OTB Sports (formerly known as Off the Ball) is an Irish media company, comprising a podcast network, website, daily radio show on nationwide broadcaster

Newstalk Newstalk (formerly NewsTalk 106) is a national independent radio station in Ireland. It is operated by News 106 Limited, a subsidiary of Bauer Media Audio Ireland, and broadcasts under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Autho ...

106-108fm and web-based live digital broadcast. It is on air seven days a week. Primarily a sports news review, opinion and analysis show, it has also produced video documentaries on sporting topics.

Format

OTB Sports broadcasts a three-hour long sports review and analysis show from 7pm on Monday to Thursday on

, nationwide across Ireland and online. The show is also live from 7pm on Friday for two hours, and from 1pm on Saturday and Sunday for five hours. OTB AM, which launched in October 2017, is a digital sports news review and discussion show. It is available on various platforms including YouTube, Facebook and on the OTB Sports app. It is presented Monday to Thursday by Ger Gilroy and Eoin Sheahan, and on Friday by Sheahan and Adrian Barry. Regulars include Alan Quinlan,

Ronan O'Gara Ronan John Ross O'Gara ( ga, Rónán Ó Gadhra; born 7 March 1977) is an Irish former rugby union player and current coach. O'Gara played as a fly-half and is Ireland's second most-capped player and highest ever points scorer. He is currently ...

, Daniel Harris, Graham Hunter, Anthony Moyles, Andy Mitten, Kieran Donaghy, Tommy Walsh and more.

Features

Regular slots on the radio show include: *Monday Night Rugby *Wednesday Night Rugby *Friday Night Racing *Football with John Giles *The Football Show *The Crappy Quiz *The Saturday Panel *The Sunday Papers

Hosts

*Joe Molloy *Ger Gilroy *Adrian Barry *Dave McIntyre *Nathan Murphy *Eoin Sheahan *John Duggan *

Kevin Kilbane Kevin Daniel Kilbane (; born 1 February 1977) is a former professional footballer who played as a left winger or full back. Kilbane won 110 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team, fourth behind only Robbie Keane, Shay Given and John O ...

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster and for Ireland. He captained Ireland from 2003 until 2012, and captained the ...

Regular guest hosts on the show include former Ireland football international and manager John Giles, swimmer Ellen Keane, former Ireland and Munster player

Keith Wood Keith Wood (born 27 January 1972) is an Irish former international rugby union player who played as a hooker for Ireland, the British & Irish Lions, Garryowen, Harlequins and Munster. He was nicknamed 'The Raging Potato' because of his bal ...

and former middleweight World champion Andy Lee.

History

The first episode of the radio show aired in April 2002, featuring on Newstalk which had just commenced broadcasting as an independent local radio station with a franchise for Dublin. Newstalk also offered weekend sports programming under various titles, including Sport Saturday and Sunday. These programs eventually changed their name to Off The Ball to reflect the connection with the weekday programming in 2013. In 2004, Off The Ball became radio commentary rights holders for the Premier League in Ireland, and extended the deal in 2016 for a further three seasons. In 2006, presenter Ger Gilroy moved to the morning breakfast show alongside

Claire Byrne Claire Byrne (born 11 August 1975) is an Irish journalist and television presenter. Byrne presented ''The Daily Show'' from September 2010 to March 2012. In 2013, she became an anchor on RTÉ's flagship current affairs programme ''Prime Time''. ...

, with Eoin McDevitt joining

Ken Early Kenneth Early (born 4 February 1979) is an Irish journalist and broadcaster. As of 2013, he was a director of Second Captains and a host of both Second Captains @ The Irish Times and the television show Second Captains Live on RTÉ 2. He is al ...

and Ciaran Murphy as the core weeknight presenting team. In March 2013, McDevitt, Early and Murphy resigned, along with producers Mark Horgan and Simon Hick, eventually joining ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' under the name of

Second Captains Second Captains is an Irish media company established in March 2013 by Eoin McDevitt, Ken Early, Mark Horgan, Ciarán Murphy and Simon Hick. Best-known for their podcast ''The Second Captains World Service'', the company specialises in televis ...

. Presenters Joe Molloy and Dave McIntyre increased their presence on weekday programming, while Adrian Barry and

Colm Parkinson Colm "Wooly" Parkinson (born 1978 in Meelick, Portlaoise) is a retired Irish Gaelic footballer, and journalist. Playing career Club Parkinson was a decorated underage player with Portlaoise, winning county titles at every underage grade before ...

joined the team shortly afterwards. The weeknight programme is the leading show on Irish radio in its time slot, with 53,000 listeners according to JNLR figures as of October 2017.

Awards

Irish Music Rights Organisation The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) is a national organisation that administers the performing right in copyright music in Ireland on behalf of its members (who are songwriters, composers and music publishers) and on behalf of the songwrite ...

Radio Awards (formerly PPI Radio Awards) *2009: Eoin McDevitt, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) *2011: Off The Ball, Sports Programme (Gold) *2012: Eoin McDevitt, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) *2013: Ger Gilroy, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) *2014: Joe Molloy, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) *2015: Joe Molloy, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) and Off The Ball, Sports Programme (Gold) *2016: Joe Molloy, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) and Team 33, Sports Programme (Gold) *2017: Ger Gilroy, Sports Broadcaster (Gold) and Off The Ball Weekday, Sports Programme (Gold)

Other media

The first part of the on-air radio show, which consists of a look through the sporting stories of the day, was also available on terrestrial television until late 2017. The segment was originally broadcast on Setanta Sports, and continued after the station was rebranded as

Eir Sport Eir Sport (stylised as eir Sport; formerly Setanta Sports) was a group of Irish television sports channels operated by Eircom Sport Limited, a subsidiary of Eir. In December 2015, Eir purchased original Setanta Sports operations in the Republic ...

in 2016.

References

{{reflist Irish radio programs Irish sports broadcasters Irish YouTubers Irish podcasters