It was more than just Habs’ fans who were mourning the departure of Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender Carey Price from the New York Rangers series – it was those who had chosen Canada’s star goalie in their playoff pools.
But a simple purchase of some fantasy sports pool insurance would have guaranteed that investment could have been recouped.
Henry Olszewsky, the vice-president of Intermarket Insurance who runs FantasySportsInsurance.com, estimates his company has insured well over 2,000 policies for fantasy sports investments, with the majority of policies covering investments between $300 and $500.
The fantasy sports industry is valued at approximately $1.2 billion, according to IBISWorld, a market research firm, with more than 270 businesses collecting money from fantasy dream teams managed by armchair experts.
And for Canadian armchair athletes, the NHL playoffs are prime pool season.
“Fantasy pools are big business these days,” Olszewsky told InsuranceBusiness.ca. “There are some pools valued at $10,000 or $20,000 out there.”
A perennial fan favourite, Canadiens’ fans were looking forward to moving on to the Stanley Cup finals – that was before Game 1 of the Eastern Final against the New York Rangers, when Price was pulled from the game following a goal-mouth collision with Rangers’ forward Chris Kreider, and declared to be unavailable for the remainder of the series. (continued.)
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“We came up with the idea when Tom Brady got injured in 2008,” says Olszewsky, who says that many fantasy pool owners drafted Brady high that year following his numerous SuperBowl visits and through-the-roof passing statistics – only to see their sizeable investments to enter their respective fantasy leagues disappear as their chances of winning dwindled to almost zero. “There are some people who are in pools for $50 or $60, but we’ve paid out claims for as much as $1,500.”
For a fee of 10 per cent of the costs of entering a league, FantasySportsInsurance.com insures a roster’s top player(s). However, injured players or those with a high risk of getting injured aren’t available for insurance.
Now down two games to one in the series following their first win last night, the Canadiens have revived hopes that they will win three more games and advance to the final.
