By Tom Stoyle, Contingency Underwriting Manager
As the British & Irish Lions prepare for their highly anticipated 2025 tour of Australia, event organisers face an evolving landscape of risks. Starting in Perth on 28 June until 2 August 2025, the prestigious rugby tour will feature nine matches across six Australian cities and includes three Test matches against the Wallabies. With over 40,000 international visitors expected to travel Down Under, the economic boost the tour will provide to Australia is significant. When the Lions last toured Australia in 2013, the international supporters pumped a whopping $150 million AUD into the Australian economy. So, it’s no surprise that the stakes are high – and so too are the risks.
Let’s take a look at some of the risks that could cause disruption to an event of this scale:
Australia’s Shifting Weather Patterns
Australia is increasingly experiencing volatile climate conditions. Just last month, parts of eastern New South Wales (NSW) recorded the wettest May on record following catastrophic flooding. The country’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese recently warned that recovery from the floods on the NSW mid-north coast – where several tour matches will be played – could take months. “The impacts of weather events can lead to long term impacts, in particular when there is damage to infrastructure that is key to the events.” added John Rice, Divisional Director, Sport & Entertainment at Howden. Simultaneously, severe drought conditions have been experienced across parts of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia, with some of the lowest rainfall totals on record. This climate volatility across the country creates a challenging environment for planning a multi-location event such as the Lions tour.
The timing of the Lions tour during Australia’s winter (June-August) typically means cooler, drier conditions in many regions. However, with climate change disrupting traditional weather patterns, the potential for unseasonal heavy rain, particularly in Brisbane and Sydney, could lead to matches being interrupted, cancelled, postponed, or relocated – creating logistical and financial challenges for all stakeholders involved. For example, during the 1995 Rugby World Cup semifinal between South Africa and France, the match was delayed for more than an hour as the pitch needed to be cleared of water following a heavy downpour.
No-Shows
The success of the British & Irish Lions Tour largely lies on the players themselves, however, as has occurred in previous sporting events, illness can quickly cause havoc within a team. In 2023, a pre-season friendly football (soccer) match between Barcelona and Juventus had to be cancelled hours before kick-off due to a bout of viral gastroenteritis hitting a ‘significant part’ of Barcelona’s squad. With frequent flying between the six cities where matches are being played – not forgetting the mammoth flight from Dublin to Perth – the Lions squad may be vulnerable to picking up a germ or two. If an illness makes it impossible to field a team during the tour, this could result in a match being cancelled or postponed. The same can be said if there are any unavoidable travel delays, injuries or even death.
An Evolving Security Landscape
In August last year, the Australia Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) increased the country’s threat level from ‘possible’ to ‘probable’, meaning there’s a greater than 50% chance of an ‘onshore attack or attack planning in the next 12 months’. With the rise in social-political issues and extremism being witnessed across Australia – and globally – the risks of civil commotion, strikes or even a terrorist attack are elevated, especially in major cities. Should an act or threat of terrorism or civil unrest occur, the disruption for event organisers could be significant. In fact, an incident doesn’t have to occur at the event location for it to be disrupted said Rice: “The true threat is often related to circumstances away from the event itself where emergency services and other key personnel have to be diverted meaning the event is no longer able to proceed.” Similar circumstances occurred at the 2021 British & Lions Tour in South Africa. Not only did the country have to grapple with the challenges of Covid-19, but added to this was a wave of civil unrest in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. Subsequently, the final two Tests against the Springboks scheduled in Gauteng had to be relocated back to Cape Town.
The Rising Threat of Cyber Attacks
With huge sums of money at play and often a global reach of audiences, major sporting events are increasingly becoming attractive targets for malicious cyber acts. In today’s digital age, events are heavily reliant on the smooth running of technology and a cyberattack on one element of the organisation of a major event could have wide-ranging financial and operational impacts. Take a ticketing system – a cyberattack could lead to the disruption, cancellation or postponement of an event if spectators can’t purchase or access their tickets. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, a cyberattack occurred just before the opening ceremony, causing the Games’ systems, including the internet and television services to go down and preventing tickets from being printed. Recent times have also shown how vulnerable air travel is to cyber issues adds Rice: “This poses a real threat given how many spectators will be travelling to Australia from the UK and Ireland.”
Insurance on the Sidelines
Returning to Australia for the first time in 12 years, the British & Irish Lions 2025 Tour represents not just a celebration of rugby at its highest level but also a complex risk environment in an increasingly unpredictable climate. With so much at stake, the contingency insurance market plays a vital role in making such high-profile events viable. For stakeholders with financial interests in the tour’s success – such as event organisers, tour operators, broadcasters and sponsors -, event cancellation coverage against perils including but not limited to adverse weather and natural catastrophes, non-appearance, civil commotion and cyberattacks provides the essential protection against the myriad risks that could affect this prestigious sporting event.
So, while rugby fans across the world will be focused on the action on the pitch, the contingency market will be on the sidelines, ready to respond to whatever challenges may emerge.