The World’s Most Prestigious Literary Sports-Writing Competition Announces Esteemed Reading Panel

A panel of renowned industry experts has been announced for the world’s most prestigious literary sports-writing competition: The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

Following their previous involvement in last year’s award, The Athletic’s Nancy Froston and Greatest Hits Radio sports presenter Matt Williams are set to rejoin Neil Foggin from William Hill, to collectively review and evaluate all the entries submitted for the 2023 sports book competition, much to the delight of the event organisers.

Each of the reading panellists is an expert in their respective field, bringing a wealth of sports knowledge and literature experience, and will be instrumental in selecting the longlist, which will be announced in September.

Last year saw a record breaking 158 books entered by athletes and authors alike including Patrice Evra, Anyika Onuora, and last year’s winner Jeremy Wilson.

Now entering its 35th year, organisers are encouraging authors, journalists, athletes and publishers to enter their sports books into the Awards, which offers a grand prize of £30,000 for the overall winner, which will be announced on 30^th November 2023 at an official awards ceremony held at BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London. As well as the winning prize, each shortlisted author will receive a generous £3,000 in cash, and a specially produced leather-bound copy of their book.

Book review panellist and highly credited broadcaster Matt Williams shared: “It is an honour to be returning as part of this year’s Reading Panel for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, alongside Nancy and Neil, two highly respected individuals within the sports industry.

“The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the longest running competition in the industry and sets out to recognise and reward the creative talents of authors in the sporting literature world. For over three decades, the Award has provided hundreds of talented authors the platform to have their name seen and their work read, and every author gains recognition by simply putting their name forward.

“We’re all about ensuring a fair and impartial competition. It’s not about how high the author’s rank outside of the competition – it’s the content and writing talent that we’re interested in.

“We’re keen to encourage entries which cover a wide range of sports. The diversity of sporting subjects that have been covered over the last 35 years has been vast, which is testament to the variety of topics covered by our past winners, proving they are all as important as each other.

“I’m incredibly excited to start reading this year’s submissions from sports book enthusiasts and writers in the sports book genre. Once again, we’re encouraging all authors, agents, and publishers to enter their titles as early as possible as all the books are read by humans, not algorithms and therefore we urge writers to submit their book before the rush begins in the summer.”

The Reading Panel will select the longlist in September, with the shortlist being announced in late October, and the overall winner revealed at an official awards ceremony on 30th November 2023.