Filipino gamers boost FWD's play for new markets

Besides covering health risks, the insurer plans to support other game genre and aspects of the gaming ecosystem beyond esports.

FWD Group, a pan-Asian life and health insurer, is trying to convince more Filipino gamers like Salvador to get covered, in a country where the life insurance penetration rate is only 1.4%.

Whilst 85% of the Philippines’ 43 million gamers are aware of the health risks from video games and think insurance is important, less than a third actually own a policy, according to FWD Philippines.

That is still considerable given that less than 2% of Filipinos had life insurance in 2022, compared with Singapore’s 9.54%, Thailand’s 3.55%, Malaysia’s 2.9% and Vietnam’s 1.81%, according to data from the ASEAN Insurance Council.

"The primary barrier that prevents the remaining majority from getting insurance is really prioritisation," Roche Vandenberghe, chief marketing and digital business officer at FWD Philippines, told Insurance Asia.

This is especially true given spiralling prices and high interest rates. For many, insurance is a nonessential expense, overshadowed by more important financial concerns.

Revenue of Southeast Asia’s video game market is projected to grow by 8% to $5.5b in 2024, according to a Nico Partners, Inc. report released in September 2024. It is expected to become a $7.1b industry by 2028, or a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7%.