With England kicking off their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign against Croatia at 9pm BST, new telematics data has revealed a sharp and predictable deterioration in driving behaviour around major football matches, with an insurtech now urging motor insurers to act on it.
Insurtech ThingCo conducted a minute-by-minute analysis of driving data from its telematics-enabled book of policyholders during the UEFA Euro 2024 final on July 14, 2024. Benchmarked against a three-week baseline of equivalent days and times, the data showed speeding incidents rose 31.52% in the hour before kick-off and by a further 20.4% in the hour after the final whistle — this despite average trip distances being shorter than usual. Drivers were not covering more ground; they were driving faster over the journeys they did make.
Traffic volumes told an equally striking story. Roads were 66% quieter than baseline at peak match time, before quadrupling in the 20 minutes immediately after the final whistle. For more than 90 minutes after the match ended, roads were busier than would typically be expected on a Sunday evening.
"The elevated speeding data alone is concerning, but it does not exist in isolation. Emotions both before and after a match, especially one with national interest, will be heightened," said Carlo Conner-Hill, head of data analytics at ThingCo. "There's also the risk of alcohol consumption. Late-night fatigue is likely to be an issue for the World Cup, with many matches set to finish quite late in the evening. Together, these factors create a risk profile that is significantly elevated — but one that telematics is uniquely placed to address."
The link between major football tournaments and dangerous driving is well established.
Government data showed that between 290 and 320 people are killed every year in collisions involving drivers over the legal alcohol limit, with around one in five fatal road collisions involving a driver or rider impaired by alcohol or drugs. Leicestershire Police noted ahead of the current World Cup that drink and drug driving typically increases during major sporting tournaments as people gather to watch games.
ThingCo's data further showed the danger window is concentrated in the 60 to 90 minutes after a final whistle, but within that period the combination of speed, volume and likely impairment creates conditions materially worse than a normal evening on the roads.
Tonight's fixture adds a further complicating factor. The kick-off means the match will not finish until close to midnight, placing elevated driving risk squarely in the late-night hours when fatigue compounds other dangers. England's remaining group fixtures against Ghana on June 23 and Panama on June 27, respectively, meaning the pattern is set to recur across the group stage and potentially beyond, should England progress.
The data arrives at a difficult moment for UK motor insurers. Motor insurers paid out a record £11.7 billion in car insurance claims in 2024, driven by increases in theft and repair costs, according to the ABI. Although premiums have fallen each quarter since reaching record highs in late 2023, with all UK regions recording annual falls of over 10% according to WTW, the relief for consumers has come at the cost of insurer margins.
The Government's Motor Insurance Taskforce, launched jointly by the Department for Transport and HM Treasury in October 2024 and bringing together the ABI, FCA, CMA and the Motor Insurers' Bureau, has been examining ways to reduce claims costs across the market.
Its final report, published in December 2025, identified vehicle repairs, theft, fraud and bodily injury as priority areas. Predictable spikes in risky driving behaviour of the kind ThingCo has quantified represent precisely the sort of preventable cost pressure the taskforce was designed to address.
The UK dominates the European insurance telematics market, underpinned by early adoption of usage-based insurance, strong regulatory support for safe driving incentives and high telematics penetration among young and high-risk drivers, according to Global Market Insights. That infrastructure creates a direct channel through which to influence policyholder behaviour at precisely the moments risk is highest.
ThingCo recommended a set of targeted pre-match interventions -- alerts warning of elevated post-match road activity, speed awareness reminders on match days, drink-drive messaging integrated into pre-kick-off communications, and safe journey planning nudges for policyholders intending to watch matches away from home. The case for acting on such recommendations has strengthened considerably given the current regulatory environment.
Under the FCA's Consumer Duty, insurers must demonstrate they are delivering good outcomes for customers, not merely reactive claims handling.
With record payouts and shrinking margins, telematics and usage-based models are increasingly central to that shift. ThingCo's World Cup data offers a timely, evidence-based argument for exactly that approach.
