Opt-in facial recognition transforming the NFL guest experience

NFL football continues to yield use cases for biometrics, as discussed in a recent webinar moderated by Paul Kapustka of Stadium Tech Report featuring Jeff Josephson, head of sales at Wicket Software, along with Tennessee Titans Chief Revenue Officer Adam Nuse and Brian Gorney, senior managing director of U.S. pro sports for Verizon. They talk about how technology such as opt-in facial recognition can transform frustrating aspects of live sports and entertainment events into positive guest experiences.

In the case of the Titans, the specific technology in question is opt-in 5G Edge Express Entry, a biometric system the team first deployed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville in 2023. The move was prompted by problems the stadium was experiencing with ingress and egress. Nuse says it’s a common struggle across the NFL.

“The nature of it is, 70,000 people want to come through the gates fifteen minutes before the game starts,” he says. “And we’ve gotta keep ‘em happy.”

After years of being known as innovation-cautious, the Titans have invested heavily into the fan journey and into Express Entry in particular. Nuse says he believes it’s where the ticketing experience is heading for sports in general, citing the Cleveland Browns as another team that is providing a feasible model. Having some older audiences, he emphasizes the need for fan training – communications that tell fans what’s going on.

Josephson underlines that what teams want is a better fan experience, and that putting fans in control of the facial recognition process is of utmost importance. “This is all full opt-in: every fan takes their own photo, they acknowledge terms and conditions, they connect their own ticketing account to this mathematical set of representations of your face. They do it, and they have the opportunity to undo it if they want to.” That, he says, combined with the data belonging to the team, “put us in a position where the fans could at least start to trust us.”

The onboarding process has to be simple enough that it does not put off the average NFL user, who is over 50 years of age. “One of the tricks is how to get this in their hands – how to communicate with fans” who might be encountering biometric technology for the first time. Email blasts of know-before-you-go-instructions help.

Once fans have the tools, the trust begins to build around positive fan experience. “It’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s secure,” says Josephson.

On the integration side, he notes how important it is to be adaptable with tools that are already entrenched in teams’ systems and represent investments they do not want to waste. He also says use cases beyond ticketing, such as concessions or premium access, create a potential for new revenue streams.

In the end, he says, it takes “transparency and buy-in from the whole organization” to make a biometrics-based entry system like Wicket’s work. “The better we can educate the whole organization, the better they’re going to be able to give their fans those experiences.”

Wicket’s technology will be deployed across NFL stadiums in the 2024-25 season.

Article Topics

biometric ticketing  |  biometrics  |  Express Entry  |  face biometrics  |  facial authentication  |  facial recognition  |  NFL  |  onboarding  |  user experience  |  Verizon  |  Wicket