The National Football League will use facial authentication technology from Wicket for a league-wide internal credentialing system this season, according to the company.
After a trial last year at several NFL venues, including Cleveland Browns Stadium, the league will implement a Wicket-based system at all 30 league venues for all 32 teams, starting with this summer’s first preseason games. According to a LinkedIn post from Jeff Boehm, Wicket’s chief operating officer, “this [system] will ensure that properly credentialed media, officials, staff, and guests can easily and safely access restricted areas, including the playing field, press box, or locker rooms.”
According to a report in Sports Business Journal, the NFL is looking to the Wicket system to help prevent fraudulent use of physical credentials, and to improve the veracity of credential authorization. By tying credentials to a holder’s face, the league hopes to eliminate the sometimes-faulty human credential verification process.
Wicket’s facial authentication software systems are gaining rapid acceptance in sports venues, primarily for fan ticket authentication purposes; the Cleveland Browns, the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Mets are all early adopters of using Wicket to help speed up fan entry. The Browns and their caterer Aramark are also using the technology for concessions purchases.
What’s not yet known is how the Wicket system will be set up internally at stadiums. Early versions of Wicket systems have simply used Apple iPads mounted on poles to provide a place for facial recognition via the iPad cameras. Recently, entry technology companies including Axess have been busy integrating Wicket software into their entry hardware, so it’s possible that teams could end up using that method to host the Wicket system.
