Sports Personality Of The Year Predictions And Odds

• What Is The SPOTY Award?
• How To Bet On The SPOTY Awards
• Choose Your Category
• Look At Who’s Performed Well In Individual Sports
• What About Team Sports?
• SPOTY Betting Markets
• SPOTY Betting Summary

If you’re eager to learn more about the Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) awards and wish to start betting on them, then we hope this guide tells you all you need to know about them.

You’ll learn about what the BBC SPOTY awards are, who’s won its main award in the past, which other awards are given out, along with our best SPOTY betting tips.

Let’s start with discussing what the Sports Personality of the Year award is, along with the other awards given out at this famous ceremony.

What Is The SPOTY Award?

The SPOTY award is given out by the BBC to who, in the publics’ eyes, has performed the best that year. The main award was first given way back in 1954, and its ceremony has been a mainstay of British sport ever since. The ceremony always takes place in December and looks back at the calendar year.

The winner doesn’t have to be British, but they do have to ,at least, play their sport in Britain and achieve their plaudits for a British sporting institution.

Icons such as Bobby Moore, Lennox Lewis, and Kelly Holmes have won the award previously, each one for their sporting successes that year.

The SPOTY award remains highly coveted, and is considered a milestone in the career of an athlete.

However, there isn’t just one Sports Personality of the Year Award offered. In fact, there are several available, such as:

• The BBC Sports Personality World Sports Star of the Year
• BBC Sports Team of the Year
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award
• BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award
• BBC Sports Unsung Hero Award

The namesake award remains the most famous, however, and this is where you’ll find the majority of bettors prior to the results.

The Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, and World Sports Star of the Year are popular with bettors, too.

How To Bet On The SPOTY Awards

SPOTY is typically a specials betting market offered by sportsbook.

Betting on the Sports Personality of the Year Awards requires the same principles you’ll need on anything else.

You won’t get far in your SPOTY journey if you don’t do your research, and keeping an eye on the sporting world is something you’ll need to do.

Choose Your Category

If you’re reading this guide, you’re probably hoping to bet on the namesake SPOTY award, but if you wish to diversify your bets, it’s essential you pick your categories in advance.

Simplicity is key when it comes to betting, so make sure in your confident area.

Look At Who’s Performed Well In Individual Sports

One of the simplest, yet most effective, SPOTY betting tips we can offer you is to look at who’s performed well that year, and then consider the athlete’s achievements relative to what category they’ll fall in.

Most SPOTY winners have come from the world of athletics, followed by Formula One, tennis, and football. The numbers tell us that most SPOTY winners will come from individual sports, which makes sense given their more standalone achievements.

You should also keep a close eye on what the athletes have achieved outside of their sports. Some athletes, like Lewis Hamilton and Marcus Rashford, have become just as known for their endeavors outside of F1 and football, and this can influence their chances at the SPOTY awards.

What About Team Sports?

However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of winners from team sports, and you should keep a keen eye on major club and international tournaments.

Lionel Messi, for example, was odds-on favourite to win the Sports Personality World Sports Star of the Year award for his achievements at the World Cup - the most famous and watched sporting event in the world. Beth Mead picked up the namesake award in 2022 for her role in England’s European Championship win, whereas Johnny Wilkinson claimed the 2003 award for his heroics in the Rugby World Cup final.

Individual winners may be more common, but that’s not to say they always win.

SPOTY Betting Markets

There are several SPOTY betting markets to choose from, such as:

Outright Winner

By far the most popular bet, the outright winner involves you deciding who’ll take home the main Sports Personality of the Year award.

Odds will be made well in advance of the ceremony, and bookies will look at the best performing sports stars of the year and make their odds depending on who’s more likely to win.

In 2022, Beth Mead and Ben Stokes were odds-on favourites (at 1/6 and 11/2 respectively). This was hardly surprising given their achievements that year, and the bookies’ choice of Beth Mead ended up being correct.

Top Three Betting

Instead of betting on the outright winner, you can always wager on a top-three finish. Predicting the winner can be tricky sometimes, especially if UK sport has had a below-average year.

Betting on the top three can be a safer, more secure bet if picking a winner is difficult.

Other Awards

You can also bet on awards like World Sports Star of the Year, Team of the Year, and Coach of the Year.

If a British team has performed well and won its respective tournament, then they’ll be most likely to win the latter two awards. If an international player, such as Lionel Messi, wins a big prize, then they’ll be likely to win the former award.

Olympic years are busy ones in the SPOTY awards schedule, and you’ll need to pay close attention to these to study which athletes have impressed the world.

SPOTY Betting Summary

We hope this guide has taught you a lot more about the SPOTY awards. We’ve covered who typically wins, which awards are available, and the areas you should research before you start betting on them.

We’ve also covered some of the betting markets available here. By now, you should be ready to start researching these coveted awards in time to bet on them the next time the ceremony takes place.