Regardless of how you feel about pundits, especially the more biased ones, sports wouldn’t be the same without them. Whether you enjoy their showmanship and personality or their passion and depth of knowledge, there are plenty of admirable sports presenters and pundits out there.
From Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer to Peter Drury and Andy Gray, you may wonder which pundit reigns supreme.
Att Gambling Zone we have analysed Google searches, Instagram followings, the number of punditry appearances and awards, and estimated net worth. This research should bring insights into which sports pundits are the best in the world. We also explored Google search data to discover which sports pundits are the most crushed on.
The Best Sports Presenters In The World
1) Gary Lineker
Pundit Score: 8.97/10
Gary Lineker, former professional footballer with Leicester City, Everton, and Barcelona, host of BBC’s Match of the Day, and the face of Walkers crisps, comes in first place with an 8.97 out of 10 score. Gary Lineker ranked in the top three for most Googled pundits, totalling 7.1 million searches; pundits with the most TV appearances with 2,149; and those with the most awards, winning the Television and Radio Industries Club Award for Best Sports Presenter five times. He also ranked in the top 15 for pundits with the most Instagram followers, with 1.2 million and an estimated net worth of £27.6 million.
2) Martin Tyler
Pundit Score: 8.46/10
Placing second, we have Martin Tyler, who has been a sports commentator since 1974 and in 2003, was voted the Premier League’s Commentator of the Decade, with a score of 8.46. He ranked within the top three for pundits with the most appearances, 2,492; for the most punditry awards, 7, including the FA Premier League Commentator of the Decade in 2003; and estimated net worth, with an estimated total of £67 million. He then ranked 32nd for most Googled pundits with global annual 457,100 searches.
3) Jamie Carragher
Pundit Score: 8.12/10
Liverpool legend and part of the team that won the Champions League in Istanbul back in 2005, Jamie Carragher, comes in third place, scoring 8.12 out of 10. Carragher ranked sixth for his followers on Instagram, with 1.8 million and for his number of pundit appearances, totalling 1,819. He then ranked in the top 20 for pundits with the most awards (2), including the FSA Pundit of the Year Award, the most Googled (2 million) and pundits with the highest estimated net worth (£16.5 million).
The Most Googled Sports Presenters
1) Thierry Henry
Google Search Volume: 7.4M
Thierry Henry, the legendary former Arsenal and Barcelona forward and current pundit for CBS Sports, comes out as the most Googled sports presenter in the world. Over the last 12 months, Henry has been Googled around 7.4 million times worldwide.
2) Gary Lineker
Google Search Volume: 7.1M
In second place, we have Gary Lineker, another former football player and the current host of Match of the Day. He also co-hosts a football podcast titled The Rest Is Football with Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. Worldwide, over the previous 12 months, Lineker has been Googled around 7.1 million times.
3) Roy Keane
Google Search Volume: 5.2M
Roy Keane, a former football player with Manchester United and the joint-most successful Irish football player of all time with 19 trophies during his career, ranks third. Between December 2022 and November 2023, Keane was Googled 5.2 million times worldwide.
The Most Followed Sports Presenters On Instagram
1) Patrice Evra | @patrice.evra
Instagram Followers: 13.7M
Former French footballer for Manchester United, where he served as captain, Patrice Evra is Instagram's most followed sports presenter. On the social media platform, Evra has 13.7 million followers. Evra posts lifestyle content on his Instagram, including clips of his punditry and other football content and the occasional meme.
2) Rio Ferdinand | @rioferdy5
Instagram Followers: 6.0M
Rio Ferdinand, former legendary football player for Manchester United and one of the most decorated English football players of all time, takes second place. Rio has a total of 6 million followers on his Instagram account. Rio also posts a lot of football content relating to his punditry for TNT Sports, as well as lifestyle bits.
3) Daniel Sturridge | @danielsturridge
Instagram Followers: 4.2M
The third most-followed sports presenter on Instagram is Daniel Sturridge, formerly a player for Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool, the latter in which he formed the infamous “SAS” partnership with Luis Suarez. Sturridge, now a pundit post-retirement from football, has 4.2 million followers on Instagram. Sturridge’s Instagram account is much more football-focused, often featuring Liverpool players and commentary.
Sports Presenters With Most Appearances
1) Mark Chapman
Number of Punditry Appearances: 2,587
Among pundits and sports presenters with the most appearances, Mark Chapman, presenter of Match of the Day 2, ranks at the top. Across the top ten channels he’s appeared on, Chapman has accumulated 2,587 appearances, primarily on BBC Radio 5 Live, where he hosts The Monday Night Club football programme.
2) Martin Tyler
Number of Punditry Appearances: 2,492
Martin Tyler, one of the most long-serving and iconic football commentators, comes in second place with 2,492 appearances. Over half of his appearances have been on Sky Sports channels, where he’s made 1,515 appearances.
3) Gary Lineker
Number of Punditry Appearances: 2,149
And in third place, we have Gary Lineker, who has made 2,149 appearances as a sports presenter and pundit. The majority of his appearances have been for the BBC, where he hosts The Match of the Day programme, showing highlights and analysis of Premier League games each weekend.
Sports Presenters With Most Awards
1) Martin Tyler
Number of Awards for Punditry: 7
Martin Tyler ranks top in sports presenters with the most awards won, having claimed a total of seven. Most notably, he won the FA Premier League Commentator of the Decade and the Football Supporters’ Federation Commentator of the Year award on six occasions.
2) Gary Lineker, Ian Wright, Clive Tyldesley
Number of Awards for Punditry: 5
Gary Lineker, Ian Wright, and Clive Tyldesley are taking second place, with five awards each. Gary has won the Television and Radio Industries Club Award for Best Sports Presenter on five occasions for presenting Match of the Day. Ian Wright has won awards from the Football Supporters Association for Pundit of the Year in 2020 and 2022, and he also won the Pundit of the Year award at the 2022 Broadcast Sports Awards. Clive Tyldesley has won the Royal Television Society Sports Commentator of the Year four times. He also won the Sony Radio Awards Sports Broadcaster of the Year in 1983.
3) Peter Drury, Jeff Stelling
Number of Awards for Punditry: 4
Tied for third place, we have Peter Drury and Jeff Stelling, each with four awards won for their punditry. Peter Drury has won the Football Supporters Association Best Commentator award four times. Jeff Stelling has won the Sports Broadcaster of the Year award from the Sports Journalists Association four times.
Sports Presenters With Highest Estimated Net Worth
1) Thierry Henry
Net Worth: £102.4M
Thierry Henry has become the sports presenter with the largest net worth. The Arsenal legend and current pundit for CBS Sports has an estimated net worth of £102.4 million as of 2024.
2) Martin Tyler
Owen Hargreaves
Net Worth: £67.0M
Tied for second place are the legendary Martin Tyler and Owen Hargreaves, who played football for Manchester United, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich. These sports presenters have an estimated net worth of £67 million.
3) Rio Ferdinand
Net Worth: £59.1M
And rounding out the top three, we have Rio Ferdinand, with a net worth of £59.1 million. He would have amassed a considerable fortune whilst playing football. However, he also pundits for TNT Sports and owns a restaurant named “Rosso”.
The Most 'Crushed On' Female Sports Presenters
1) Kate Abdo
Google Search Volume: 100,760
Kate Abdo, who presents Champions League Football on CBS Sports, is coming in first place for female sports presenters that viewers have the biggest crushes on. Over the last 12 months, Abdo has been Googled 100,760 times globally with terms that suggest viewers crush her, such as “hot” and “single”.
2) Laura Woods
Google Search Volume: 66,360
Laura Woods takes the second spot for most crushed-on female sports presenter globally, having been Googled 66,360 times worldwide with terms such as “hot” and “single”. Woods is a football presenter for TNT Sports, Amazon Prime Video and ITV.
3) Alex Scott
Google Search Volume: 54,040
Alex Scott rounds out the top three female sports presenters in which viewers have the biggest crush. Scott is a pundit, appearing on BBC, Match of the Day and Sky Sports, and was a former professional footballer for Arsenal in the Women’s Super League. She also received a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her work in football. Over the last 12 months, she has been Googled 54,040 times globally alongside terms such as “hot” and “single”.
The Most 'Crushed On' Male Sports Presenters
1) Gary Lineker
Google Search Volume: 1,790
Having already topped the overall ranking as the best sports presenter in the world, Gary Lineker is also the most “crushed-on” male sports pundit. Over the last 12 months, Lineker has been Googled 1,790 times along with terms such as “hot” and “single”.
2) Thierry Henry
Google Search Volume: 1,350
Coming in second place among male sports presenters on whom viewers have a major crush is Arsenal and Barcelona legend Thierry Henry. The previous twelve months have seen Titi get 1,350 searches globally for his name along with terms such as “hot” and “single” on Google.
3) Rio Ferdinand
Google Search Volume: 210
And rounding out the top three most “crushed on” male sports presenters, we have Rio Ferdinand, a legend for both Manchester United and England’s national team. Rio managed to get 210 Google searches for his name paired with “hot”, “single” and “relationship” over the last 12 months globally.
Methodology
To begin with, we made a seed list of the best commentators and pundits, using lists such as Sportskeeda's “10 best football commentators of all time”, Sportbible’s “The top ten highest-earning sports pundits in the UK have been revealed,” and swns digital’s “Most iconic commentators of all time, include John Motson and David Coleman”.
We then used Google Keyword Planner to get the total search volume for each commentator and pundit's name worldwide between December 2022 and November 2023.
We then looked up each commentator and pundit's Instagram account, taking their follower count (accurate as of 03/01/2024). Note - some pundits and commentators did not have Instagram accounts.
Using ICDb, we got the number of punditry radio and TV appearances each person had made, based on their top ten most appearing on channels (accurate as of 03/01/2024).
We then used a combination of IMDb, news articles and Wikipedia pages to ascertain the number of punditry and commentary awards each person had won.
Using Celebrity Net Worth and Idol Net Worth, we researched each presenter's estimated net worth in USD, which we then converted to GBP using Google Finance on 04/01/2024.
We then ranked each sports presenter based on these factors, giving each one a normalised score out of 10 depending on their performance on the above. The score for each factor was then averaged to give the ‘Pundit Score /10’ for each pundit, which formed the basis of our ranking.
And lastly, we used Google Keyword Planner to search each commentator's name with the terms “hot”, “single”, and “relationship” to determine which presenters are the most “crushed-on”. We then split the rankings into male and female pundits to rank separately. Pundits that received no searches for these terms were removed from our list.
