Sports Personality of the Year 2019: Who Will Win?

The 66th Sports Personality of the Year will be chosen by BBC TV viewers and bookmakers are already offering odds for the winner.  The live show will be broadcast in late December from Aberdeen for the first time and regular BBC sports presenters – Gabby Logan, Gary Lineker and Clare Balding – will host the show and reveal the winners of nine categories to the 10,000-strong  audience and millions of viewers at home.  

Nominees will be announced in early December but the bookies are already sure that cricketer Ben Stokes, athletes Dina Asher-Smith and Katrina Johnson-Thompson, rugby players Owen Farrell and Alun Wyn-Jones, and Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton will be in the mix for the top prize of Sports Personality of the Year.  

Ben Stokes is hot favourite with the bookies to lift the trophy, with Skybet and William Hill both offering odds of 2/5.  The 28-year old has bounced back from his £30k fine and 8 match ban last year, imposed for bringing the game into disrepute following an incident in Bristol.  He was Man of the Match in the final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, where his performance was pivotal in securing victory against New Zealand. And many cricket fans thought his astounding efforts to secure a draw with Australia in the Ashes amounted to “one of the greatest innings of all time”.  

Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith is also a contender for the award.  She is the fastest British woman in history, holding national records for the 100m and 200m sprints.  Already the European champion in the two distances, the 23-year old added the World Champion gold medal for 200m this year, and also picked up silver in the 100m.  Bookie bet365 is offering odds of 5/1 that she will win the trophy later this year.

Katrina Johnson-Thompson is considered a 25/1 chance by bookies BetFred and bet365.  The 26-year-old has had a stellar year in her punishing discipline of the pentathlon.  The Liverpudlian became the European Indoor Pentathlon champion in March and then clinched a gold in the World Athletics Championship at Doha.  To top it off, she has recently been nominated for the IAAF World Athlete Award.  

The Rugby World Cup is in full swing at the moment and the outcome of the next couple of weeks could prove crucial to the chances of England and Saracens player Owen Farrell,  and Welsh legend Alun Wyn-Jones.

28-year old Owen Farrell has played for England since 2012 and he captains the team as they attempt to win the Rugby World Cup in a fiercely competitive tournament.  England will play Australia in first Quarter-Final stage on Saturday 19 October, starting the match as favourites, and will then take on the winner of the New Zealand v Ireland match.    Odds of 25/1 are on offer from BetFred that Owen Farrell will be Sports Personality of the Year.

But do not discount the chances of his Welsh rival Alun Wyn-Jones.  The 34-year old Captain of Wales has been on the winning end of 3 Grand Slams and is the world’s most capped lock forward to boot.  He is very much on form, winning the best player award in the 2019 Six Nations Championship, and intends to secure a win in the Quarter-Final against France on Sunday 20 October.  If successful, he will then lead the team in the Semi-Final, to be played against the winner of the Japan-South Africa. Bookmaker bet365 offer odds of 25/1 that Alun Wyn-Jones will be Sports Personality of the Year.

Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton has won the trophy already, back in 2014, and has been runner-up twice.  Five-time World Champion and leading the championship once again in 2019, the 34-year old Mercedes driver is considered a 25/1 chance to win the Sports Personality of the Year award once again.  A further win may be considered unlikely after Lewis Hamilton’s controversial comment at last year’s award ceremony, that it had been his dream to “get out of the slums” – from his childhood home in Stevenage!