UK sports club deploys FinGo vein biometrics for membership scheme

Grassroots Bowdon Rugby Club in Manchester, UK claims to be the first in the sporting world to introduce a biometric membership scheme based on finger vein patterns.

The FinGo vein biometrics system uses finger vein mapping technology for payments, ID and age authentication and building access for members.

FinGo partnered with EPOS provider Counter Solutions to create a pre-paid digital wallet connected to the company’s Way2Pay app.  With a single finger scan, members can pay using vein ID.

In June FinGo closed a partnership with Mastercard, allowing Mastercard users to pay by scanning their unique finger vein pattern.

The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, is now leading a working group designed to explore the use of FinGo vein biometrics in Manchester’s transport, education, and healthcare networks as well as for COVID testing and vaccine verification.

“Vein mapping isn’t a far-off, futuristic technology. It’s here now, and can help make transactions of all kinds simpler and more secure. We also hope it can play a real part in the all-important COVID recovery, for clubs and businesses at any level and in every sector,” says Simon Binns, Chief Commercial Officer of FinGo.

“FinGo has already been able to help bars roll-out test and trace collection systems, introduce COVID test verification in care homes, and now it’s supporting grassroots sports clubs to rebuild revenues, as is the case with Bowdon.”

The use of FinGo biometrics will help Bowdon Rugby Club to secure revenue quicker and improve the membership experience.

The use of vein biometrics has been rapidly increasing; for example a team of Swiss entrepreneurs and researchers recently announced an effort to create a touchless scanner that reads hand veins, an early version of the biometric device reportedly can read IDs through surgical gloves. A similar, though retail-focused, biometric project is ongoing at Amazon.

Article Topics

access control  |  age verification  |  authentication  |  biometric identification  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  digital wallets  |  finger vein  |  Fingo  |  Sthaler  |  UK  |  vein biometrics  |  vein recognition