Sports Insurance

Sports Insurance NI

If you're a personal trainer, a fitness instructor or a sports coach you're probably aware of the value of a good sports insurance policy - it can help protect you from the financial impact of a public liability claim or professional indemnity claim if you're sued by a client or member of the public, and in some cases can also help with medical bills and loss of earnings if an injury means you're unable to work.

However, individual players can benefit from the right sports insurance policy as well, even if they sport and fitness isn't their profession. Sports player can get help with medical bills or lost earnings if they have the right sports insurance in place, and many policies will also offer public liability cover if they injure another player during a game.

Is sports insurance expensive?

Most sports insurance policies are relatively inexpensive, but the exact price you pay will depend on the policy features and add-ons you include with your policy.

For instance, some personal trainers and instructors might own a lot of expensive equipment and therefore decide to add a lot of sports equipment cover to their policy, while others may decide to forgo this add-on because their classes or training sessions don't involve much equipment.

Since sports insurance policies can be tailored to the policyholder's specific requirements in this way it's difficult to predict how much any particular trainer, instructor or player is likely to be quoted ahead of time. The best plan is to click through to one of the insurance providers above and tweak the policy features to meet your own requirements, and then see how much you're quoted for that sports insurance policy.

Is it true personal trainers have to take out sports insurance?

Not exactly.

Sports insurance isn't a legal requirement in the UK, so whether you're a PT, a dance instructor, a fitness instructor or a football coach you aren't legally obliged to take out this type of policy.

However, if your run your classes or training sessions at a local gym or fitness centre then you may well have a contractual obligation to take out sports insurance.

Gyms, sports halls and fitness centres that allow sports & fitness professionals to use their facilities for business purposes often insist that the PT or instructor has a suitable sports insurance policy in place, in which case you'd be breaching your contract if you didn't have this.

Does sports insurance sports equipment?

Yes, many sports insurance policies will include some level of coverage for your sports equipment, although exactly how much cover this gives you will vary from one provider to the next.

Of course, if you do decide to go with a sports insurance provider that doesn't offer sports equipment cover as standard you should be able to add this to your policy relatively easily, although in this case there might be a small additional fee to do so.