Looking for Sports Insurance?
If you work in the sports industry as a coach, in a team or even as a PT, you may want to think about taking out sports insurance.
Taking part in sports can be potentially dangerous, so you may want to consider protecting your livelihood in case of accident, theft or loss. Even though you may have a basic level of insurance through your club where you are part of a team, it may not offer you the level of protection you need. Some sports governing bodies and associations offer memberships schemes for sports insurance, but if your club hasn’t registered, you won’t be covered.
What kinds of sports insurance are there?
As there are so many different kinds of sport that have varying levels of risk, there’s no single policy that could offer blanket protection. Often you may need to build your own policy bundle which offers you the protection you think you’ll require. To do this you’ll need to think about:
Taking out personal accident insurance
If your job depends on your ability to undertake physical exercise, such as a sports coach or professional athlete, then you may want to take out personal accident insurance. This could help cover the cost of:
- Loss of earnings
- Treatment (such as consultants)
- Aftercare (like physical therapy)
Even if you’re not injured during training or taking part in sport, you can still make a claim to cover a loss of earnings, but do double check with your insurer that you’re covered.
Sports equipment insurance
Whether you use a bike, climbing equipment, surfboard or even running shoes, having your equipment damaged or stolen can be heartbreaking, and at a professional level it can be very expensive to replace. Sports equipment insurance can help to cover the cost of replacement or repair, even if it happened during travel or transit.
Public liability insurance
Even if you’re incredibly careful, there is a chance that you could injure a member of the public or damage their property during training. This could be anything from dropping a weight on a client’s phone during a PT session, to hitting a member of the public with your bike whilst training.
Public liability insurance can help you cover the cost of compensation, their loss of income and both sets of legal fees should they make a claim against you. This can all become very expensive and be a headache when all you want to do is concentrate on your sport or competing.
Sports Insurance – Useful FAQs
Usually you will need to take out a specialist winter sports insurance policy, particularly if you are traveling abroad. Speak to your insurer to see if you can add a policy extension.
If you’ve bought something like a new bike or snowboard that is much more expensive than your original, you’ll need to get in touch with your insurer in case they need to adjust your sports insurance policy.
As there is no one set policy for all, there’s no way to know how expensive it could be. Insurers will take into account things like the risk level of your sport, value of equipment and your professional level before deciding on how much cover you’ll need and the amount of your monthly premium.
Yes
Even if you’re not a professional athlete you may want to take out sports insurance. Enthusiasts can take years to build up the level of equipment to match their skill and it would be very upsetting to lose it to damage or theft.