Sports Personality of the Year 2023: Frankie Dettori leads the race for BBC award

When is BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023?

The date for this year's Sports Personality of the Year has yet to be released but the ceremony is usually held in late December. 

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Rory McIlroy to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year
1pt each-way 33-1 bet365

BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023 predictions

Frankie Dettori's farewell tour is in full swing after Oaks glory at Epsom on Friday afternoon.

Few sporting stars can write their own scripts like Dettori when things are going his way, and the wave of public support he enjoyed on the Surrey Downs last weekend could be repeated when the BBC Sports Personality of the Year gong is dished out in December.

Punters love to get behind Dettori when he's on a roll and with Royal Ascot to come in two weeks, the Frankie factor has to be taken into account when looking at the formative SPOTY market.

Dettori was available at 9-1 to land the award at the start of last week, but he was as short as 11-4 after Soul Sister's Oaks success and is now a best-priced 4-1, usurping Ben Stokes at the head of the Sports Personality market. 

There is no major men's football tournament this summer but England's Lionesses will bid for World Cup glory in July and August, and last year's Euros success thrust England's heroines into superstardom - so much so that Beth Mead, top scorer and player of the tournament at the Euros, became the first female footballer to win Sports Personality last year.

England's captain for the upcoming World Cup, Millie Bright, is the shortest-priced Lioness at 33-1 but striker Alessia Russo is of more interest at 40-1 after a strong season for WSL runners-up Manchester United. She would be a big runner if she can fire England to World Cup glory.

It is also a massive year in English cricket and history shows just how persuasive Ashes glory, in particular, can be.

Ian Botham's Headingley heroics in 1981 saw him crowned Sports Personality of the Year and fellow all-rounder Andrew Flintoff took home the gong after his role in England's memorable Ashes win in 2005.

Current England Test captain Stokes knows all too well the influence that Ashes fever can play in the vote, too. He claimed the award in 2019 after a summer which included his own Herculean Headingley effort in the Ashes and a match-winning knock in the World Cup final.

The England captain also finished second in last year's vote after helping revive the fortunes of the Test team with a swashbuckling, crowd-pleasing style.

A persistent knee injury is a slight concern for backers of Stokes, who looked in particular discomfort in this week's Test against Ireland, and it is unknown how much that will limit his role against the Aussies. That said, Stokes revels in adversity and is definitely the value option of the first two in the market. 

But at this stage, when so much is unknown, the preference is to take a bigger price about another household name.

It's now nine years since Rory McIlroy last won a Major when he won the Open and US PGA Championship. McIlory finished runner-up in the Sports Personality vote that year and he makes each-way appeal at 33-1.

This year's Open is at the scene of his 2014 triumph, Royal Liverpool, and he is third-favourite for this month's US Open - an event in which he has finished no worse than ninth since winning at Congressional in 2011.   

There's also the little matter of the Ryder Cup in October, giving the Northern Irishman some high-profile opportunities to make the sporting public sit up and take notice in 2023. 

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