Basics of Sports Insurance

One of the biggest fears for athletes is that injury generally causes not only mental but also financial difficulties, which include the costs of surgery, inability to work, and rehabilitation. The purpose of sports insurance is to assist players who are at high risk due to regular training and matches in these difficult situations.

Sports insurance is more widespread abroad, naturally depending on the sport. Many insurers specialise in this area, and larger insurers even have insurance products specifically designed for athletes. Unions and associations are also more open to protecting their own and their athletes' finances, often making insurance inseparable from the contract.

In Hungary, there are also organisational sports insurances, such as the group accident insurance of the Hungarian Handball Federation or the Hungarian Football Federation. These insurances are contracted for a minimal amount per player annually, so compensation fees are also very low.

Why is sports insurance necessary?

The answer is clear to us, but unfortunately, domestic sports organisations and insurance institutions have not yet caught up with foreign practices and regulations. The reason for the development of sports insurance is the simple fact that, compared to average people, athletes bear a higher risk in terms of accidents, which, especially in competitive sports, presents a significant financial burden for both the athlete and the sports organisation.

This burden is worsened by the fact that athletes lose their primary work tool with an injury, thus the threat of extended inability to work is even greater. The risk of sports injuries is particularly high in contact sports (e.g., football, handball, basketball, ice hockey, etc.), where unpredictable contact with another player poses an additional threat. This is supported by statistics, which show that while volleyball players get injured in every 100th match, handball players get injured in every 10th match.

Out of the few Hungarian language studies on sports insurance, the publication by Barbara Gyökös and Éva Bácsné Bába deals with the economic aspects of sports injuries. According to this, although clubs and athletes put more emphasis on injury prevention, the majority of costs are accounted for by injury recovery, i.e., rehabilitation.

The financial risk of sports injuries, unfortunately, mostly burdens the players, as it is common at the amateur level and also occurs at the professional level, and the association does not take over the rehabilitation and surgical costs. Based on the research by Gyökös and Bácsné Bába, it was found that more than 70% of athletes finance their own recovery. For the athletes filling out their questionnaires, this means an average annual rehabilitation cost of around 165,000 HUF. (Since 2020, these amounts are likely much higher.)

The state of the Hungarian healthcare system also supports sports insurance. If an athlete wants to receive quality and fast care, due to long hospital waiting lists, they often have to turn to private care, which involves huge costs.

Another argument for sports insurance is that for every popular sport, there is an option to get insurance. Whether you are a lover of football, handball, basketball, water polo, or other sports, you have the opportunity for protection. Exclusions generally include extreme sports and motor-driven sports.

What can you claim compensation for?

Let's get straight to the point, as for our athlete clients, four compensation items are the most important: surgical compensation, bone fracture compensation, hospital daily care fee, and sick pay compensation. In this chapter, we present these items.

Surgical Compensation:

Let’s start with the most important, yet unfortunately the most complex component of sports insurance, surgical compensations. In short, you will receive the surgical compensation amount if you require surgical treatment for any reason. Surgeries are divided into four categories based on severity: minor, moderate, major, and critical surgery. The classification of surgeries is based on the WHO code found on the medical record. Accordingly, we pay out 20 (minor), 40 (moderate), 60 (major), and 100 (critical) percent of the amount recorded for surgical compensation.

There are two types of surgical compensation, which we usually recommend distributing in equal parts among the insurance amount. One type is accident surgical compensation, which naturally applies when surgical treatment is required due to an accident, within two years.

The other type of surgical compensation pays for any medically necessary surgery, not just those arising from accidents. We recommend this because, as an athlete, you may need surgical treatment for reasons other than accidents, plus there are long-term non-accidental injuries that require intervention (e.g., herniated disc).

Bone Fracture:

Perhaps the simplest item: the full compensation amount is paid out for any accident-induced bone fracture or bone crack. We inform you about possible exclusions during the consultation (e.g., tooth fracture, tooth crack). In certain special cases, where there is a severe bone fracture, 200% of the amount may be paid.

Hospital Daily Care Fee:

This item pays if you require hospital care for medical reasons within two years due to an accident. The compensation starts from the moment of admission to the hospital; no 24-hour stay is required. (In case of intensive care, the daily fee is doubled.)

• Minimum amount: 1,000 HUF/day

• Maximum amount: 50,000 HUF/day

Sick Pay Supplement:

Sick pay, i.e., the state of being unable to work, can also be a financial burden for athletes. The daily supplement accompanying sports insurance helps with this. Compensation can be claimed for sick pay resulting from an accident lasting longer than 14 days and is claimable for a maximum of 150 days. Thus, in the case of an injury that requires a long recovery (e.g., anterior cruciate ligament rupture), you can receive a daily supplement for almost the entire recovery period.

• Minimum amount: 1,000 HUF/day

• Maximum amount: 15,000 HUF/day

CT and MR Services:

In assessing sports injuries, a medical imaging examination is often essential for diagnosis. For this reason, you can choose to include this in your sports insurance, considering you probably want to go to private care for faster and better care. In this case, we organise the examination within 10 days and reimburse up to 340,000 HUF of its cost.

Since sports insurance is a kind of life insurance, besides the above events, we can also help you out of difficult situations in many other scenarios.

Youth Sports Insurance

Sports insurance is very important even at a young age, as a talented young person with serious goals trains almost as much as their adult counterparts. Moreover, early developers are generally exposed to greater match loading, as they perform in multiple age groups.

Unfortunately, at this age, not much attention is paid to prevention, and young athletes are also more vulnerable to injuries in many aspects. At this age, it's particularly important for a talent to spend as little time off the field due to an injury as possible, but a quick recovery is usually costly.

For this reason, BiztoSport also has sports insurance solutions for youth athletes. You can choose from three solutions. The two cost-effective packages of BiztoSport KID provide adequate basic protection even with a small monthly fee. For more serious sports goals, we recommend our traditional sports insurance, which is available from as low as 7,000 HUF per month. In addition to being fully customisable and functioning as traditional life insurance, it pays much higher compensation for sports injuries.

Sports Insurance with Savings

At BiztoSport, you also have the opportunity to attach savings to your sports insurance, to help athletes start their post-career life alongside full protection. Additionally, it can help in achieving numerous other goals, such as child-rearing or home purchasing.

Your savings are managed by the multi-award-winning VIG Fund Manager, who regularly overperforms their promises. Similar to insurance, the investment is fully customisable, with ten funds to choose from, which you can mix in any proportion you like. This allows you to create a uniquely risky portfolio. Usually, our clients do not take advantage of this opportunity; our advisors advise placing their savings in a moderately risky fund, working with an average annual yield of 6.5%.

If you would like your savings to generate earnings on more money, you also have the opportunity to make an extraordinary fee payment with a minimum of 50,000 HUF. This is an excellent opportunity for those who would like to ensure their current savings in addition to their monthly payments.

Insurance Example

Let's look at an example of sports insurance compensation:

A young, 24-year-old professional athlete took out sports insurance with a monthly fee of 30,000 HUF after considering the risk of injury. For such an amount, they can expect full, professional protection. During one match, they felt sharp pain during a direction change, after which they couldn’t continue playing. After the match, an MR examination confirmed that their anterior cruciate ligament was torn and would require surgery. This is one of the most feared injuries among athletes, as it requires a long break and precise rehabilitation.

In their sports insurance, there was 6,000,000 HUF surgical compensation, out of which, according to the regulations, they are entitled to 40% for a typical cruciate ligament replacement surgery. The insured thus received 2,400,000 HUF compensation after the surgery.

They stayed in the hospital for 3 days, and because their insurance included a 30,000 HUF/day hospital care compensation, they received 90,000 HUF. Due to the long recovery time, they spent a long time on sick pay, receiving 15,000 HUF support per day. The time off was so long that it reached the maximum supportable 150 days, so they received a total of 2,250,000 HUF. The sports insurance also included MR and CT services, the cost of which was 92,000 HUF.

If we sum everything up, the athlete received a total of 4,832,000 HUF in compensation after the injury.

If you would like to see examples of insurance packages, visit our Sports Insurance page.

How can I take out sports insurance?

If you want to take out sports insurance, look for the consultation buttons on our website to start the process. After requesting a consultation, we will inform you by email on how to indicate when you are available for a meeting.

During the meeting, we refer to an informal conversation where we present the details of the sports insurance and the contracting process. Then we assess your needs, based on which we estimate the amount you need for each compensation item. We perform the calculation in the insurer's online calculator system, where we can completely customise the amounts according to the client's needs.

If you decide to accept the offer, all you have to do is pay the first two monthly fees, and your protection will immediately come into effect.

Sources

• Barbara Gyökös. - Dr. Éva Bácsné Dr. Bába. (2020). Economic examination of prevention and rehabilitation, specifically in handball. Economic Science Publications VIII. Year 2nd issue 2020. University of Debrecen

• Bahr, R. – Engebrsten, L. (2009). Sports Injury Prevention, International Olympic Committee.