Osasuna, a Spanish soccer club, will trial facial recognition ticket admission for its La Liga match against Deportivo Alavés on April 10. It will be the first biometric admission service in La Liga, provided by Osasuna in collaboration with the Spanish facial recognition company dasGate.
DasGate’s facial recognition kiosks at Osasuna’s El Sadar stadium’s gate 7 will authenticate fans as they stand in front of the device. Fans must first upload a selfie, a government ID, and their ticket information to dasGate’s mobile app. The facial recognition ticketing system is intended to reduce wait times for admission to the venue. After the pilot test, Osasuna plans to expand its voluntary system to all gates at El Sadar Stadium. Fans can also continue to show their mobile or paper ticket for entry.
- Atlas and Santos Laguna of Liga MX have partnered with the facial recognition company Incode to identify fans.
- The Cape Cod Baseball League has extended its partnership with Blast Motion Swing Analytics.
The arrival of facial recognition admission for Spain’s top soccer league comes as the New York Mets begin to offer Wicket’s facial ticket entry at all Citi Field gates this MLB season. Facial recognition company Incode recently partnered with two top Mexican soccer clubs ahead of LigaMX’s facial recognition mandate to admit fans next season following the fan riot that broke out during a match on March 5.
“The use of AI to verify someone’s identity can completely revolutionize how people attend events,” Incode CEO Ricardo Amper said in a statement.
Biometric verification to attend events has come under some recent scrutiny. Last month, several music artists protested use of the Amazon One palm-recognition system to admit fans at a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. The iconic music venue has since said it will no longer use the palm-scanning system at events. Amazon’s palm recognition is also offered at retail stores inside Climate Pledge Arena, home to the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.
