Sport is the most personal question in personal accident insurance: the same policy is perfect for one family and, for another – with a football team's worth of kids and a marathon-running dad – full of holes. Policy terms handle sport on three levels, and anyone who understands these three levels can buy the right cover.
- Hobby sport: typically part of the base cover – running, football, cycling, swimming.
- Sports classed as high-risk: a separate list, typically brought in with an add-on or extra premium – the list varies by product.
- Registered competitive sport: assessed separately – you must declare it, and in some cases a standalone sports policy is the right answer.
Level 1: hobby sport
Casual, leisure-time sport – running, football, cycling, swimming, hiking – is part of the base cover in most products, with nothing extra to do. The line starts where regularity and risk increase: between "one ski week a year" and "three training sessions a week", the policy terms may well draw a distinction too. The good news: you don't have to guess this yourself – when you sign up, we describe exactly what your family does, and the product is matched to it.
Level 2: the high-risk list
Every set of policy terms has a list of sports judged higher-risk – typically combat sports, motorsport, diving, mountaineering, paragliding and the like. The list varies by product: what's part of the base cover on one is an add-on on another, and excluded on a third. Two lessons follow: always check your own sport specifically in the policy terms (not by "common sense"), and a sport being on the list doesn't necessarily mean it's uninsurable – it can often be brought in with an add-on or extra premium, so there's no reason to panic.
Level 3: registered competitive sport
Sport practised with a competition licence, within a club structure, is assessed separately: some products handle it with an add-on, some exclude it – in which case a standalone sports policy, or cover through the sport's own governing system, may be the answer. Sporty children's situation deserves special attention – we write in detail about how a club's mandatory cover relates to your own policy in the article on sporty children.
Declaring it: this is what decides everything
The golden rule in sport-related matters isn't about the lists, it's about declaring it: tell us when you sign up about anything you do regularly – and report any change afterwards. Behind the "the insurer wouldn't pay out" sport stories, there's typically an undeclared activity. Once you've declared it accurately, you'll know exactly what to expect: your sport can typically be brought into cover with an add-on and extra premium – though some products exclude the sport outright, which is exactly why it's worth comparing several quotes.
Practical help
We've put together a sports-risk self-check: a set of questions that reveals which of your family's sports need to be declared when you sign up. And for the dilemmas of adult hobby and competitive sport, there's a separate life-situation article – from skiing to running races.
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