“I was sleeping on friends floors and couches early on in my career” Jacque Oatley on her journey to becoming the established broadcaster she is today.

Jacque Oatley football and darts presenter for ITV and best know for being the first female commentator for BBC’s match of the day spoke earlier today on the royal television society with former cricketer Isa Guha, BBC sport supremo Barbara Slater, top indy head honcho Mark Cole and former Wolves goalkeeper Matt Murray on how to kick off a career in sports broadcasting.

Jacque gave an insight into how she became the first female to break into football commentary for match of the day by taking every opportunity that came her way. After rupturing her knee early on in her sporting career and being told she’d never play again it was clear to see her love for sport wouldn’t just end there with her obsessive love for football leading her into her next career aspiration of being a Sports Broadcaster.

“I started completely from the beginning and learnt everything from the bottom up”

Starting a second university degree at the age of 27 and going straight into work experience doing small podcasts for non league football with score updates.

“back then the only way you could get score updates was by phoning the clubs themselves which was exciting in its own way”

After she’d built up enough experience in this field she began sofa surfing her friends couches whilst taking every opportunity that came her way, a significant one being her first game she commentated over which was given to her very last minute due to a cancellation of a different game and required research on players names at the very last minute.

“I was thrown into the deep end but afterwards i thought if i can get through that i can do anything”

Jacques most notable point that came across by the end of the discussion is that you have to break out of your comfort zone and take every opportunity that comes your way.