Zurich and Players Health Form Injury Insurance for NIL Era of College Sports

Zurich North America and Players Health, a provider of athlete safety and insurance solutions, have teamed up to introduce a critical injury protection insurance solution for colleges, universities, collectives and their student athletes who receive name, image and likeness (NIL) payments.

The first-of-its-kind insurance product protects institutions’ financial investments in top student-athletes in the event the athlete suffers a season-disrupting injury.

The critical injury protection insurance policy provides cover to the college or collective for NIL contract payments made or owed to an athlete who suffers an injury in official play, practice or training that causes them to miss a significant portion of the season (typically 40% or more).

As the NIL space continues to evolve rapidly, the surplus-lines coverage is customizable and tailored to the value of NIL contracts. Another iteration of the offering can provide coverage to athletes for potential loss of future NIL-related income due to injury.

The policy, underwritten by Zurich, is distributed exclusively through Players Health, which also makes it available through a recently announced integration with Teamworks, the Operating System for Sports. Teamworks provides college athletics software used by most Division I athletic departments and more than 6,500 elite sports teams globally.

Beyond insurance, the Zurich-Players Health collaboration offers injury and sports risk insights drawn from Players Health’s database, one of the largest of its kind.

The Minneapolis-based company was founded over a decade ago by a former college football player to support and enhance athlete safety.

Photo: (AP Photo/Tom Hauck)

Topics Education Universities