BBC SPOTY 2024: Date, start time, how to watch live and vote tonight as Alex Yee bids for ICONIC award

It’s been a quite incredible year for Britain’s Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee, but there is STILL one more major prize up for grabs – BBC Sports Personality Of The Year (better known these days as SPOTY). And the day has arrived (Tuesday December 17)…

For anybody not living in the UK, this is probably the biggest sports award handed out in this nation every year – getting massive publicity in mainstream media. Partly because it is of course backed and handed out by the national broadcaster.

Triathlon has come close before to winning the prize, and now swim/bike/run has another shot with Yee one of the possibles after that epic surge past the gallant Hayden Wilde to claim gold at Paris 2024 in July.

The competition is hot though, as you would imagine with every single sport under the sun having the chance to contend for the big prize. So as the countdown reaches a climax, here is all we know ahead of the 2024 spectacular.

When is BBC SPOTY 2024?

SPOTY will be handed out at a glittering awards ceremony to take place at BBC Sport’s headquarters in MediaCity, Salford, Manchester tonight (Tuesday December 17, 2024). It will of course be televised live to the nation on BBC One so everybody can watch the event unfold.

The ceremony and TV coverage gets under way at 1900 local time – that is 2000 CET, 1400 Eastern Time in the US or 1100 PST if you are watching on the West Coast. The coverage runs for two hours.

How does SPOTY work?

A shortlist of six athletes was announced on December 9, and those athletes are now in with a chance of winning the hallowed prize tonight. And now we KNOW Alex Yee is in with a big chance.

The shortlist is as follows:

• Keely Hodgkinson: Olympic 800m champion
• Alex Yee: Olympic triathlon champion
• Sarah Storey: Para cycling great
• Luke Littler: Darts sensation
• Jude Bellingham: Real Madrid and England soccer star
• Joe Root: England cricket star

Tonight in Manchester, the final results will be announced and we will know the 2024 BBC Sports Personality Of The Year.

So who actually decides the contenders, and then the winner? An expert panel will pick that six-athlete shortlist, and then the winner of the award will be decided by a public vote. We’ll add details of how and where you can vote, right here, once official.

How to vote for SPOTY

Voting has now closed for BBC SPOTY 2024.

Who is favourite for SPOTY?

This is a big deal, so of course there are odds, normally a pretty good place to start when working out who is favourite. Right now Britain’s Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson is favourite, with Alex Yee a 66/1 fourth favourite:

• 1/4 Keely Hodgkinson
• 11/4 Luke Littler
• 40/1 Joe Root
• 50/1 Alex Yee
• 100/1 Jude Bellingham
• 100/1 Sarah Storey

All odds were correct at 0700 UK on Tuesday December 17, 2024.

There are other positive signs too – Alex recently claimed the vaunted SJA Sportsman of the Year award, and his triathlon success was voted by the public as the TeamGB Moment of the Games in Paris. So a lot of people remember very well what he did on that epic day in the French capital on July 31.

Triathlon and SPOTY

Triathlon has yet to claim the Sports Personality of the Year award, but it has come close before.

One Alistair Brownlee finished second in the voting behind tennis icon Andy Murray back in 2016. Alistair had just claimed his second Olympic gold in Rio, and even more fresh in the public memory was that famous moment with brother Jonny in Cozumel.