers' average odds in the text of the answer itself; Gemini does the same. Over the whole study, betting sites appear in 47 of the 131 answers with sources. The newspaper AI reads most is A Bola, in 47 of 131.
It says it depends. But it almost always starts with Benfica
Asked "which is the biggest club in Portugal?", Benfica is the first club named in 14 of 15 answers. Asked for a single name, only 4 of the 9 assistants commit: Claude, Grok and Copilot say Benfica; ChatGPT says Porto. The other 5 answer that it depends on the criterion.
On the questions about clubs (the biggest, the best, the fans), the most cited source stops being the bookmaker and becomes Wikipedia: 27 of 41 answers with sources.
There is a fourth club in the conversation, and it is from Guimarães
We asked which club has the most passionate fans. Vitória SC enters the answer 11 times out of 15, and is the first name given 3 times out of 15. It is the only club outside the big three that appears. Almost nobody picks just one: only ChatGPT commits, and says Porto.
The best club is a question AI would rather not answer
Which is the best club in Portugal? Only 2 of 9 assistants pick one: Copilot says Benfica; ChatGPT says Porto. Copilot justifies its pick with a different question: it explains why the club is the biggest.
The cups split the vote
In the league everyone says Porto. In the Taça de Portugal Benfica leads, with 7 of 9 assistants picking: Benfica 4, Sporting 2, Porto 1. In the Taça da Liga only 3 of 9 pick anyone (Porto 2, Benfica 1).
Asked about the favourite for the next Supertaça, 8 of 15 answers give none, several because the 2026 edition was already played on 1 August (Porto 1-0 Torreense). To answer about the football Supertaça, Perplexity cited news of the handball, basketball, volleyball, futsal and roller hockey Supertaças, in 3 answers.
Porto is also the favourite in the fourth tier
The Campeonato de Portugal is the fourth tier of Portuguese football. In 8 of 14 answers the assistant confuses it with the Primeira Liga and names a big club as favourite. Only ChatGPT gave a club that actually plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (AD Ovarense).
The second and third tiers do not have this problem. In the Liga Portugal 2, 6 of 9 assistants give Lusitânia de Lourosa; in the Liga 3, 5 of 9 give Belenenses. In these two leagues nobody gets the competition wrong.
Dataset
The reading of every answer, with its supporting sentence (in Portuguese, as written), the sources cited, and the counts from which every number on this page is computed. It also holds the from-memory API answers that the page does not count. Written by a script in the measurement repository; no number is typed by hand.
Download the dataset (JSON). Licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse with attribution to destaque.ai.
Limitations
One collection, on one day. The apps were asked once per question, so what holds is the difference between many and few, not between one and zero. Reading 'one club' versus 'several' is a judgement, which is why every reading publishes the sentence that supports it. This is not a fan poll: it measures what these assistants answer to whoever asks them, this week.
destaque.ai is a Portuguese technology company, based in Lisbon, that measures brand visibility in AI answers. This study is published in full in Portuguese at https://www.destaque.ai/estudo/futebol-portugal-2026. Methodology available on request: info@destaque.ai.