Sportscover Press Release 25 Sep – Protecting the Sports and Leisure sector against Cyber Attack

Leading sports and leisure insurance underwriter, Sportscover Australia, in conjunction with global insurance specialist, Beazley are working to address the growing threat of cyber-attacks in Australia by introducing a new Cyber Breach Response (CBR) insurance product.

In the 2023 financial year, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) received approximately 94,000 cybercrime reports, up from 76,000 the previous year. Additionally, the Australian government revealed the average cost of cybercrime per report rose by 14 per cent from 2021-22, to $71,600 for large businesses, $97,200 for mid-size businesses and $46,000 for small businesses.

These alarming figures clearly demonstrate that Australia is not isolated from the risks and impact of cyber-crime, which does not discriminate how, when and who it affects. It is for this reason that Sportscover have partnered with Beazley with the aim of protecting Australian sports and leisure businesses, clubs and bodies.

Chris Nash, Managing Director of Sportscover Australia explained that this was the natural next step for the insurance provider to take.

“Regardless of where we operate from, we live in a digital world and there is no escaping it. Australia’s sporting and leisure sector is no different than any other when it comes to the dangers posed by cyber-crime, which are unfortunately now an everyday risk faced by organisations globally. CBR is designed as a complete solution for data protection and security risk management to address these challenges head on”, he said.

Already established as a leading underwriter of Personal Accident, Contingency, Liability, Travel and Legal Expense products, Sportscover’s reputation of being an innovative market leader has continued for over 35 years.

Mr Nash says, “We need to be at the forefront of protecting Australia’s sports and leisure sectors. We anticipate CBR to “change the game” for all sports clubs and leisure businesses who are at risk of their personal data being compromised, not only to protect them financially, but also from the legal, and reputational damage that comes with any type of data breach, which can be significant. We believe this type of protection is something that all sports and leisure sector businesses should strongly consider”.

Sportscover’s Cyber Breach Response product will be available from Monday 9 September 2024.

Australian owned Sportscover is one of the world’s leading sports and leisure insurance services groups with offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Using a worldwide broker network, Sportscover provides specialist insurances for sport and leisure.