What’s happening to Sports podcasting in 2022?

Sports podcasts are one of the most popular genres of audio entertainment. Founder of the brand-new Sports Podcast Awards, Dylan Pugh, ponders what the future of sports podcasting looks like…

There’s plenty more to come from the world of sports podcasting. Throughout 2020, there was an explosion of podcasts, and in particular sports podcasts, largely due to us all being stuck indoors. As restrictions have gradually eased, this boom of creativity has shown no signs of stopping and looks set to continue as we move into 2022.

As an independent creator myself, I’ve witnessed how difficult it is to get your work heard. But also, as a consumer, I find myself in a cycle of listening to the same podcasts, because it’s hard to discover new ones. By creating an awards programme especially for Sports Podcasts, we’re looking to move that process along and give up and coming talent more opportunities for their content to shine.

So, given what we’ve learnt about sports podcasting over the past couple of years, here’s what we think will happen in 2022.

What’s on the horizon for 2022?

Interestingly, rights holders in the UK haven’t properly invested in podcasting yet. This is something we would expect to see change sooner rather than later. In the US, sports teams have official club podcasts that are hugely popular, that are owned and run by the franchise itself. In the UK, we’re a little way behind on this, with Manchester United and a few other teams producing a podcast. That said, the investment is limited just now, which influences the quality of the content.

If we take football for example, most Premier League and some Championship clubs have their own club-run TV channels. They create a large amount of short-form content for social media yet haven’t properly invested in podcasts yet. I think that is sure to change.

In general, we are likely to see the podcast space become more immediate. Now, you often wait until Tuesday to listen to a podcast about weekend sport. Monday is the perfect day to catch the attention of listeners, they are looking for content about the games they’ve just watched.

The Eggchasers is the only major rugby podcast that releases its content on a Monday, which is a massive USP and contributes in my opinion to its success. Outlets like TALKsport and other radio shows will continue to release their regular content, but traditional podcasts will look to follow suit with content released immediately after the action takes place.

Another thing I would see as a trend for sports podcasting is the social audio space. Although not traditional, it is included in the world of audio, in my mind Twitter Spaces in particular is only just kicking off so it will be interesting to see how this develops and whether it grows.

Platforms like Clubhouse came with big noise during the pandemic but have fizzled out a lot. With Spotify acquiring Locker Room and subsequently launching Greenroom, this opens up a big opportunity for sports, so it will be interesting what they do with that. Although these platforms have not yet delivered on their promise yet in my opinion, I do think that sport as a genre is perfect for social audio and the more immediate, live discussions following major sport events. Not every podcaster is lucky enough to be supported by a platform, so how do they attract listeners?

Keep it short (and regular)

For the new kids on the block to build a listenership, regular scheduled episodes, social media, and short-form content is crucial. With the world turning virtual and with podcast recording platforms like Riverside.fm, it’s now so easy to record video content from your recording, and pair these with tools like Headliner to create short-form clips. The result is a plethora of rich highlights that you can release from each episode, to then be consumed across multiple channels.

Plenty of people entered the first ever Sports Podcast Awards

In fact, plenty of podcasts that have entered the Sports Podcast Awards have said that while their long-form original podcast might not get a huge number of listeners, their short-form content gets huge engagement.

The rise of the podcasting ex-professional

For any sportsperson looking to transition into a career in the media, podcasting is a fantastic medium to get started. And during lockdown, when there was no live sport happening, podcasting became the go-to medium to express their voice and build their profile.

We saw the likes of David Seaman, Joe Cole and Tony Bellew all recently making moves into podcasting, whilst Peter Crouch is the poster boy of the UK sports podcast scene. But it’s not just ex-athletes though – we’ve also seen current sportspeople such as Andros Townsend, Geraint Thomas, Jimmy Anderson, Joe Marler, Carl Frampton and Ben Foster launch successful podcasts, with Foster in particular being an interesting case, as he started as a YouTube show, which then evolved into a podcast.

Podcasts are a huge opportunity for current sportspeople to build their profile ahead of the inevitable transition to life after sport. But the UK still lags behind the US in this area, especially in football, with the intense media scrutiny footballers are under here. In the US, companies like BlueWire, The Players Tribune and Uninterrupted are leading the way in athlete-led content, giving fans direct access to players and different perspectives from those still in the game. Hopefully the UK will catch-up on this aspect as ex-pros also inspire the next generation of podcasters to take up the mic.

Celebrating achievement with the Sports Podcast Awards

In terms of the awards, we’ve been extremely happy with the number of entries we received and the wide variety of sports that are represented. We also have a broad range of independent and platform supported podcasts, a range of age and gender for our entrants, and participants from all over the world. The most entries have come from the US and the UK&I, but we also have a great showing from Canada and Australia as well as shows from India, Singapore, Spain, and the Middle East. So, a fantastic variety of entrants all with one thing in common, they love podcasting!

Our industry jury are now selecting eight podcasts for each category to be shortlisted. We’ve got a fantastic group of people involved that work across the podcast industry including judges from well-known platforms for example Amazon, Spotify, Audioboom, iHeart, The Athletic and The Ringer. From further afield, it’s great to have industry professionals from the likes of Sport Social, Headliner, Washington Football Team and Meadowlark Media, giving us a real contrast of UK and US participants who are passionate about a range of sports.

We will be announcing the shortlists in the first week of January, then the judging process starts, and the power goes to podcasters and listeners to find our winners. We are currently on the hunt for judges and would encourage podcasters and listeners to get in touch if they want to be part of our community.

Once judging begins, participants will be able to follow along through live, dynamic leaderboards for each individual category on the SPA website. Judges will also be able to win prizes for being the most active and accurate judge! The winner’s announcement will take place at the end of March, which we are very much looking forward to.

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Dylan Pugh is Managing Director of Sports Industry Group and Founder of the brand-new Sports Podcast Awards. Winners for the inaugural awards will be announced across 25 categories in March 2022. Podcasters and listeners can keep updated via sportspodcastawards.com or follow @SportsPodAwards on Twitter.