The specialty markets are also not immune from change. Events, festivals, concerts are getting bigger and bigger, but new risks are also emerging.
Contingency
In an environment in which promoters and artists are seeing events cancelled, postponed or suffering reduced attendance in the face of increased activism and 'cancel culture', the relevance of 'proximate cause' to the application of both initial cover and exclusions has seen renewed scrutiny.
We grappled with some of the issues arising in our breakfast seminar in March 2024, but with focus shifting to wordings offering cover for death and disgrace and mental health consequences, as well as exclusions around lack of care/prudent behaviour and reduced attendance not proximately caused by an insured peril (already much debated in the context of loss-making events), there is still much to be discussed. Watch this space for a confirmed date for our next Specialty Breakfast Seminar and the chance to do just that.
We have also seen increased activity on terrorism policies, which often sees extensions for active shooter. As recent events in Sweden show, this is not something that just happens in the US. Mass shooting events at large scale gatherings continues to be a concern. In addition, tour schedules seem more tightly packed than ever. The public’s appetite for live events sees no signs of abating in 2025, which whilst good for premiums and the artists and their management, brings with it increased risks of more mental health related claims and burn out.
Sport and personal accident
Across multiple sports the nature of injuries is changing. Rule changes to prevent concussions/ CTE (like heading bans for younger children) football and stricter concussion protocols in the NFL) have been introduced to try to reduce those kinds of injuries. The litigation against the Welsh Rugby Union and World Rugby, alongside football actions, is still ongoing with no clear date for a trial.
However evermore demanding scheduling to meet commercial demands and the inescapable fact that athletes are generating great and greater force through increased speed and strength, means that soft tissue and ligament injuries to limbs will only continue to rise in 2025 as they have done recently. This is likely to lead to an increase in claims by athletes across a range of sports. It is well reported that in women's sport the risk of certain injuries like ACL tears is far higher. There is much debate over the cause of this, with some biological factors such as bone structure put forward as well as the obvious economic factors (e.g. male athletes often have better access to nutrition and facilities). The simple fact is that the take up on career ending insurance for female athletes is increasing, and as it does, so, the established medical understanding will be exploring uncharted territory.
The E-Sports scene is relatively new but is already a multi-billion dollar global industry, with many household names investing huge sums into setting up teams to compete on various platforms. Whilst the risk of injury is certainly more limited, very recently high profile players worth millions to their employers have suffered hand injuries. Carpel tunnel, repetitive motion and eye issues are amongst the most common risks. As the industry grows further in 2025, corporations may begin protecting their assets through insurance and stars may begin seeking protection of their own. Specialist hand surgeons may suddenly be in as much need as knee surgeons.
Fine art
In a year of heightened political and societal engagement, we have seen art as the chosen medium for activists to express their societal, cultural and political opinion. In late 2024, activists threw tomato soup over two Vincent van Gogh paintings mere hours after two activists were given jail sentences for targeting one of the same works of art.
Activists, creative in their cause, have targeted the artwork itself, or secured themselves to the artwork's frames, museum walls or floors. The latter was exhibited by activists who glued themselves to the frame of John Constable's widely satirised and politicised The Hay Wain (1821) and covered the painting with their own reimagined version of Constable's idyllic English landscape. Peter Kennard's photomontage of The Haywain with Cruise Missiles (1983), created as part of Kennard's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1970s–80s, shows that art activism is not new10; what is new, however, is the measures that museums, galleries, and custodians of art are taking to safeguard their visitors, staff and collections in the most recent wake of art activism.
Equine & livestock
We are currently working on several cases in the bloodstock and livestock sectors. A common theme we have observed relates to the placement of facultative reinsurance. We have seen multiple disputes where business has been underwritten in many countries with still developing legal systems that are alien to those brought up and underwritten in an English law environment.
Looking forwards an area which may cause issues is the prevalence of disease. Veterinary bodies are currently concerned about the gradual increase in cases and potential for large scale outbreaks of deadly diseases such as West Nile Virus and African Horse Sickness. This may be linked to global temperature increases which could make Northern European territories more susceptible to outbreaks. Insurers and their claims teams should be checking their wordings on disease and vaccination requirements to ensure they provide sufficient cover.
DWF was successful in acting for insurers to restrict the application of the Animals Act 1971 in the case of Bull v Helps. DWF was successful in restricting the application of the Animals Act 1971, on the basis that the Defendants did not have active control or possession of the animal at the time of the accident.
To read the full section, download the Global Risks: Horizon Scanning report.
