Getting out in the sun and playing soccer or softball in the summer or hitting the ice in an amateur league in winter, these are rites of passage for most Canadian youngsters – and a throwback escape from the daily grind for many working individuals.
As soon as the cleats hit the turf and the skates hit the ice, though, the leagues need insurance to keep themselves and their participants safe. That’s where companies like K&K Insurance come in.
And the most played sport it’s insuring isn’t those most stereotypically Canadian sports – it’s soccer.
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Joan Warren-Phenix, underwriting director at K&K Insurance Canada, said soccer continues to be the most overwhelmingly popular social and amateur sport across the country.
“What I think we’re actually seeing more of, believe it or not, is soccer,” she said. “And that’s for 12 months of the year. And I would say, what we’re seeing now, is a good 70-75% are under the age of 18 in these leagues and associations that we insure.”
The company insures leagues for amateurs nationwide. The bulk of the claims seen in this space are injury-related, Warren-Phenix said.
“That’s why, when we offer a liability package, we offer leagues and associations … accident coverage, so that if anybody claims they’ll have excess medical coverage available to them for things that the provincial medical plans don’t pay for,” she explained.
Kevin Dannemann, vice president and general manager, said that’s the differentiator in the market.
“That would be the difference between us and the general market,” he noted. “In the general space that’s not usually a coverage they have available. So you’re really not getting the true sports exposure if you’re not offering that.”
Back to Canada’s pastime, though, and there is one unique risk exposure in hockey that isn’t so evident in other sports.
“Your fans in hockey are much closer to the actual play,” Warren-Phenix said. “And, depending on the arena, some of the arenas don’t have the protection … or the ability [for the fans] to move away from the playing field quickly.
“Whereas in baseball, or soccer, or softball, you can actually pull yourself away relatively quickly if you see a ball coming towards you if you have to – hockey, you don’t have that same reaction time.”
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