The risks and coverage needs of pickleball, America’s fastest growing sport
Discover the insurance needs for facilities and organizations hosting the country’s new favorite pastime.
A mix between tennis, ping pong and badminton that has been around since the 1960s, pickleball has seemingly entered its platinum era as Americans have flocked to the sport in droves in recent years.
A report from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) and Pickleheads found more than 36 million Americans play pickleball and the sport has seen participation grow more than 150% during the past three years.
Pickleball’s rise in popularity has been accompanied by growth in the number of facilities offering the activity. Across the country, there are some 10,720 pickleball facilities and an average of nearly 130 courts opened each month during 2022, according to USA Pickleball, the national governing body for the sport.
According to Nate Walker, senior vice president of Special Market Insurance Consultants, an Amwins Group company, some health club facilities are even replacing basketball courts with pickleball courts.
Importance of participant accident coverage
When it comes to coverages, Walker says these facilities, as well as places hosting tournaments or other pickleball-related events, should have the standard suite of policies, including property, commercial general liability and casualty. On top of these policies, he says participant accident coverage is critical for spaces offering pickleball.
“Accident is a little different than general liability in the fact that there doesn’t need to be any negligence in place. It will cover in the event of an injury to a participant taking part in the activity,” Walker says.
He notes that accident policies are often excess and treated as secondary coverage to any existing health insurance the injured player has. If a participant doesn’t have health coverage, it can act as the primary coverage for the injury.
“The number one thing is that it helps protect the insured for any out-of-pocket payments by the claimant,” he says.
The second important component of an accident policy is its ability to protect the liability exposure a policyholder might have.
“Say for instance someone is injured, but does not have any out-of-pocket expenses for that injury, then the chances of litigation are minimized greatly, right/? They’re not completely eliminated, they’re just minimized,” Walker says, continuing: “So these policies are designed to help protect the liability exposure itself.”
More players, more claims
Walker says that as pickleball has increased in popularity, so have claims stemming from the sport. However, it isn’t because pickleball is inherently more risky than other recreational activities, but rather due to the average age of the sport’s participants.
“Predominately it is a sport that is played by seniors. So it is older folks, who are more susceptible to injury,” Walker says.
Confirming this, the SFIA reported most pickleball players were 55 years and older, making up 19.8% of participants in 2021. The organization did note that as the sport’s popularity has grown, the average age of the participants has come down.
In addition to this, pickleball is a game of somewhat explosive moves, Walker says.
“You have a lot of volleys back and forth, and someone may dink and send the ball close to the net. That forces the player to make an explosive move to get to the ball and return it,” Walker says. “What you are seeing is a lot of injuries because of that explosive move. When dealing with older players, we’re seeing predominately injuries to the Achilles, knees and shoulders. It’s not a higher-risk sport, it’s just the type of movements and the age of the participants.”
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