Conference & Meetings World Issue 101 — July / August | Page 45
Sports insurance
Insurance allows a big event to take place, enabling
organisers, fans and sponsors to invest in its success
How to play it safe for the big event
AS A TOP 3 GLOBAL SPORTING EVENT FAST APPROACHES, HOWDEN’S ROB BARRON OFFERS
SOME THOUGHTS ON WHY THE RUGBY WORLD CUP 2019 WILL BE BUILT ON INSURANCE…
he Rugby World Cup in
Japan is being billed as the
world’s third biggest global
sporting event, but it isn’t
only sporting excellence which will
make it a success. As the likes of
England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and
the All Blacks go head-to-head between
20 September and 2 November in 2019,
the insurance industry will also play a
huge part in making sure the
tournament goes smoothly.
All eyes will be on how Japan copes
with hosting the tournament, not least
because Asia has never staged a rugby
union World Cup before. After all, it’s a
huge opportunity to grow the sport at
an event which is topped only by the
Olympics and the FIFA football World
Cup in terms of global reach.
For the event owners, Rugby World
Cup Ltd, it is vital that all potential risks
are covered and mitigated – whether
that’s injuries to players, freak weather
conditions or even postponement,
cancellation or abandonment of fixtures.
In fact, insurance plays a huge part in
allowing a tournament to even take
place and enabling organisers,
governing bodies, national unions, clubs,
sponsors and fans to invest in its
success.
As long ago as 2010, Lloyds of
London estimated that the total
insurance for FIFA’s 2010 World Cup in
South Africa amounted to as much as
£6.2bn (US$7.89bn) - £3.2bn for stadia
and training venues, and £3bn for
linked business opportunities. Those
figures did not include insurance
Rugby World
Cup 2015
Ticket sales:
£250m
(US$318m)
Total attendance:
100m
Global TV
audience for the
final: 120m
Global uses of
#RWC2015
online in the
tournament: 5m
Official app
downloads: 2.8m
across 204 nations
RWC 2019
Participating
teams: 20
Matches: 48
Venues: 12
Global sponsors:
Emirates,
Mastercard,
Heineken, Land
Rover, Société
Générale and
DHL
ISSUE 101
policies applying to individual players in
case of illness or injury.
There’s little doubt that the RWC
tournament in Japan, like South Africa
back in 2010, will receive extra attention
because of its geography and the
potential size of such a lucrative market
for sponsors.
More than 400,000 fans are expected
to visit Japan to watch the matches and
the TV audience is expected to be well
in excess of the 120m who watched the
last Rugby World Cup Final, in England
in 2015.
There is big money at stake, too.
Japan has invested hundreds of millions
of pounds in infrastructure to make the
event work for everybody – from stadia
improvements to new roads.
In 2015, ticket sales alone topped
£250m, while online interest is
expected to balloon this time, attracting
a new list of high-level sponsorship.
Profits from the event in the past have
allowed World Rugby to invest £266m
between 2016 and 2019 on a programme
to grow the sport, including a successful
programme to increase participation in
Asia. Tournament director Alan Gilpin
said: “Japan 2019 will be
transformational for the sport in Asia,
and our Impact Beyond 2019 legacy
programme, run in partnership with the
Japan Rugby Football Union and Asia
Rugby, is well on course to smash the
target of attracting and retaining one
million new players to the sport via the
Asia 1 Million project.”
With so much at stake, insurance is
clearly an important ingredient for
everyone involved. If you are involved in
a large event on a global scale, you may
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