What Are the Main Risks for a Private Sports Academy?

TL;DR: The main risks for a private sports academy are participant injury to children, claims about coaching advice, gaps around casual and contract coaches, heightened duty of care to minors, and exposures at hired or school venues. Most are manageable once identified and disclosed, but they surface as claims when they are not.

This article is part of our guide to Insurance for Private Sports Academies in Australia, within sport clubs and associations cover.

General advice warning: This article contains general information only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not personal advice. Consider how appropriate the information is to your own circumstances, and refer to the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), policy wording, Target Market Determination (TMD) and the Gow-Gates Financial Services Guide (FSG) before acting. See Gow-Gates compliance & governance.

What are the main risks for a private sports academy?

The main risks for a private sports academy are participant injury to children, coaching-advice claims, workforce and contractor gaps, heightened duty of care to minors, and venue exposures. Each is a distinct exposure, and each behaves differently depending on whether the academy has disclosed its real activities to its insurer.

These risks are interconnected. An injury during a session can raise questions about supervision, coaching advice and whether the coach involved was covered.

How significant is participant injury risk?

Participant injury is the most significant and most common risk for an academy, because sport involves physical contact, movement and the chance of harm. Often, the participants are children. This is the type of exposure that public liability and personal accident insurance is generally designed to respond to, provided the activity has been disclosed to the insurer.

The data bears this out. AIHW figures show around 19 percent of participants in sport or physical activity were injured in 2023–24, with soccer among the featured sports for injury. For an academy running multiple sessions a week across squads, camps and one-on-ones, that exposure recurs constantly, and each incident is a potential claim if the academy is alleged to have been negligent.

The standard of care is higher because the participants are minors. Families expect appropriate supervision, safe drills, qualified coaching and proper injury management, and a court would assess the academy against that expectation. Good coaching practice reduces the frequency of claims; public liability cover, correctly disclosed, responds when one is made.

Why is coaching advice a separate risk?

Coaching advice is a separate risk because it can give rise to claims that public liability does not answer. If a family alleges that a training program, technique or return-to-play advice caused an injury, that is a professional indemnity matter.

This distinction is easy to miss. An academy focused on public liability may assume it is fully covered, then face a claim about the quality or safety of its programming that falls outside that policy. The more an academy advises, including individual development plans, position-specific programming and one-on-one coaching, the more this exposure grows.

Professional indemnity is the cover designed to respond, but what it covers depends on the wording and disclosed activities. The practical point is that an academy providing development and instruction, not just supervision, generally needs both public liability and professional indemnity working together. This is covered further in what insurance a youth academy needs.

What are the workforce and contractor risks?

The main workforce risk is that casual and contract coaches are usually independent contractors, so a claim arising from a contractor’s session may fall outside the academy’s public liability policy unless that activity has been disclosed and accepted. A second risk is the founder’s own income if they are injured and cannot work.

Worker classification drives the first. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, whether a coach is an employee or a genuine contractor is assessed on the whole working relationship under changes that took effect from 26 August 2024, and the Ombudsman cannot decide status for you. The common failure point is a mismatch. The coach assumes the academy covers them, the academy assumes the coach is separately insured, and a claim reveals neither is true.

The second is structural: a founder operating as a sole trader is not covered by workers’ compensation, so if they are injured and cannot run sessions, no employer scheme replaces that income. Personal accident or income protection cover fills that gap and is often the most overlooked cover for an owner-operated academy.

How do duty of care and child safety shape the risk?

Duty of care and child safety raise the standard an academy must meet and add legal obligations that insurance does not replace. Because academies coach minors, they must meet state or territory working-with-children requirements and are expected to apply the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations to screening, supervision, complaint handling and safe environments.

These obligations are governance, not insurance. The National Principles give effect to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and Sport Integrity Australia provides guidance on applying them to sport. Failing to meet them is both a compliance risk and a reputational one, quite apart from any insurance consequence.

The link to cover is practical. Insurers underwriting youth academies expect child-safe practices to be in place, and a management or association liability claim, for example, an allegation about conduct or supervision, is far more defensible where screening, training and complaint processes are documented. Strong child-safe governance reduces the risk and supports the cover; it does not substitute for it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the biggest insurance risk for a sports academy?

Participant injury is generally the biggest and most common risk, because sport carries a real chance of harm and academies coach children. It is the type of exposure public liability and personal accident insurance are generally designed to respond to, provided the activity is disclosed. Claims about coaching advice and gaps around contract coaches are the next most significant.

Does public liability cover everything a sports academy faces?

No. Public liability responds to third-party injury or property damage, but it does not answer claims about coaching advice, replace a founder’s income, or automatically cover contractors. Academies usually need professional indemnity and personal accident cover alongside public liability, matched to how they operate.

Are contract coaches a risk for an academy’s insurance?

Yes, if their activity is not disclosed. Contract coaches are typically independent contractors, so a claim from a contractor’s session may fall outside the academy’s policy unless disclosed and accepted by the insurer. Many academies manage this by requiring contractors to hold their own public liability and professional indemnity cover.

About the author

This article was prepared by the Sport & Equine practice at Gow-Gates Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd (ABN 12 000 837 785, AFSL 245432), an independently owned Australian insurance broking and risk advisory firm operating for more than 60 years. Gow-Gates advises sport, coaching, equine and recreation organisations on structuring insurance programs and advocating at claim time, and is a member of Steadfast, NIBA and AFCA.

Sources

1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). “Sports injury in Australia: participation and injury rates.” https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/sports-injury/sports-injury-in-australia/contents/sports-participation-and-injury-rates
2. Fair Work Ombudsman. “Independent contractors.” https://www.fairwork.gov.au/find-help-for/independent-contractors
3. National Office for Child Safety. “National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.” https://www.childsafety.gov.au/resources/national-principles-child-safe-organisations
4. Sport Integrity Australia. “Safeguarding sport.” https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au/what-we-do/safeguarding-sport
5. business.gov.au. “Types of business insurance.” https://business.gov.au/finance/insurance/types-of-business-insurance

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