Review Insights · App Store
BBC Sport
BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. · 25,708 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
25,708 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 47 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"unusable"
14 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Latest update is awful. *Updated my review.. I use the international version to keep up with football and cricket on the live feeds. Since the latest update every 4 comments are followed by a full screen, full volume ad to takes over everything. This makes the entire experience unusab…" - PaulC226
2
"screen"
13 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Latest update is awful. *Updated my review.. I use the international version to keep up with football and cricket on the live feeds. Since the latest update every 4 comments are followed by a full screen, full volume ad to takes over everything. This makes the entire experience unusab…" - PaulC226
3
"full"
10 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Latest update is awful. *Updated my review.. I use the international version to keep up with football and cricket on the live feeds. Since the latest update every 4 comments are followed by a full screen, full volume ad to takes over everything. This makes the entire experience unusab…" - PaulC226
4
"scroll"
9 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What did you do to the app?. The menu no longer has the different sports. Now icons at the top that you have to scroll up for then scroll right. Retrograde" - Daveyerobs
5
"live"
9 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Invasive ads. The latest updates have brought invasive and nearly app breaking ads to all match feeds. It’s become impossible to scroll through any live feed" - Joe 3826278
6
"experience"
9 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Latest update is awful. *Updated my review.. I use the international version to keep up with football and cricket on the live feeds. Since the latest update every 4 comments are followed by a full screen, full volume ad to takes over everything. This makes the entire experience unusab…" - PaulC226
7
"full screen"
8 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Latest update is awful. *Updated my review.. I use the international version to keep up with football and cricket on the live feeds. Since the latest update every 4 comments are followed by a full screen, full volume ad to takes over everything. This makes the entire experience unusab…" - PaulC226
8
"football"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Annoying. you changed the menu format - I only use your app for the following -football. Seven days ago I was able to click on the drop down menu and select football. Now, I have to sign in for the same function." - Jdawg1972
9
"sports"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "What did you do to the app?. The menu no longer has the different sports. Now icons at the top that you have to scroll up for then scroll right. Retrograde" - Daveyerobs
10
"video"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not well built. This app serves ads based on location but stops viewing of certain content based on location . It serves the ad then tells you you can’t see the video . Attention theft , basically . Even as a paid subscriber to the BBC app , you get ‘conte…" - MikeyBoy1964
11
"terrible"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads are terrible. It’s now impossible to scroll this app without inadvertently tapping an advert and launching a video. It is beyond annoying at this point." - Shhhh.Listen
12
"feed"
6 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Invasive ads. The latest updates have brought invasive and nearly app breaking ads to all match feeds. It’s become impossible to scroll through any live feed" - Joe 3826278
📋 All 47 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Annoying
you changed the menu format - I only use your app for the following -football. Seven days ago I was able to click on the drop down menu and select football. Now, I have to sign in for the same function.
What did you do to the app?
The menu no longer has the different sports. Now icons at the top that you have to scroll up for then scroll right. Retrograde
Alwlledobed
Alwlledobed
Invasive ads
The latest updates have brought invasive and nearly app breaking ads to all match feeds. It’s become impossible to scroll through any live feed
Latest update is awful. *Updated my review.
I use the international version to keep up with football and cricket on the live feeds. Since the latest update every 4 comments are followed by a full screen, full volume ad to takes over everything. This makes the entire experience unusable. Scrolling down a live feed is just an exercise in frustration now, please take this back to the previous experience as I just can no longer even use the app if this is going to be the way going forward.
Editing this review and adding two more stars, they have slowed down the ads and they no longer take over the volume and the screen. They are still more prolific than they used to be but no more a complete ruination of the experience. If they put it back to how it was a year ago, I’ll add another star. Thank you for this latest update though, helped a lot.
Editing again. They added more ads back in. Just don’t bother with this app at this point. It’s worthless for international users.
Editing this review and adding two more stars, they have slowed down the ads and they no longer take over the volume and the screen. They are still more prolific than they used to be but no more a complete ruination of the experience. If they put it back to how it was a year ago, I’ll add another star. Thank you for this latest update though, helped a lot.
Editing again. They added more ads back in. Just don’t bother with this app at this point. It’s worthless for international users.
Pop ups ads make it unusable
There are so many pop up full screen ads the app is rendered useless
Used to be good, it’s not trash
This app moved from great to trash with the ads that make it completely unusable. The moment you open it to follow a match, a full page ad pops up - unprompted. Deleted.
Spoiled by full screen ads
As soon as you start to scroll lots of ads open in full page. It makes it unusable as you constantly have to play whack-an-ad as you try to read the text. Totally ruined experience in US.
Pop up ads
You are-cheats we pay to get access and you forced adds on us with every scroll. You should be ashamed of yourself. You are the BBC
Awful full screen ads in live events/commentary
Following a Live event, where commentary is streamed as messages, new full screen ads at every other update means a truly awful user experience. It is impossible to scroll through the update. Really terrible experience.
After years and years of using the app, it is practically useless now to follow Live event commentary.
I’ll move to bbc on safari and try that from now on.
After years and years of using the app, it is practically useless now to follow Live event commentary.
I’ll move to bbc on safari and try that from now on.
Ads a joke outside the UK
I’ve been using the BBC sport app to follow the premier league for years to follow the premier league as I am a Brit abroad but suddenly the amount of ads has quadrupled and they interfere massively with the usability of the app. I get they want to do adds outside the UK, whatever I guess but at this scale and so they make scrolling a live update page basically unusable? This app is going downhill fast
Full page ad disaster
Love the content and reporting in this app - second to none! However the new update (Feb/March 2026) has the worst ads integration with full page ads appearing out of nowhere, taking over the whole screen and audio. Really messes up the experience. Ads are fine especially for such good content but not this way
The latest ads integration is terrible
I used to love the app but in the last month they added a new ads setup that keeps going into full screen ad mode while you’re reading live text. (using it from the US). Terrible experience now
Unusable with ads popping up up everywhere.
Can I give this thing zero stars? All of a sudden this app is like a 2000’s pørn site. Ads and videos covering the screen with no taps. Get it together BBC app devs!!!
Far far far too many ads
The be ads they have added absolutely ruin this app. Pop up all over the place. Typical idiots at the BBC, no idea what they are doing or what people actually want. Sky sports is far superior to this now
Unusable
Constant disruptive ads that won’t close.
Terrible recent updates
Have used this app for years, has become unusable with ads over the last month. Live feed is abysmal with ads, pop ups and video ads just randomly playing in full screen.
Intrusive adverts
I used this app for pretty much all my sports news but it has become unusable lately. I get Expedia adverts popping up all the time so it’s pretty much useless. I’m searching for an alternative.
Good app, bad UX experience (Ads)
In app ads are toxic in how they ruin the reading/watching experience. Has to be better than this.
Unusable
The volume and persistence of ads has made the app unusable. Will look for an alternate source after being a user for many years.
Becoming unusable with all the ads
This used to be a great app but lately with all of the additions of the ads it’s becoming unusable. Videos popping up without clicking on them, ads moving around the screen as the page loads, often taking up 50% of the screen. Very disappointing.
Ads
Apps barely usable in last month, constant full screen ads popping up every few seconds.
Wheels fell off
As an international viewer, the advertising is getting in the way of any benefit. A scrolling video ad? What next, a video ad when I open it? Also, there’s such a thing as Dark Mode. Try it, BBC, it will bring you roaring into 2015. Great journalism ruined by terrible designers and advertisers.
Was great - no more
This used to be a great app but now with the ads are overly intrusive you see more of the ads than the reporting. Really annoying and really disapponting.
Ads on live text updates
Adding so many intrusive ads on the live text feed has destroyed the experience. I was religious about following EPL updates on BBC, I cannot with this ad density. You need to find a better balance
Slow
Terrible app.
Incessant pop up ads
Incessant pop up ads
Women’s football
Too much. I want to be able to switch off all stories on it and personalize what I see.
Great coverage
One of the most bias news orgs in the world.
This ain’t BBC Sounds
Desperately looking for what replaced BBC Sounds. What happened to the radio stations? England officially as messed up as the US. Looks like a good app, but more interested in Welsh radio than archery results.
Lost functionality
No longer usable on certain phones (incl. mine) because devs decided not to support backward compatibility. Unexpected from BBC of all places.
Use this site for scores
Defund the BBC.
Women, second class
It’s sad that when you go to fixtures and scores, there’s nothing on women’s games, unless you select the women tab. As if their games aren’t as important as guys’.
BBC fouls again
Once again as with BBC News app they ‘upgrade’ and remove the ability to set filters making it more user unfriendly
Why do they keep doing it
The decision makers should be fired!
Why do they keep doing it
The decision makers should be fired!
James Sommerville
Way too slow. 5 minutes behind X (Twitter). UI feels tired. Needs a complete redesign IMO.
Very Poor
BBC is very poorly written
Football stories are biased towards 5/6 clubs
I read the BBC Football pages everyday, somewhat forced to - now living in the US.
I understand the number of times a post is read drives how you prioritize - but does that explain why Tottenham are so heavily reported on? I sometimes joke about that BBC football writers must all be Spurs supporters!
If writing stories about Harry Kane keeps your advertising contracts strong - please remember that your reading ‘public’ are not always interested in the same story over and over again. It’s actually a tired story about an average club.
Sadly, I have no real options other than the BBC. If I did, you would have lost my daily readership years ago.
Matt
I understand the number of times a post is read drives how you prioritize - but does that explain why Tottenham are so heavily reported on? I sometimes joke about that BBC football writers must all be Spurs supporters!
If writing stories about Harry Kane keeps your advertising contracts strong - please remember that your reading ‘public’ are not always interested in the same story over and over again. It’s actually a tired story about an average club.
Sadly, I have no real options other than the BBC. If I did, you would have lost my daily readership years ago.
Matt
Scottish football a low priority by BBC online
Each year, it’s very disappointing to watch BBC Sports Online systematically demote three of Scotland’s four football league scores behind anything English.
Scottish Championship, Leagues 1 and 2 scores will now follow ALL English scores, even three tiers of English Non League, multiple Women’s scores, over 100 teams competing in the FA Trophy; and now sadly even Women’s Friendly International games (China v Australia).
Please return Scotland’s scores to their traditional position after English League Two.
Scottish Championship, Leagues 1 and 2 scores will now follow ALL English scores, even three tiers of English Non League, multiple Women’s scores, over 100 teams competing in the FA Trophy; and now sadly even Women’s Friendly International games (China v Australia).
Please return Scotland’s scores to their traditional position after English League Two.
Not well built
This app serves ads based on location but stops viewing of certain content based on location . It serves the ad then tells you you can’t see the video . Attention theft , basically . Even as a paid subscriber to the BBC app , you get ‘content not available’ rather too often . Given that the organization is funded by the UK govt , it’s a bit of a cheap play .
Ads are terrible
It’s now impossible to scroll this app without inadvertently tapping an advert and launching a video. It is beyond annoying at this point.
Ads make this unpleasant
I used to be a major fan but recently they have dialed up the ads to the point where any scrolling is interrupted by video ads. It’s so intrusive to the point of making the experience difficult to use. I appreciate the need for ads but taking over the screen is just over the top and now I need to find another app for soccer.
Adverts!
Oh dear, what have they done. Completely unusable with all the adverts. Can’t scroll through a live feed without advert after advert popping up. Please BBC let’s get back to basics.
US Version is unusable
The ads on the US version (or when in the US) make this unwatchable. If you try and scroll they take up the ENTIRE screen and won’t let you exit. It’s not a US thing it’s a developer thing. Fix it or I’ll just go elsewhere
Ads make it unusable
Long time reader/user of BBC Sports app. Recent changes to how ads are deployed within the app make it completely unusable. Content is good (hence 2 stars), but ads make it inaccessible.
Update Downgrade
This is the main app I use for sports but since the new update it is filled with so many ads that it is barely useable. Every touch now opens a video or advertisement. Considering getting rid of it completely due to the new experience. Would gladly go back to the previous version
Live feed very poor
The recent update seems to have come with an obscene addition of ads for overseas users. The live feed has become almost impossible to use, ads constantly popping up taking up the full screen and making it impossible to easily scroll through the content. Very frustrating, this was my go to app on an almost daily basis for tracking sport back home but I’ll be looking for something new. Hopefully this gets fixed.
New App
Hate it. Trying to find anything is a nightmare. I find myself using google and it’s easier. BBC scored an own goal.
Good app but too woke
I like the app and the ease of finding things but I keep getting tricked into clicking on a football headline only to find out it’s woman’s football which isn’t my interest. Please put women’s in the headline before writing something about a woman’s football team. I’m going to try the Sky App now to see if it’s better
Sentiment summary
95%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)