Writer, analyst, podcaster, Spurs fan. Three out of four is not bad. If there is a data angle, I will find it.
Top 10 UK Sporting Podcasts 2023
Sports podcasts make up 20% of the overall podcast market, with football being the most popular, drawing in a total of 40% of these sports fans. That's an estimated crowd of 34m people listening to football podcasts regularly and they are not the only pastime that wants a piece of the podcast pie.
No matter the niche, there is a podcast to support it. Whether it be discussions on the latest goings on in the Premier League or the number of wickets that have fallen in the 2023 edition of the Ashes, you can listen to it via your preferred listening platform.
The Power of Sports Podcasts: Dominating 2023's Audio Landscape
The question though is what podcasts are the most popular at this current moment in time and with the use of the latest industry charts, we are going to list the 10 sporting podcasts that are picking up the most recent traction.
The Top 10 sports Podcasts Right Now
Read on for more detail on each
1. The Daily Football Briefing
Whether the football season is live and kicking or in the summer break it does not stop the masses tuning into The Athletic’s offering called The Daily Football Briefing. As it says on the tin, it analyses the latest within the world of the beautiful game as the anticipation regarding the 2023/24 season continues to build.
There is always plenty of transfer talk and The Athletic’s team of world-class journalists are pouring through every in and out so that you are always up to speed within 15 minutes of red-hot football chat.
Daily Football Briefing - Your Daily Dose of Football โฝ๏ธ๐๏ธ
2. The Overlap With Gary Neville
Next in the list is none other than Gary Neville’s offering which known as The Overlap. In this podcast, the Sky Sports pundit catches up with some of the biggest names in sports and sees what really makes them tick.
Whether it be Tottenham’s Harry Kane and whether he sees himself moving on from Tottenham or Tyson Fury’s battle against mental health, Neville has the ability to extract the best from his guests and this is what makes the podcast so popular.
The Overlap - Sports Radio Reimagined ๐๏ธโฝ๏ธ๐ฅ
3. That Peter Crouch Podcast
In at number three is the offering from Peter Crouch and his eponymous That Peter Crouch Podcast. It may be another football-themed audio morsel but this one is far more light hearted than any other available today.
Joined by Chris Stark of previous BBC Radio 1 fame and a litany of past and present professionals, Crouch, and his cohorts peel back the curtain on what it is or was like to be in the dressing room and offer some highly entertaining stories at the same time.
That Peter Crouch Podcast - Fun in Football ๐๏ธโฝ๏ธ๐
4. Wrighty’s House
In at number four is another former England footballer who has gone behind the microphone and this time it is Ian Wright who is chatting all things football. In this podcast, Wrighty opens up his house to a rotating panel of friends and guests to discuss the biggest stories in the game.
With the former Arsenal legend being known as a flag bearer for women’s football, it is not just the Three Lions that are up for debate on his show. Add in conversation regarding the Lionesses and this podcast is open to well-rounded debate of all footballing forms.
Wrighty's House - Football Talks Unfiltered ๐๏ธโฝ๐ฃ๏ธ
5. The Upshot
In at number five is a podcast that is certainly the new kid on the block. Not only has it only been in operation for just a few weeks, but it is also bloodying the nose of some its more traditionally known podcast counterparts.
The Upshot started life as a newsletter and one that focuses on the stars of sports and their more salubrious behaviour patterns. In their own words, it focuses on drunken antics and dressing room squabbles, and these are not the topics you will see discussed on either Sky or BBC News.
The Upshot - Fresh Off the Bench ๐๏ธ๐ฅ๐ป
6. Test Match Special
As for the BBC, they are in at six with the legendary Test Match Special. Those who have a passing interest in the world of cricket will be aware of Radio Four’s commentary offering on the England team.
Using that particular branding, their podcast is more T20 than Test Match when it comes to length, but it still has plenty of time when it comes to delivering news, insight, and analysis on both the men’s and women’s attempts to win this year’s editions of The Ashes.
Test Match Special - Hitting Cricket Commentary out of the Park ๐๏ธ๐
7. The High Performance Podcast
Jake Humphrey may have recently called time on his presenting stint at BT Sport but that does not mean is he is currently twiddling his thumbs either. With his High Performance Podcast going from strength to strength, his creation comes in at number seven.
Humphrey and Professor Damian Hughes – who himself is an expert when it comes to all things high performance speak to the biggest names in both sport and entertainment and find out what makes them the very best in their respective fields. This is not one to be missed.
High Performance Podcast - The Success DNA Unraveled ๐๏ธ๐
8. The Geraint Thomas Cycling Club
With the Tour de France in full swing, it is no surprise that a cycling-based podcast has also made the top 10. Geraint Thomas may not be wearing the yellow jersey in our latest chart, but it is definitely capable of being the king of the mountains.
Thomas is joined by fellow Tour de France veteran Luke Rowe and journalist Tom Fordyce as they analyse each stage of the 2023 edition of the race. With the sport undergoing a real boom in popularity in the past few years, this podcast is the perfect vehicle to propel it to the finishing line.
Tour de France - The Ultimate Guide ๐๏ธ๐ดโโ๏ธ
9. Sport’s Strangest Crimes
If there is one genre that is particularly popular when it comes to podcasts, it is crime and although this may be a chart on the sports genre, BBC Radio 5 Live have found a perfect way to mesh the two themes together.
Their second offering in the chart comes courtesy of Sport’s Strangest Crimes. Whether it be a focus on former Tour de France winner Marco Pantani and his illegal use of drugs to aid his victory or the fascinating story regarding Formula 1’s ‘spy-gate’, this podcast will leave no sporting case uncovered.
Sportโs Strangest Crimes - Where Crime & Sports Intersect ๐๏ธ๐จโฝ
10. Never Strays Far
Another cycling podcast makes the top 10 and with ITV’s Ned Boulting and David Millar currently covering each stage of the 2023 Tour de France, their legion of daily supporters obviously cannot get enough of their insightful commentary.
Joined by fellow colleague and Cyclist Peter Kennaugh, the trio are not afraid to get their teeth into the sport’s biggest issues, but they do not stop there. As commentators they are not short of a word and plenty of other topics are debated on the show, even if it does eventually circle back to bikes.
Cycling Commentary - The Real Ride Talk ๐๏ธ๐ฒ๐ฌ
Source: https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/gb-sports-podcasts
20th July 2023
2021
That Peter Crouch Podcast is officially the UK’s favourite sports podcast, new research has revealed.
Most listeners prefer to stream their favourite sports stars on Spotify, which the study also found was the UK's top platform for listening to podcasts
In the UK, around 12% of the adult population (6.5 million) listen to at least one podcast per week with figures increasing year on year.
While lockdown has changed the listening habits of people who are no longer commuting to work, podcasts remain a popular way of keeping up-to-date with certain communities, new stories or topics.
OLBG's Sporting Podcasts Report has taken a look at the podcast charts at the start of 2021 to reveal which are really the most popular sports titles when it comes to downloads, chart performance and online popularity. The study also looked at differences in streaming habits between the two major podcast providers - Apple and Spotify.
The Top 70 Sport Podcasts
The results show That Peter Crouch Podcast, featuring the former England footballer, Radio 1 DJ Chris Stark and journalist Tom Fordyce, was officially the UK’s favourite sports podcast at the start of 2021.
OLBG have combined the contrasting podcast charts from providers Spotify and Apple and looked into the online interest in each podcast - via monthly Google search data - to reveal the ultimate ‘Top 70’ sports podcasts in the UK.
Football Podcasts Dominate & Rugby Podcasts are Popular
Football podcasts dominate the top 10, with The Guardian’s Football Weekly, BBC’s Football Daily, The Totally Football Show with James Richardson, Clyde Superscoreboard and The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher all making the top 10.
Between the top 50 Apple and Spotify charts at the end of January 2021 there were 70 different podcasts, with 34 football-themed titles accounting for 49% of all the chart, followed by eight with a general sport focus.
With a new national lockdown implemented across the UK at the start of 2021 and the inevitable New Year resolutions, that has seen a rise in popularity for fitness podcasts.
The NHS pod - NHS Couch to 5K - is 31st on our list of most popular podcasts at the start of 2021 and is the fourth most searched for of all 70 podcasts studied, while The James Smith Podcast, NHS Strength and Flexibility and Well Far Daily also popular.
However, despite the prevalence of football podcasts, they don’t all tend to perform that well with an average ranking of 33 in our chart.
The most lucrative topic to cover if you want a podcast to successfully shoot up the charts is rugby, with the five entries averaging a ranking of 21 - the top one being The Rugby Pod.
Apple podcasts on rugby are the overall best-performing pods. They make up 6% of the Apple top 50 charts but have an average position of 11th place with Rugby Union Weekly, The Rugby Pod and The Good, The Bad & The Rugby all proving very popular on the platform.
The top 50 sports podcasts are ranked by a combination of Apple/Spotify charts and online searches
UFC podcasts are the least successful, with the four entries across the two providers ranking 61st on average - judged on online popularity and the chart performances.
Fight Disciples is the top pick for UFC listening material with over 460 episodes live and available to download, but podcasts on the sport as a whole are ranked low with DC & Helwani, The McGregor Mentality and Believe You Me with Michael Bisping failing to drum up much online interest.
Test Match Special The Most Searched for Podcast
Two of the metrics analysed when compiling our ‘Ultimate Top 70’ are a podcasts’ online popularity and Google search volume. From this, there are some surprising successes at the top of the charts.
Test Match Special was the most searched-for podcast at the end of January 2021 - partly due to England’s tour of Sri Lanka - followed by Athletico Mince, Clyde Superscoreboard and NHS Couch to 5K+, the last of which is far more popular online than in the charts.
The Anfield Wrap, Talk is Jericho and House of Rugby are three others that are very popular in online searches, along with Tailenders, Fighting Talk, Quickly Kevin and The Square Ball.
Overall however, Spotify is the most popular streaming service with fans.
Of all the top 50 podcasts at the end of January 2021, there were a combined 209,596 reviews with an average rating of 4.68 out of five - compared to just 146,744 reviews for the Apple charts and an average rating of 4.64.
The single most popular Spotify podcast ranked in their top 50 was The Bill Simmons Podcast on American Football, with a massive 30,077 reviews at an average of 4.5 stars and is the most downloaded sports podcast of all time with a rotating crew of celebrities, athletes and media members and has been running since September 2015.
That Peter Crouch Podcast is the second-most reviewed in the combined charts with 28,110 despite a fifth season only just being announced for the start of 2021 - but it has a higher rating of 4.9 stars.
The Harry Redknapp Show, Well Far Daily, The McGregor Mentality, GIANT, All To Play For, Talk Derby To Me, Studs Up, Geraint Thomas Cycling Club and The Robbie Fowler Podcast are among those with less than 100 reviews, but still have high ratings.
Note: Our rankings were worked out by ranking each podcast by their Apple/Spotify chart performances and the number of online searches in Google, working out an average ranking and then ordering the podcasts in order of that average ranking.
OLBG.com is a sports betting community where members can take part in free to enter tipster competitions and win cash prizes. OLBG has built up an army of knowledgeable tipsters across many sports with horse racing tips and football tips being the most popular.
