BMABA Events Insurance

If you hold active instructor insurance through BMABA, event public liability cover is included within your membership at no additional per-event charge. There is no application form to post, no waiting for a certificate, and no per-event invoice. For in-house events where all participants are current BMABA members, this cover activates through the Event Manager compliance checklist process described below.

This represents a significant change from how event cover has historically worked across the sector, where clubs were routinely charged per event depending on contact level and liability limit required. That cost is removed for qualifying BMABA members running in-house events.

It is important to understand from the outset that two distinct categories of event exist under the policy: BMABA Events, which are in-house events where all participants are BMABA members, and BMABA Affiliated Club Events, where non-members are also taking part. The cover, conditions, and costs differ between these two categories and are explained in full below.

All event planning, licensing, compliance, and management is handled through the BMABA Event Ready Hub, available at mybmaba.org.uk/event-hub.

The Event Centre provides guides, best practice frameworks, governance documents, and resources to help you plan and run events to the standard the insurer requires and that participants deserve. If you are new

The Event Manager, found at mybmaba.org.uk/event-hub/event-manager/, is where your event is built and managed. From here you can work through the following:

Financial modelling to understand your income, costs, and breakeven point before you commit to a venue or date. File storage and sharing for rulebooks, risk assessments, fighter records, medical declarations, and any other documentation your event requires. Collaboration tools so co-organisers, referees, corner crews, and venue contacts can all access what they need in one place. Participant and fighter management so you can record competitor details, experience levels, and qualifications as required by the insurer. The compliance checklist, which is the gateway to confirming that your event meets all insurer conditions and activating your event licence.

Working through the compliance checklist is not a bureaucratic exercise. Every item on it corresponds to a genuine condition of cover set by the underwriter. Completing it properly is how you confirm that cover will respond if something goes wrong.

Event public liability insurance is designed to indemnify you in respect of legal liability to pay compensation to third parties for injury or damage to property arising out of the organisation of your event as a result of a negligent act by you as the insured.

In plain terms, it covers you if a third party is injured or their property is damaged as a result of something going wrong at your event that you were responsible for. Common examples would be a spectator tripping on a mat due to inadequate lighting and sustaining an injury, or a venue claiming against you for damage to a floor caused by a ring or piece of equipment.

This is third party public liability cover. It is not personal accident cover for competitors. That distinction matters significantly and is explained in detail further below.

Where all participants at your event are current BMABA members, the policy extends to cover the event as part of your existing membership. Non-members who wish to participate can be made temporary members for the event on a public liability only basis, with no personal accident cover, and declared to the insurer on your monthly declaration at the applicable rate.

All event conditions listed below apply.

Where non-members are taking part, the liability policy only extends to the event provided all of the following are satisfied:

Non-member participants must be charged the applicable rate to make them a temporary member for the event on a public liability only basis, with no personal accident cover. The minimum premium for this is £25 plus Insurance Premium Tax regardless of the number of non-member participants. Where the per-head cost across all non-members exceeds this minimum, the higher figure applies.

All event conditions listed below apply in full.

The following conditions apply to all events under both categories. These are conditions precedent to the liability of the underwriter, meaning that if they are not met, the insurer may have no liability under the policy in the event of a claim. Non-compliance does not automatically void the policy, but you would need to demonstrate that the non-compliance could not have increased the risk of the loss which actually occurred. In practice, it is far safer to meet every condition than to rely on that defence.

The following are explicitly excluded from event cover. These exclusions are set by the underwriter and cannot be varied or waived.

This exclusion is one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of event cover and is worth understanding clearly.

Participant to participant liability is the liability of one participant toward another arising from a contact situation within the event. If a competitor injures an opponent during a bout, sparring session, or other contact situation, and the injured party brings a claim against the participant who caused the injury, that claim is not covered under this policy. This applies regardless of how the injury occurred within the contact situation.

This is not a BMABA limitation. It is standard across event public liability insurance in combat sports and reflects the nature of the activity.

Member to member liability is a separate and distinct concept. This covers situations where one BMABA member causes injury or damage to another BMABA member outside of a contact situation. A member accidentally closing a door on another member's fingers in the changing room is the clearest example. Member to member liability of this kind is covered. Participant to participant liability within a contact situation is not.

It is also worth noting that whilst participant to participant liability is excluded, an injured competitor still has the opportunity to bring a claim against the club or instructor if they can demonstrate that the injury arose from a negligent act by the club or instructor rather than from the contact situation itself. That type of claim would fall under the public liability section of the policy and may be covered depending on the circumstances.

No. This is a public liability policy. It covers third party claims arising from your negligence as the event organiser. It does not provide personal accident cover for competitors who are injured during bouts.

This is not a gap in BMABA's cover. It is the fundamental nature of public liability insurance. No event PL policy, regardless of who provides it, covers a competitor's personal injury arising from competing.

If you are looking for personal accident cover for competitors, that is a separate and considerably more expensive product. Given the inherent likelihood of injury in full contact competition, premiums for this type of cover reflect the risk accordingly. Contact us and we can refer you to our broker for a quote.

For a fuller explanation of why the distinction between PL and personal accident cover matters in the context of students attending third party events, see our dedicated article: Does My Student Insurance Cover Students For Events?

Whilst the event PL policy does not cover personal accident, BMABA does offer personal accident cover as an optional add-on to both instructor and student memberships. This is separate from event cover and applies on the basis of the individual member's registration, not on a per-event basis.

The PA schedule under the current policy includes accidental death up to £25,000, loss of limb or sight up to £25,000, permanent total disablement up to £25,000, temporary total disablement at £100 per week for in full-time employment or £50 per week otherwise, for up to 54 weeks excluding the first two weeks. Additional benefits include hospital cash of £25 per day for up to 14 days subject to a two day franchise, broken bones benefit of £100 for arm, leg, cheekbone, or collar bone up to a maximum of £300 per person, and physiotherapy up to 10 sessions with a maximum benefit of £350 per person.

Cover applies whilst the insured person is on official martial arts association duties and taking part in authorised training, competitions, and demonstrations. Pre-existing conditions are excluded. There is no cover for anyone who has reached their 70th birthday at the commencement of the period of insurance. For children under 16, the death benefit is limited to £10,000 and weekly benefits do not apply.

The aggregate limit across all insured persons suffering injury in the same incident is £100,000. Where a single incident gives rise to claims that would collectively exceed this figure, each individual's benefit is proportionately reduced.

Full details of the PA schedule and how to add it to your membership are available in the Personal Accident Cover Overview article in the handbook.

These two limits are separate and both apply as hard conditions of cover.

Both limits must be observed. An event with 200 participants and 600 spectators would breach the spectator limit. An event with 501 spectators and 100 participants would equally breach it. If you are planning an event that is likely to approach either limit, contact us before proceeding so we can discuss your options with the underwriter in advance.

Once you have built your event in the Event Manager and worked through every item on the compliance checklist, your event licence becomes available to download directly from the platform. This confirms that the event has been assessed, all conditions have been acknowledged, and cover is in place for the event as planned.

Do not leave this process until the week of the event. Several conditions, including the paramedic booking, hospital notification, risk assessments, and referee verification, require time to arrange properly. The Event Manager is designed to support you in planning ahead rather than checking boxes at the last minute.

If you are uncertain about any specific requirement, or if your event has unusual characteristics that may affect how the policy applies, contact us before you proceed. We would always rather help you get it right in advance.

Head to the Event Hub to get started;