How To Become A Sports Anchor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a sports anchor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

As a sports anchor, your main purpose will be to research, write, produce, and report on sports events and news, mainly for radio and television, although you may also anchor for websites. If you have extensive knowledge about sports and can communicate clearly, then this is the position for you.

Some of the duties and responsibilities that you will be performing in this capacity include interviewing athletes, be it on a collegiate, national, or international level. Moreover, you will also be the face of the program, delivering news regarding sports in a clear and concise manner. In addition, you may also be required to write your own scripts, research, and read text written by producers. Essential skills required for this role are strong verbal and written communication, multitasking, researching skills, ability to work under pressure, and ability to travel when necessary.

Educational requirements for this role include a bachelor's degree in journalism, communication, or a related field. Moreover, prior work experience in a related field, such as a news anchor, is preferable. The average hourly pay for this role is $15, which amounts to $40,489 annually. This amount is likely to increase once you gain experience and become a senior anchor.

ScoreSports AnchorUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $96,351

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate -10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.30%

Asian 8.71%

Black or African American 6.58%

Hispanic or Latino 13.12%

Unknown 4.23%

White 67.07%

Gender

female 18.35%

male 81.65%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.1

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.1

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a sports anchor

Explore sports anchor education requirements

Most common sports anchor degrees

Bachelor's

91.5 %

Associate

4.6 %

Master's

2.5 %

Start to develop specific sports anchor skills

Skills	Percentages
Sports Content	8.62%
Sports Coverage	8.34%
Social Media Sites	7.01%
Facebook	6.94%
Twitter	5.62%

Complete relevant sports anchor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sports anchors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a sports anchor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sports anchor resumes.

Research sports anchor duties and responsibilities

Manage five beats as reporter for ABC affiliate, including medical correspondent.
Interview and do live broadcasts with NFL and college athletes.
Post sports and news content to the station's Facebook page and launch a podcast which generate 2K fans.
Refine the weekend newsgathering system through pre-planning, calendar maintenance and reporter accountability.

Prepare your sports anchor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sports anchor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a sports anchor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable sports anchor resume templates

Build a professional sports anchor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your sports anchor resume.