Players Health, the Woj-Touted Insurance Firm, Feels Growing Pains

Daniel Libit

Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 5:00 AM 6 min read

Players Health, the sports-focused insurance broker and software-as-a-service company, added another plume to its cap last week, announcing that Adrian Wojnarowski—the former ESPN NBA insider turned St. Bonaventure basketball GM—had joined as a brand ambassador.

According to reports, the Woj tie-in is part of a broader insurance partnership between Players Health and the Bonnies program. The move comes just four months after the company closed a $60 million funding round, which brought its total investment into the nine figures.

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In December, founder and CEO Tyrre Burks told Sportico the company had sold $80 million in premiums across 15,000 policies in 2024 alone, covering more than 5 million athletes.

A former college football player at Winona State in Minnesota, Burks has framed Players Health’s growth as a personal mission to “create the safest and most accessible environments for athletes to play the sports they love”—the company’s official tagline.

Since launching in 2015, Players Health has built its foundation in the amateur sports market, securing partnerships with US Youth Soccer, USA Cheer and USA Boxing.

In March 2024, Players Health announced a $28 million funding round led by Mastry Ventures—co-founded by former NBA star Andre Iguodala—and global specialty insurer SiriusPoint.

Around the same time, the company commenced an aggressive play for the college sports insurance market, introducing a novel contract protection product for NIL collectives while also trying to get into the critical injury coverage niche.

As Sportico previously reported, this space has long been defined by volatility and controversy, with a boom-and-bust cycle in loss-of-value coverage and a trail of legal battles over disputed policies.

Entering the scene, Players Health has asserted itself as a trustworthy alternative in a market plagued by broken promises and unmet expectations.

“What sets Players Health apart is that they are an insurance technology company built by athletes, for athletes,” said a company spokesperson.

Even before enlisting Wojnarowski, Burks had garnered glowing media recognition. In 2022, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal named him one of the Twin Cities’ “Most Admired CEOs,” and Silver Waves Media included him among the “70 Most Impactful People in the NIL Space.”

Despite these accolades, Players Health advance has come with some yellow flags: