Karl Bates

Karl’s media career began at hospital radio and his love affair with the mic began. He moved on to hosting a Saturday morning radio show in Lincoln. This whetted his appetite for more and so he wrote to the BBC with a voice demo attached and was delighted to be asked to come into the studio and read out the Full Time (FT) scores on BBC1 meeting Gary Lineker and the crew in the process.

He then chanced his arm and replied to an advert in the Guardian newspaper asking for football commentators, so he headed off to Barnet FC and secured a volunteer role as a co-commentator for the London club.

A year later and he was on the pay role as the main man behind the mi. Karl’s deep, dulcet tones ensured a quick rise within the media industry. Having read out the full-time scores live on BBC1 in his early 20’s, he has provided numerous voiceovers for various sporting events which included working with David Beckham at his academy.

Karl is currently a football commentator for numerous networks and has been for over 15 years. This, however is not the only string to his bow; he has also hosted his own radio show and provided several voice overs for corporate advertising and promotional videos for an international market. Audiobook narration comes naturally to him, due to his adaptability in bringing stories to life. Karl’s ability to switch quickly from character to character lends himself well to animation and gaming platforms.