Why insurance gives gaming studios an edge when pitching

At the recent UKIE AGM, one thing came through loud and clear — it’s a tough market for gaming studios looking to land funding or secure new partnerships.

The advice was familiar: tighten up your business plan, get your intellectual property (IP) legally checked and make sure your contracts are watertight. All smart moves.

But there was one important thing missing from the checklist: insurance.

Now, we get it — insurance isn’t as exciting as designing a new boss level or crafting your next narrative arc. But it can quietly level-up your credibility when you're pitching — here’s how.

Why insurance matters when you’re pitching

Having the right cover in place signals to potential investors that you’ve thought about what could go wrong and how to keep your business going if it does. That’s something investors, publishers and commercial partners notice.

By thinking one step ahead, it demonstrates you respect your business, your customers and your reputation. It also shows investors that you’ve levelled up and take what you’re building seriously.

Read our ultimate guide to startup funding to learn more about the types of investors out there, how to prepare for funding and how to pitch.

How to tell investors you’ve got cover

Getting funding can be a drawn-out process. You’re talking to a lot of people, juggling many conversations and often, feeling around in the dark.

Sure, you drop it into conversation. But it takes more than that to signal the maturity of your business.

For this, you’ll want to work it into your pitch. Here are the options how:

• A quick aside: A quick “we’ve got the appropriate insurance in place” shows you’re serious about the business side of your studio — not just the creative side.
• Make it specific: Mention the types of risk you’ve covered, whether it’s intellectual property, cyber-security, contractual disputes or more. It shows you’ve thought about financially protecting your assets — and theirs.
• Drop it into the right spot: Create a specific slide called Risk and mitigation or Operational resilience. This slide can cover a host of different ways you’re shoring up your business from potential risks. Insurance has to cover just a sentence or two, which can be enough to reassure a potential backer.

And when you’re about to sign on the dotted line...

Whether you’re a solo dev or a studio of 30, there’s a moment that keeps coming up — you’ve almost secured the deal, and then the contract lands.

Nestled between all the standard clauses is the bit that many don’t expect: insurance requirements.

Things like directors’ and officers’ insurance, professional indemnity or IP insurance. They’re not just formalities — they’re there because the people handing you money want to know it’s not going to disappear into a black hole if something unexpected crops up.

There are numerous covers to consider for a gaming firm of any size. Learn about the risks your gaming company might face and what can be done to mitigate them.

For investors, cover gives confidence that their investment is going towards building your game, not battling legal issues.

Game on

Insurance is never going to be the star of your pitch — and nor should it be as a gaming company. But if your business was heading into a boss fight, you’d probably want to have a little something in your inventory just in case.

That’s exactly what insurance is. You hope you won’t need it — but when you do, it could be the thing that wins the game.

And for investors, it’s a sign you’ve thought ahead, planned for pitfalls and built a studio that’s not just creative, but commercially ready.

Catch our gaming expert, Grace Matthews, on Ukie’s Need to Know series, chatting to Leo Harvey about the cover gaming studios might need.