Shortlists are announced for the Sports Podcast Awards 2022

Podcasters and listeners can now vote for their favourite sports podcasts across 24 categories as the inaugural Sports Podcast Awards will take place in March 2022

JANUARY 2022: A whole host of top names in the sports podcasting world are set to go head-to-head as the shortlists are announced for the inaugural Sports Podcast Awards taking place in March 2022 with a virtual ceremony. The awards come after research shows that sports was by far the fastest growing podcasting category in 2021 with download growth of 89% compared to the previous year.

The annual celebration, that honours the work of the very best that the global sports audio community has to offer, is brought to you by the company behind the prestigious Sports Industry Awards. After a rigorous judging process from an expert industry jury, a total of 128 podcasts from 13 countries and more than 50 different podcast networks all over the globe have made the short-list and will be in with a chance of picking up an award to honour their work.

Podcasts from global networks such as The Athletic, NBC, Sky Sports, The Ringer and iHeart Media will see their podcasts face-off to be crowned top of the tree for audio content. Categories include shows that cover well-known sports such as Football, Baseball and Golf, as well as others such as Combat Sports, Urban & Adventure and Winter Sports, all of which are well represented.

There are also awards for other important topical subjects within the industry including Performance and Wellbeing, Sports Business and Equality and Social Impact, as well as the coveted Sports Podcast of the Year, which will be decided from the winners of each category by the awards advisory board.

Among those sports podcasts in the running for an award is Jake Humphrey’s, High Performance Podcast, which will contest the Performance and Wellbeing category and Big Hitters awards, for which it will go up against popular US podcast The Fantasy Footballers among others. 

The Equality Social Impact category will be contested by eight shows each tackling important issues within sport, these include BBC’s LGBT Sports Podcast, climate change awareness show Emergency on Planet Sport and female football podcast Goal Diggers.

Other big names to be recognised at the shortlisting phase include The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher, The Socially Distant Sports Bar and the Joe Marler Show.

The Sports Podcast Awards were launched to unite the sports podcast community globally, from elite podcasters to grass roots and anything in between, in fact 61% of entrants to this year’s awards were independent podcasts. With recent data showing that over 20 million major sports fans in the US are tuning into podcasts at least once a week, sports podcasts are now among the most listened to in the world of audio content.

Speaking on the announcement, Dylan Pugh, Managing Director of Sports Industry Group said: “Announcing our shortlists for this year’s awards is the perfect way to kick off 2022, and we’re proud to have podcasts of all shapes and sizes included. Now, we want the wider podcasting community, including content creators and listeners, to engage by voting for their favourites. Joining the Sports Podcast Awards community is truly the best way to boost discoverability for your favourite podcasts and we’re very much looking forward to a fantastic virtual ceremony in March to crown our winners.”

With the shortlisted podcasts now in place, it’s the turn of the podcasters and listeners themselves to have their say on who deserves to be crowned the winner in each category. Both will have the power to decide, with a unique judging format that makes this a truly democratic process.

There is still time to sign up to become a judge and Sports Podcast Awards would encourage podcasters and listeners to get in touch if they want to be part of the community. Simply visit www.sportspodcastawards.com and register to become a judge.

Now judging has begun, participants will be able to follow along as the results are recorded and shown via an ever-changing live league table for each individual category on the SPA website. You can also win prizes for being the most active and accurate judge! The winner’s announcement will then take place at the end of March with the league tables going dark for the final week to build suspense for the ceremony itself.

For more information and to view the entire shortlist please visit: http://www.sportspodcastawards.com

-ENDS-

Read the full short list of categories in The Sports Podcast Awards below, and listen to all the shortlist on the Sports Podcast Awards Spotify playlists. Listen now >>

Best American Football Podcast

The Nat Coombs Show
God Bless Football
Just Getting Started with Rich Eisen
The Fantasy Footballers
The Rough Cut Sportscast
Greg Bedard’s Patriots Podcast
The Cleats Off Podcast
Talkin’ Giants

Best Baseball Podcast

Wrigleyville Nation Podcast
Too Tall Sports Podcast
GOATS: On the Bump By Ross Stripling
Talkin’ Baseball
Almostcooperstown.com
Red Sox Beat
The Chris Rose Rotation
That 90s Baseball Pod

Best Basketball Podcast

Forgotten Seasons
Got ‘Em Coach
Basketball History 101
Titus & Tate
Celtics Beat
Showtime with Michael Cooper
Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast
Lakers Nation

Best College Sports Podcast:

The Jboy Show
Buckeye Talk
ABCA Podcast
Athletes Unfiltered
I-80 Preview Podcast
Orange Bowl Boys: A Miami Hurricanes Podcast
The Sports Stove Podcast
The Nolecast

Best Combat Sports Podcast:

Morning Kombat
Fight Night Boxing Podcast
iFL TV
Fight Disciples
Adam Catterall presents Frank Warren’s Heavyweight Podcast
The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani
Talk is Jericho
Boxing Life Stories

Best Cricket Podcast:

The Last Wicket
The Cricket Library
Middle Please, Umpire
Teluguone Cricket Podcast
GIVING THE GAME AWAY
Cricket Sirf Cricket
Cricket Daily
Cricket Unfiltered

Best Esports Podcast:

Esports Network Podcast
Esports Minute
The Football Manager Show by The Athletic

Best Fitness Podcast:

The Pinkbike Podcast
RowAlong
The Training For Ultra Podcast
Meathead Test Kitchen
MindPump: Raw Fitness Truth
Fit Dad Fitness
The Running For Real Podcast
Well Far: The Running Podcast

Best Golf Podcast:

Sky Sports Golf Podcast
Those Weekend Golf Guys
Next on the nee with Chris Mascaro
Golf Smarter
Power of the Game
The Open Podcasts
The Golf Psychology Podcast
Fore The People

Best Motorsports Podcast:

New Track Record
WTF1 Podcast
Sprint Race Show
Positive Regression: A Motorsports Analytics Podcast
Bring Back V10s – Classic F1 Stories
The Race F1 Podcast
The Final Lap Weekly

Best Olympic & Paralympic Podcast:

Off The Podium
My Defining Moments
A Winning Mindset: Lessons from the Paralympics
Equal Too: Achieving Disability Equality
Keep the Flame Alive
My New Favorite Olympian
Monday Mile with Aimee Fuller
Destination Tokyo

Best Rugby Podcast:

The Eagle-Eyed Rugby Podcast
GrassRoots – Women’s Rugby from the Roots Up
The Rugby Pod
RugbyPass Offload
The Rig Biz Pod
Out Of Your League
The Good, The Bad & The Rugby
MaulOver Podcast

Best Soccer Podcast:

The Big Interview with Graham Hunter
Transfer Talk
The Official Fantasy Premier League Podcast
The Totally Football Show
The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher
GameDay
The Players
Football Stories

Best Tennis Podcast:

The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
Rock n Roll Tennis
Ready Play Tennis Podcast
Control the Controllables
The Tennis Podcast
What you talking about Willis?
Tennis IQ Podcast
Hold On to Your Racket

Best Urban & Adventure Podcast:

Off Watch
Factor Two
Big Deep – An Ocean Podcast
Riders Lounge Podcast
Tough Girl Podcast
HeadRightOut
How to Be Superhuman
The Joy of SUP – the Paddleboarding Sunshine Podcast

Best Winter Sports Podcast:

Legends of the Brand
Hockey Night In New York
Bruins Beat
Poke The Bear
FNRad Snowboarding Podcast
The Ski Podcast
Monday Mile with Aimee Fuller
Here In Puckberg

Best Equality & Social Impact Podcast:

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Equal Too: Achieving Disability Equality
Goal Diggers Podcast
Ordineroli Speaking
Emergency on Planet Sport
TWS Sports Podcast
Play It Forward: Presented by PeacePlayers
The BBC’s LGBT Sports Podcast

Best News & Current Affairs Podcast:

Football Social Daily
b2b Sports
12 To 1 with Adrian Abraham
Sport Unlocked
The Sports Stove Podcast
All Things Gymnastics
The Matt Bernier Show
GuysBeerSports

Best Performance and Wellbeing Podcast:

Truth + Tribe
Rise With Us
Slice of PIE
The High Performance Podcast
Raising Your Game
Charges with Rex Chapman
The Running For Real Podcast
The Everyday Adventure Podcast

Best Sports Business Podcast:

Inside Sponsorship
The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer
Sporticast
The Business Called Cricket with Rica Roy
The Business Case For Women’s Sports
The Drive Phase Podcast
Are You Not Entertained?
SportsPro Podcast

Best Sports Comedy Podcast:

The Socially Distant Sports Bar
Sigma Sports Presents Matt Stephens Unplugged
Row Z
Football Clichés
Joe Marler Show
BENCHED with Toast, Roman & Scoop
The Divide Live
Unleashed

Best Sports Documentary Podcast:

Sporting Witness
Truly the GOATs
Football’s Cult Heroes
The Sound of Football
Inside The Tour
TOGETHXR: Summer of Gold
SC Reportajes Podcast
Defiance

Best Team Podcast:

Wrigleyville Nation Podcast
When Football Was Football
Two Woods Four Quarters: A Harlequins Podcast
Talkin’ Yanks
Bleeding Green Nation: for Philadelphia Eagles fans
Patriots Beat
Garden Report
Utd Podcast

The Big Hitters Award:

The Jboy Show
The Tennis Podcast
The High Performance Podcast
The MMA hour with Ariel Helwani
Talk is Jericho
Just Getting Started with Rich Eisen
The Fantasy Footballers
Monday Mile with Aimee Fuller

Combined awards

Sports Podcast of the Year (TBC)