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Games present multitude of risks     © Thompson’s World Insurance News 2010. No reproduction without written consent. There were no banners and flags for the insurance industry in the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics — but it was an essential contributor nonetheless.     During several months of work the industry provided coverage for individual events and all associated activities with the Games.     Lloyd’s says Marsh won the contract with the Vancouver Organizing Committee to arrange the coverage.     The broker in turn placed a significant proportion of the event program into the Lloyd’s market.     David Bruce, a contingency underwriter and the divisional head of Specialty for Hiscox Syndicate 33, said sums insured can range from thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions depending on the risk.     “If you’re providing TV coverage what you might want is something called pre-emption,” Mr. Bruce said.     “All of a sudden a major newsworthy occurrence takes place and everyone switches over to the news and you’ve lost your entire revenue stream for advertising. For something like the Superbowl, that can be millions of dollars a minute.     “For the host country itself, the two most important things are the Opening Ceremony and the Closing Ceremony — that’s where they earn their revenue.”     Nothing about complex sporting events is left to chance, Lloyd’s says.     From the weather — is there enough/too much snow? — to security, property damage, transportation and broadcasting, each element of the games is taken into consideration.     Even before the opening ceremonies, another risk raised its head — possible legal action over the death of a Georgian luger in a training run.     Although the official ruling was that it was his mistake, the fact the track was shortened the next time it was used, to give slower speeds, and a side wall raised, is sure to be brought up if court action is launched.     Early last week, VANOC cancelled a total of 28,000 general standing room admission tickets for events at the rain-plagued Cypress Mountain ski and snowboard venue overlooking Vancouver.     With the tickets priced at $50 and $65 the total value was about $1.5m. Original purchasers are getting their money back.     More in our February 22, 2010 edition        Thompson’s World Insurance News P.O. Box 1027,  Waterloo, Ontario,  Canada  N2J 4S1 Tel: 519-579-2500 Fax: 519-745-7321 mpub@sympatico.ca THOMPSON’S WORLD INSURANCE NEWS , Canada’s only independent weekly for p&c insurance professionals, has been the industry’s most trusted news source since 1988.