This article was produced in partnership with Hiscox
E-sports in the UK is no longer confined to bedrooms and basements, it’s a billion-pound industry reshaping how people spend their leisure time. Dedicated venues now host live tournaments, audiences pay to watch players compete, and gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment.
It reflects a wider transformation in how people spend their leisure time. Experiences that once meant a museum visit or a night at the theatre are increasingly joined by immersive gaming, escape rooms, or destination spas. Leisure has become more participatory, and with that shift comes a very different set of risks.
For Hiscox, this change marks the next stage in a journey that began almost twenty years ago. The company was already well known for insuring art collections and historic homes when many of those properties began opening to the public.
Cover that had once applied only to private dwellings soon extended to commercial exposures; venues hosting tours, events, and paying guests. From there, it was a natural progression into theatres, museums, and independent cinemas - heritage sat at the centre of the leisure portfolio.
Over time, however, those categories became less reflective of the Sports & Leisure sector. “It felt very stuffy, very old hat,” recalls Simon Ratcliff, Commercial Property and Liability Underwriting Manager at Hiscox.
A simple weekend exercise of typing “what can I do in the UK this weekend” into a search bar, brought home just how much had been missed. Escape rooms, craft breweries, immersive art shows, and new forms of gaming had become mainstays of leisure time, but none of them sat comfortably in the insurer’s categories.
“Now it may well be that we insured some of those already, but we’d had to shoehorn them into our system through just finding the closest match,” he says. “If we want to really understand these sectors, we should be setting them up properly, so customers can see their exact business description rather than a rough fit.”
E-sports was perhaps the most visible example of this gap. Though Ratcliff admits he is no gamer, he points to his grandson’s gaming set-up and the sheer popularity of immersive venues as signs of a cultural shift that insurers can no longer ignore. What once seemed marginal is now mainstream, demanding recognition in underwriting systems and, more importantly, a fresh understanding of the risks involved.
Gaming revenues have soared by more than 140 percent year-on-year, and a single global tournament can generate upwards of £12 million while creating hundreds of jobs. More than 400 e-sports, Virtual Reality, and laser-tag venues now operate nationwide, part of a broader ecosystem that includes content creators, live events, and immersive entertainment.
By adding a dozen new categories, Hiscox has modernised its appetite to include venues such as escape rooms, mini-golf courses, and e-sports arenas. The intention is not simply to insure what has always been insured but to reflect how people spend their free time today.
Traditional venues were largely passive; Ratcliff explains the contrast plainly. “When you think about a theatre, it’s an inactive experience. A museum or an art gallery is the same. You’re not really interacting with the performer or the piece of art. The most interaction is probably some polite applause.”
By comparison, immersive venues carry a different set of risks. If someone is going into a space where they are part of the entertainment, and that might involve physical activity, suddenly you’ve got a much higher chance of bodily injury. Some venues might be dark; they might deliberately have obstacles to overcome. From an underwriting perspective, underwriters should think about adjusting pricing from a liability perspective to reflect that people aren’t just sitting and watching anymore, they’re taking part.
The trade-off is that property values are often lower. “What we don’t have is ten million pounds’ worth of artwork on the walls,” Ratcliff notes. “The physical assets might be modest, a few laptops, some projectors, but the liability exposure looks quite different.”
For underwriters, this creates a data challenge - newer sectors lack long loss histories. Ratcliff stresses the importance of pragmatism: using the closest comparable risks, adjusting based on judgment, and being willing to iterate as more experience accumulates. “The past is a guide to the future,” he says, noting that underwriting is less about certainty than about refining decisions over time.
For brokers, he offers a practical piece of advice: specialise. “If I was trying to present myself as a leisure venue specialist, it feels too broad. I’ll struggle to be seen as an expert in everything. But if I say I’m an expert in farm parks, then if I talk to someone running a farm park business, they’re going to think I’m the right person to speak to. It’s the niche within the niche.”
He urges brokers to align that focus with personal interest. “If you don’t know the first thing about e-sports and you haven’t played a game since Space Invaders, you’re probably not going to convince anyone you’re an e-sports expert. Don’t pick something you can’t stand doing yourself.”
Leisure, Ratcliff suggests, is splitting in two directions at once. On one side, technology is driving ever more immersive experiences, from holographic concerts to gaming tournaments. On the other, people are seeking out activities that take them away from screens and back into nature. Both carry different exposures, but both will demand careful underwriting.
“The key is not to assume the categories of the past will serve us in the future,” he says. “As leisure evolves, so must insurance. The challenge is staying open to change, learning as we go, and making sure our appetite reflects the way people really spend their time.”
