You’ve probably noticed by now that, for a motor insurer, we spend a surprising amount of time on our blog talking about sport.
It isn’t just that we’re all massive sports fans giddy from another incredible sporting summer. It’s because we’ve always specialised in underwriting complex motoring risks and supporting individuals who are overlooked and ignored by mainstream insurers, and nowhere is this issue more prevalent than in the world of sports and entertainment.
Last month we were proud to be celebrating the third anniversary of the launch of our Sports & Entertainment product. To mark the occasion, we’re embarking on our biggest ever push into the sports industry and we’re actively seeking more brokers to join us on this journey.
The story to date
In 2016 we began to hear horror stories from some of our brokers about professional footballers that, despite their on-field achievements, were finding it impossible to get a good deal on their motor insurance.
We saw that underwriting policies for these professionals needed to be a more bespoke exercise. And so, we created our own Sports & Entertainment product, assigning skilled underwriters to support our brokers by taking the time to fully understand their professional clients’ individual risk profiles – for example, the nature of their role, their public profile, how their vehicle is being used and where it is being stored.
Having started out in football, today our specialist motor insurance product covers a diverse range of Sports professionals from Jockeys and Golfers to Sports Pundits, Trainers and Personalities. We’ve moved into cricket, rugby, racing, boxing, darts, athletics and much more besides. We cover both high-profile athletes as well as the myriad behind-the-scenes staff – such as coaches, team medics, player liaison officers – that enable the industry to keep on thriving. We’ve even entered the world of eSports, providing cover for the new breed of professional gamers at the intersection of sports and entertainment.
The opportunity today
As our risk appetite has grown, so too has the scope of our offering. We’ve expanded our team of experts across Prestige, giving our brokers accessible specialists at every touch point across underwriting, renewals and claims. This includes a dedicated new Prestige Claims team, allowing our expert handlers to go that extra mile in solving each claim.
All of our policies are manually underwritten, allowing us to offer the right type of cover for each role/profession at the right price, while we pride ourselves on our ability to understand the client needs of our brokers and the broader trends that impact their decision-making, for example:
- The need for footballers to get cover renewed before the transfer window closes;
- The spike in interest from cricketers after new contracts are awarded;
- The requirement for sports stars to be insured on vehicles other than their own;
- The desire for policies to include professionals’ personal effects;
- The need to provide appropriate Prestige courtesy cars
We also know how time-poor these high-profile clients are, so we offer a 24hour turnaround on new quotes as standard.
And, while there are always annual spikes in interest – such as the launch of new registration plates in March and September – we’re also encouraging our brokers to think long-term. Sports clients are forever travelling around the UK or beyond; their schedules are often jam-packed. Once they have an effective partnership in place, they rarely switch.
Opportunities in sports are manifest, which is why our risk appetite keeps on growing. More and more female sportspeople gaining professional contracts, while prize money across other sports such as darts, snooker and golf continues to grow. It may be three years since we launched our sporting product, but it feels like this is only the beginning…
