The Betfred Super League XXII, was the year 2017 Super League season and 123rd season of rugby league in Britain.
Super League XXII featured twelve teams, the third year in which this number has taken part. This was also the third year since promotion and relegation was reintroduced into the competition, seeing Leigh promoted and Hull KR relegated from last season.
Eleven teams in Super League are from the North of England. Six teams hail from the historic county of Lancashire, west of the Pennines: Warrington, St. Helens, Salford, Wigan, Leigh, and Widnes. Five teams hail from the historic county of Yorkshire, east of the Pennines: Huddersfield, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds, Castleford, and Hull F.C. Catalans Dragons, located in Perpignan, France, are the only team outside the North of England. St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, and Leeds Rhinos are the only teams to have played in every season of Super League since 1996.
Leigh were promoted from the Kingstone Press Championship after finishing in 2nd place in The Qualifiers for 2016. Leigh became the first club promoted to the Super League under the Super 8s system, and the first club promoted to Super League since Widnes received a license for Super League XVII. Leigh last competed in the top flight in Super League X. Hull Kingston Rovers were relegated to the Championship after losing the 2016 Million Pound Game to Salford.
Awards are presented for outstanding contributions and efforts to players and clubs in the week leading up to the Super League Grand Final:
2017 is the first of a five-year contract with Sky Sports to televise 100 matches per season.
Sky Sports coverage in the UK will see two live matches broadcast each week, usually at 8:00 pm on Thursday and Friday nights.
Regular commentators will be Eddie Hemmings with summarisers including Phil Clarke, Brian Carney, Barrie McDermott and Terry O'Connor. Sky will broadcast highlights on Sunday nights on Super League - Full Time at 10 p.m.
BBC Sport will broadcast a highlights programme called the Super League Show, presented by Tanya Arnold. The BBC show two weekly broadcasts of the programme, the first to the BBC North West, Yorkshire, North East and Cumbria, and East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions on Monday evenings at 11:35 p.m. on BBC One, while a repeat showing is shown nationally on BBC Two on Tuesday afternoons at 1.30 p.m. The Super League Show is also available for one week after broadcast for streaming or download via the BBC iPlayer in the UK only. End of season play-offs are shown on BBC Two across the whole country in a weekly highlights package on Sunday afternoons.
Internationally, Super League is shown live or delayed on Showtime Sports (Middle East), Sky Sport (New Zealand), TV 2 Sport (Norway), Fox Soccer Plus (United States), Fox Sports (Australia) and Sportsnet World (Canada).
BBC Coverage:
Commercial Radio Coverage:
All Super League commentaries on any station are available via the particular stations on-line streaming.