The UK’s top 20 sports pubs have been revealed, does your local make the cut?

Watching the footie down the pub is a time-honoured British tradition, as are the pubs themselves, but not all are created equal. A recent study has ranked over 3700 UK pubs, which claim to show sports, against various factors to determine which are the best sports pubs of the bunch.

The study, by electrical retail giant Currys, used factors such as number of screens, average price of a pint in the area, pub rating, anti-social behaviour rates in the area and the facilities offered at each venue to score each pub out of a possible 50, giving the best boozers for watching sports.

The pub that made the top of the list was the self-proclaimed “the best place to watch live sports in Birmingham”, the One Trick Pony Club in Moseley Village in Birmingham, scoring 39.37 out of a possible 50. With multiple screens (including a big screen), live streaming from Sky Sports and TNT Sports as well as terrestrial channels and a fair average pint price in the area of £4.00, there is no surprise this pub came out on top. Their website allows patrons to see which fixtures will be shown in the pub and allow bookings for popular tournaments such as the Rugby World Cup.

Heading further south for second best sports pub on the list, The Cleveland Bay in Eastleigh, Hampshire, which scored 38.63 out of 50. This pub show a range of sport on terrestrial TV, Sky Sports, BT Sport and Amazon. They have an outdoor screen, are pet friendly and take bookings where closeness to the screen can be specified, perfect for a sports fan that want to ensure a great view. The pint price for the area was higher than the first-place pub coming it at around £4.49.

In third place The King’s Head in Guildford, Surrey, which scored 38.56 out of 50. This pub which is part of the Fuller’s brewery family has full Sky Sports & BT Sport packages and multiple screens, including an outdoor screen, giving customers the ability to enjoy a wide range of sports at this venue including cricket, boxing and rugby. The average price of a pint in this area will set punters back around £4.74, but overall, a popular choice for sports enthusiasts. 

Britain’s 20 best sports pubs

Rank	Name of Pub	City/Town	Score out of 50
1	One Trick Pony Club	Birmingham	39.37
2	The Cleveland Bay	Eastleigh	38.63
3	The King’s Head	Guildford	38.56
4	White Hart, Sherfield on Loddon	Hook	38.12
5	Junction	Harrow	37.55
6	The Frog and Fiddle	Cheltenham	36.53
7	Hennesseys	Birmingham	36.51
8	The Box	Leeds	36.09
9	Mode Sports Bar & Grill	Worcester	36.05
10	Rocky’s Bar	Gillingham	36.00
11	Belushis Newquay	Newquay	35.97
12	Spy Bar Jesmond	Byker	35.90
13	Malones Aberdeen	Aberdeen	35.80
14	The Sports Bar at The Riviera Hotel	Torquay	35.73
15	Philharmonic Cardiff	Cardiff	35.71
16	Malones Glasgow	Glasgow	35.70
17	Thomas ‘a’ Becket	Duston	35.68
18	Vine Inn	Birmingham	35.61
19	Harry Cook Free House	Cheltenham	35.58
20	Nursery Tavern	Norton	35.57

Top punter pub put-offs

The study also asked sports fans to name the things that would stop them watching sports at pub. Unclean toilet facilities were most likely to cause a sports fan to turn their nose up and head elsewhere to watch the game, with 46.7% of Brits calling out dirty loos as their top pub put-off. Not enough seats and poor-quality screens also figured highly among pub peeves for sports viewers.  
 
The biggest sports pub put-offs

Rank	Biggest deterrents	% Brits
1	Unclean toilet facilities	46.7%
2	Not enough seats	46.2%
3	Poor quality screens	45.3%
4	Bad hygiene rating	42.5%
5	Poor / no atmosphere	40.2%
6	Poor customer service	39.2%
7	Poor food / snacks	33.1%
8	Not enough screens	32.7%
9	Poor drinks selection	29.1%
10	Poor Wi-Fi connectivity	27.8%
11	Too family-friendly (too many young children)	21.4%
12	No outdoor smoke-free area	12.8%
13	No smoking area	11.9%