Sport organizations are always looking for ways to use technology to improve the fan experience. Recent innovations include “Grab and Go” food, cashless payment and interactive apps. Face recognition is being evaluated and deployed for a variety of purposes – everything from increases throughput, reducing lines and recognizing the most valued customers. Let’s break down the various applications and how they work.

Increasing Throughput at the Entrance

Given all the various security and ticketing procedures, it can take hours to get into a stadium and settled at your seat. For the fan, the least fun part of the entire event is just getting inside the door. For the venue, all the time fans spend waiting to get inside is time they aren’t having fun and spending money. Stadiums are looking at high-throughput face recognition to identify fans at the gate and check their ticket quickly. From talking to our customers and partners, we know that facial recognition is going to become increasingly commonplace over the next year for access control at the entrance to sporting events and concerts.

Contactless Payments

If high throughput contactless face recognition technology can improve through put at the gate, it can also be used to eliminate lines and speed up customer purchases at concessions and merch areas.

Secure Locker Rooms and Facilities

There are several US-based professional sports organizations that have started to experiment with face recognition technology to make sure unauthorized people stay out of restricted areas such as locker rooms and training facilities. Mark Cuban implemented this technology to help secure the Dallas Maverick’s state-of-the-art locker room. According to Fansided, “As you walk into the training room, there is facial recognition at the entrance with a monitor that displays the identified player along with game notes and messages regarding that player.” This is to help keep players safe and ensure their privacy.

Reward VIPs

A small number of VIPs are often the source of the largest amount of revenue so organizations recognize it’s important to ensure they have a memorable experience when attending live events. Facial recognition technology provides the means to instantly recognize VIPs like season ticket holders, officials or media personnel. After fans opt in, an organization can allow them to skip lines or offer tailored promotions that help increase loyalty. In fact, facial recognition technology is already being used in South Africa to identify fans and personalize their experience. Through an opt-in facial recognition program, teams can protect fans’ privacy while providing them with winning experiences. 

Our expert sales team is here to help you through tough decisions concerning your use of biometrics or your larger security and venue management scheme. If you’ve been considering our identity solution for your organization, please reach out and book a consultation with us today.