Sports Tournaments and Fun Runs: How Event Insurance Protects Participants and Organizers

Color Runs, endurance challenges, and sports tournaments have become community favorites all around the world. However, what people often overlook are the significant liability risks associated with participants or spectators getting injured during the event. Who pays for the medical expenses? What if the venue gets trashed?

Event insurance comes in many forms and covers many risks. Let’s go over how event insurance can protect the participants and organizers of sports events.

Why Sports and Fitness Events Carry Unique Risks

High participant injury potential

Sports and fitness events involve physical activity and potentially arduous competitions. Injury potential includes sprains, dehydration, heatstroke, and venue-specific risks.

Use of public spaces adds liability layers

If your sports event uses public spaces, such as streets, lakes, or parks, it can add more layers of liability risks. If participants need to run on the street, for example, the neighborhoods need to be blocked off so cars can’t get in. But what if a car still does drive into a mass of spectators? Spectators can get hurt, resulting in the rest of the event being cancelled. The resulting losses may be insurmountable if you lack the right event insurance protection.

Public spaces can also get damaged and vandalized during your event. Any property or personal damages may result in lawsuits against the event organizer.

Volunteer and staff risks

Volunteers (and staff members) spend a significant amount of effort and time setting up the entire event. They can easily get injured. You will want some sort of volunteer accident insurance or specialized event insurance coverage to protect against volunteer injuries. Workers’ compensation generally does not cover volunteers.

After setup, during the event operations, volunteers and staff can also get injured or ill. Collisions with participants at high speeds can cause broken bones and TBIs.

Weather unpredictability for outdoor events

Outdoor events make for exciting sports tournaments and fun runs. However, the weather always has a chance to disagree. If there is a storm, blizzard, or other serious weather event, the event might need to be cancelled for safety reasons. Running or competing in bad weather can cause serious health issues, injuries, and even death.

Property damage

Fun runs and sports competitions require event organizers to rent venues or properties, such as fields, rental equipment, and timing systems. You may be liable to repair or replace any damage to these properties.

Types of Insurance Coverage Relevant to Sports Events

General liability insurance

General liability insurance can protect the event host from lawsuits for bodily injury and property damage. It is absolutely essential due to the significant risk of catastrophic financial damages if a spectator or player suffers from serious injuries because of your event.

Even if you ended up proving you were not negligent and are not liable for the medical expenses or property damage, you would still need to pay the attorney fees. General liability insurance would be able to cover your legal defense fees.

Participant accident insurance

If athletes, runners, or participants get injured, you will need special participant accident insurance. Participant accident coverage generally includes:

• Accident medical benefits
• Accidental death and dismemberment
• Disability benefits

Event cancellation insurance

Event cancellation covers losses if you need to cancel the event due to unforeseen disruptions. Common eligible event cancellation reasons include bad weather, venue closure, and postponements.

Liquor liability insurance

Liquor liability insurance may be sold as part of an event insurance policy, an add-on, or a separate policy. If alcohol is served at post-event celebrations, liquor liability insurance helps cover liability expenses that arise from potential incidents.

Workers’ compensation

Workers’ compensation covers expenses and losses that arise from injuries, illnesses, or death due to work. Workers’ compensation can cover staff and volunteers where applicable, but volunteers only qualify for workers’ comp under special circumstances.

Equipment coverage

Sports gear, uniforms, concession equipment, timing chips, and staging are pieces of equipment that can be expensive to replace or repair. If your event equipment gets damaged, sports event insurance may be able to cover the expenses. Equipment insurance typically covers damages as a result of theft, vandalism, fire, and lightning.

Prize indemnity insurance

Events that have special prizes or rewards, like a $20,000 cash prize if you make a hole-in-one contest, can be financially protected by prize indemnity insurance plans. It helps cover the prize amount if someone does succeed at the contest.

Crime insurance

Crime insurance may be necessary, especially for large events with many volunteers or employees. This type of policy would cover your financial losses as a result of employee/volunteer embezzlement, as well as outside theft. What happens if the donation jar for event participation gets stolen, for example?

How Event Insurance Protects Participants

Covers medical expenses beyond personal health insurance

Sports tournaments and fun runs can be dangerous for participants. Sports event insurance can cover medical expenses incurred by participants and spectators during the event. If your event has a misplaced sign in the middle of the road and a runner crashes into it, you would be in trouble if you don’t have sufficient liability insurance.

Ensures quick resolution of injury claims

If you don’t have event insurance that covers participant or spectator injuries, an injury lawsuit can take a long time to resolve. A good event insurance company can protect you from financial ruin while also resolving injury claims more quickly.

Provides peace of mind for athletes and hosts

Knowing an event is properly insured will boost the trust and comfort levels of both participants and event organizers. People will be more inclined to join events repeatedly if the event has good coverage.

How Event Insurance Protects Organizers

Shields against costly lawsuits from injured participants or spectators

If a participant or spectator gets injured, the ensuing lawsuit could cost millions of dollars, depending on the severity of the injury and the extent of negligence.

Sports event insurance helps cover liability claims of bodily injury and property damage. It can also cover legal defense fees.

Covers financial losses from cancellation or postponement

Sports events often get postponed or cancelled if there are unforeseen circumstances, such as:

• Poor weather conditions
• Power failures
• Health concerns
• Natural disasters
• Strikes or boycotts

Event cancellation insurance protects sports event organizers from needing to pay for the cancellation out of pocket. The insurance policy can cover financial losses due to the cancellation, non-refundable deposits, marketing expenses, and more depending on the policy terms.

Helps meet venue, municipality, or sponsor requirements

Hosting an event means you have to meet all of the various insurance requirements imposed by the city, the venue, and any sponsors. Insurance requirements can vary between municipalities, so check carefully to ensure you meet all requirements. Event insurance policies are typically written for $1 million per occurrence. You can obtain higher event liability insurance amounts based on the risks of your particular event.

Maintains reputation and credibility in the community

If an incident occurs at your event and you are reported to be unable to cover it or try to avoid paying for it, it could hurt your reputation in the community. This essentially destroys your ability to host successful or trusted events in the future, or at least for a significant time.

Prize indemnity insurance

Does your event offer expensive prizes? You may want to obtain prize indemnity insurance since it covers the cost of the prize if someone wins. Prize indemnity insurance is also known as Hole-in-One insurance. The event offers an attractive prize that is typically very hard to obtain, like hitting a hole in one or a full-court basketball shot.

Make sure that the contest’s guidelines are clear before the event. The prize can be expensive, like a new car or a fully paid vacation. The prize indemnity premium is usually 3% to 15% of the prize’s value, varying based on the prize value and odds of winning.

Common Scenarios Where Insurance Makes a Difference

Sports event insurance can help with a wide range of financial troubles. Here are situations where event insurance can help the event host cushion losses, both large scale and small.

• Runner collapses from heat exhaustion during a charity 5K run
• Storm forces cancellation of a soccer tournament mid-weekend
• Spectator injured by a stray ball at a baseball tournament
• Timing equipment damaged by unexpected rain

Practical Steps for Organizers

1. Assess the event risk

Every event has its own risks. Mapping out potential problems and losses before the event ensures you can choose a more suitable insurance policy and implement better safety measures.

2. Require participant waivers

Organizers for high-risk activities, like soccer tournaments and endurance competitions, should have their legal team prepare suitable waivers. Waivers are crucial because they:

• Inform participants about risks
• Reduce legal risk
• Meet regulatory requirements

However, make sure to understand the difference between waivers and insurance. A participant who signs a waiver can still sue you successfully if you are found responsible for injuries.

3. Verify venue and city permit insurance requirements

Event venues usually require you to show proof of insurance before they will allow you to host sports events.

Cities also have insurance and other requirements. Look up your municipality’s list of requirements before you can run an event.

4. Communicate clearly about safety protocols

Make sure that those in your event’s organization, from volunteers to staff members, know the safety protocols and emergency response plans. This includes details such as:

• Evacuation routes
• First-aid kit locations

5. Work with insurers who specialize in sports

Event insurance companies often work best for certain events. For example, an insurer best known for wedding insurance may not be as good for sports competitions. A sports event insurance company will be better prepared for claims that arise from active recreational events.

6. Review coverage annually

As an event becomes more popular, growth can be surprisingly challenging. The event may require larger venues, more staff members, and more insurance coverage. Event organizers should review their coverage needs every year to adjust for event growth (or shrinkage) so that they have suitable amounts and types of coverage.

The Bigger Picture: Building Trust

Hosting events involves the intangible: trust and reputation.

When it comes to brands and organizations, it is crucial to maintain trust with your partners and sponsors. This may mean getting the revenue, attendance, or views that you promised them. These are quantifiable.

Insurance brings a level of assurance that is crucial for large events. If an incident happens, you will be better able to deal with it.

Insurance helps events secure sponsors and partners

Sponsors, partners, and advertisers expect event organizers to carry enough event insurance. Otherwise, if there are liability issues or cancellations, the event organizers may be unable to deal with the ensuing lawsuits.

Having suitable sports event insurance increases trust and helps you build better relationships with sponsors and partners. It demonstrates professionalism and responsibility as you improve community engagement.

Protects long-term viability of recurring tournaments

Even if you host a single sports tournament or fun run without enough insurance, and nothing bad happens, that is great luck. However, it is extremely risky to host events in the long term without sufficient insurance coverage. Not buying all the insurance you need before starting the event is a critical mistake that a lot of event organizers make. In fact, more experienced organizers might start thinking they don’t need it just because no incidents have happened in a while. You should always carry all the right insurance.

Conclusion

Sports tournaments and fun runs are rewarding but come with significant risks. Event insurance helps protect both the participants and organizers, allowing everyone to focus on the fun and community spirit of the event.

Choose the best event insurance company today for maximum financial protection and peace of mind.