Sports podcasts have been a strong growth area for the podcasting industry, as audiences and advertisers find the content more relevant and trustworthy.
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Sports in media has been trapped in a maelstrom of conflicting trends, with new media opportunities ascending and traditional formats declining. For example, traditional sports talk radio is facing a decline in popularity, driven by a shift toward on-demand content and younger audiences favoring podcasts. While the format still holds a dedicated, older audience and strong, localized revenue, the industry is experiencing a “slow but undeniable fade.” According to NewArena, as of early 2026, sports radio has seen year-over-year share declines, with national shares down 11 percent among listeners 6+ and 12 percent among those 18-34.
Traditional sports talk cable shows are also experiencing a decline in popularity, driven by accelerated cord-cutting, shifting audience habits toward on-demand content, and the fragmentation of sports media. According to Forbes, while live sports events remain a cornerstone of cable TV, the daily studio debate shows and highlight programs have seen their relevance wane as fans turn to social media and podcasts for immediate updates.
With the near-death experience of sports print journalism, there are few, if any, local print newspapers to cover local sports teams. Even wide-appeal publications have gone extinct with ESPN The Magazine folding in 2019, and The Sporting News, which was 140 years old, folding in 2012. What’s left is The Athletic, owned by The New York Times, and Sports illustrated, which survived a 2024 licensing crisis.
Sportly podcast host Kavitha Davidson explains: “We dive into sports from a different angle and go beyond the stats and numbers.”
Sportly
The growth in sports media has infiltrated and energized podcasting, video and audio.
If you look at the U.S., sports podcasts are everywhere. Networks like The Ringer, Blue Wire, or Locked On Podcast Network have built entire ecosystems around them. Some shows are fan-driven, others are hosted by former athletes, others by journalists, but they all have one thing in common: they work.
Open Spotify in the U.S. and you’ll immediately see it. Shows like Pardon My Take or The Bill Simmons Podcast consistently sit in the top 20. We counted more than 15 sports podcasts in the top 200, according to Infinite Dial.
According to The Hoops Cap Substack, women’s sports podcasts are experiencing a massive surge in popularity, evolving from a niche market into a “full-blown revolution” in sports media. Downloads for women’s sports podcasts have soared by 180 percent year-over-year, and major networks like iHeartMedia have launched dedicated networks to meet the high demand.
What’s The Call? covers major tennis and sporting events across the world from a female perspective often missing in mainstream media. The show is hosted by Theodora Petalas, a London-based sports and entertainment strategy consultant, and Andrea Jimenez, who is completing her PhD in psychology.
What’s The Call
For example, in 2024, iHeartMedia and Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment announced the inaugural lineup of original podcast shows for WSAN, the first-ever audio platform dedicated exclusively to women’s sports – from soccer and basketball to tennis, golf, volleyball and more – featuring top athletes and personalities at the helm.
According to a SiriusXM study, sports podcasts are incredibly popular, ranking among the top five most listened-to genres in the USA, with a 41 percent increase in demand since 2019. Roughly 64 percent of sports fans listen to sports audio content, which has become the leading format for Gen Z fans, with top shows generating millions of monthly downloads and high engagement.
George McGill, a New Jersey-based sports marketer asserts, “A good sports podcast should not be strictly about the game itself. You know, a re-hash of how a team scored. Some of the best sports podcasts in the industry, such as Slate’s Hang Up And Listen, cover stories on major league baseball players and their relationship with their gloves. Or a story on how this special mud is applied to baseballs. Or a story about the evolution of football uniform design. I heard a sparkling interview with little-known tennis pros such as Daria Saville and Maxime Cressy, and has even been fascinated about stories about the rise of pickleball.”
Sports podcasts as brand ambassadors
Tom Webster, partner at Sounds Profitable, recently released a study called the Advertising Landscape Study. Partnering with Signal Hill, Mr. Webster examined the advertising power of sports podcasts.
This graph show how much consumers trust sports podcasts to provide factual accurate and reliable information about the products and services advertised.
Sounds profitable
The study measured the responses of 5.005 people, who were asked about the trustworthiness of advertising content in various media formats.
The study reveals that consumers find sports podcasts to be a repository of factual and accurate information about advertised products and services, and that they trust the hosts of these sports podcasts.
Sports podcasts outperform other podcasts in a host of attributes and perceptions about the advertisers and brands mentioned in these shows.
Sounds Profitable
Sports podcasts continue to thrive because of their ability to assist listeners to discover new brands.
Sounds Profitable
“Advertising is ubiquitous,” begins George McGill. “There are ads on gas pumps, athletes’ jerseys, and formerly add-free streaming services. What brands want is not only to be seen and heard, but, more importantly, to be trusted messengers. Sports podcasts help them achieve that goal, as you can see from this Sounds Profitable study.”
Anatomy of a Sports podcast
Let’s examine one successful sports podcast and learn about its growth cycle and strategy for success. We’ll focus on the Road Trippin’ Podcast, with hosts former NBA champions Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, along with sports journalist Allie Clifton. Even Dallas Mavericks’ star Kyrie Irving has been a guest on the show multiple times.
Richard Jefferson was an athletic, versatile small forward who played 17 NBA seasons. His defining career accomplishments include winning an NBA Championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, reaching three NBA Finals, representing the United States in the 2004 Olympics, and playing 1,181 career regular-season games.
Like a lot of athletes, Jefferson went into sports podcasting.
Jefferson tells Forbes that, “I started the podcast toward the end of my playing career because I wanted to begin setting myself up for life after the NBA. I already knew I had a desire to be in the media, broadcasting, and creative space, and I had already gotten some experience by guest co-hosting a podcast out in L.A. When I got back to the Cavs for the 2017 season to try and run it back, I knew I wanted to start a show of my own. I approached Allie Clifton (at the time a CAVS reporter) at practice one day and asked if she would want to host it with me.”
Richard Jefferson explains: “The title of the show came directly from that original concept of only recording when the team traveled. We had the support of the Cavs organization behind the idea, and we were trying to figure out a name. Tad Carper, our longtime Cavs PR director at the time, pointed out the obvious and said, “Well, if you’re only going to record on the road, why not name it Road Trippin’?” We loved it, and it stuck from day one. We really lived up to it, too—for the first couple of seasons, we were recording in hotel rooms, on airplanes, and even on boats.
Road Trippin’
The Road Trippin’ podcast is widely considered a massive success, holding the title of the longest-running athlete-led podcast in sports. It routinely ranks as a top basketball podcast, drawing tens of thousands of views per episode on YouTube and reaching a growing listener base across audio platforms. The podcast has evolved into a lucrative enterprise, boasting major brand partners like Fanatics Sportsbook, SeatGeek, Fabletics, and Huel. The show has expanded its operations to a Southern California studio, adopted a twice-weekly live format, and secured exclusive sales representation through Backyard Ventures.
Mr. Jefferson explained the success of the show this way: “Our mantra became ‘no one tells our stories better than us.’ As we evolved over the years and expanded to a couple of days a week, the format naturally transitioned from just telling stories into more basketball X’s and O’s and broader league coverage. But the core structure has always just been our personalities driving the show.”
The ultimate sports podcast
Only A Game was popular because it combined high-quality NPR-style storytelling with sports, focusing on compelling human narratives rather than just box scores or hot takes. The podcast was voted Best Sports Podcast by Esquire Magazine in 2019.
WBUR
The progenitor to the growth of sports podcasts has to be Only A Game. The sports radio show – then podcast – was on WBUR for 27 years. Host Bill Littlefield, correspondent Charlie Pierce, and producer Karen Given combined to offer a unique blend of humor, intelligence, and in-depth reporting, appealing to both die-hard sports fans and “steadfast sports avoiders.” Check out the archives here.
“There’s no doubt that with sports podcasts’ attractiveness to advertisers and consumers, the genre will grow as sports fandom continues to grow,” notes George McGill.
According to Nielsen, sports fandom is still growing, with roughly 67 percent to 68 percent of Americans identifying as fans as of April 2026, maintaining high levels of engagement post-COVID. While traditional, older fan bases remain stable, significant growth is driven by younger demographics (Gen Z) seeking digital, interactive experiences and there is an eight percent increase in female engagement.
There is no doubt that sports podcasts will continue its growth sports as enthusiastic fans and advertisers build a self-sustaining model. Yet, it is critical that sports podcasting does not fall into the same traps as older media formats, with sports talk radio devolving into a haven for obsessive fans, and cable TV sports shows, where hosts blurt out the most outrageous statements to score ratings’ gold.
Right now, the Sounds Profitable study demonstrates that sports podcasters are trusted by consumers, as are the products, services, and brands mentioned on these shows. It is a trust hard won by sports podcasting. It should be nurtured and guarded. After all, one conclusion from the Sounds Profitable study was that Facebook ads often scored the lowest on a host of trust factors.
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