Wicket enjoys successful first year of Cleveland Browns biometric beer sales program

If you are a Cleveland Browns fan and 17 seconds seems like a long time to wait for a beer, biometric facial authentication firm Wicket has some good news. An article in Sports Business Journal reports that the facial recognition-based Express Beer program at Cleveland Browns Stadium has concluded a successful first year, which saw transaction times fall to 16 seconds.

The program is a collaboration between the Browns, Wicket, fan loyalty platform Lava, the Tapin2 customer ordering platform, and Aramark, which provides food services. It allows fans who register and upload an ID and payment method to purchase beer in one of six express lines that take facial scans for payment confirmation.

In addition to the 16-second transaction time – two-to-three times faster than other quick service locations, according to team reps – Express Beer’s 4,000 total enrolments and 171% return on investment for the franchise helped make it a finalist for Sports Business Awards’ Technology Collaboration of the Year.

Wicket and Lave will continue to work together on a similar activation at an as-yet unspecified MLS venue, with Wicket committed to acting as an enablement platform providing flexible facial authentication tools for a list of use cases.

Wicket is on an impressive run in the sporting sector, with 16 stadiums implementing Wicket’s technology in 2023 across major sporting leagues.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometric ticketing  |  biometrics  |  Express Entry  |  face biometrics  |  facial authentication  |  NFL  |  Wicket