SBJ Tech: Wicket’s venue-first facial-recognition strategy

Facial-authorization tech startup Wicket’s recent hires of Alastair Partington and Jeff Boehm are indicative of the company’s desire to scale its business. Partington joined May 23 as the company’s new president, replacing Ryan Owen, who co-founded Wicket with Sanjay Manandhar and has moved into a position overseeing investor relations and other strategic initiatives. Boehm joined as CMO on April 18 , a new position at the company, one clearly aimed at telling its story better -- and more often. 

“The board and the executive team are very keen to scale Wicket,” said Partington, who came from Tascent and has worked in biometrics for over two decades. "It’s been successful so far, but we want to take it to an inflection point.”

While some tech companies in sports use venue deployments as a showcase and lean on other markets for revenue, the sports industry and its venues are Wicket’s primary focus.

The company has facial-authorization tech deployed at venues associated with Haslam Sports Group (the Browns and Crew ), AMB Sports & Entertainment (the Falcons and Atlanta United) and the Mets’ Citi Field for facial ticketing, access control, or credentialing (to know, for example, which fans have access to premium areas). SBJ Tech recently reported that the Falcons got roughly 8,000 opt-ins from season-ticket holders last year to use a Wicket-powered facial-ticketing entrance, and it plans to expand to a second at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this coming season. -- Bret McCormick

Wicket is focusing on fan-facing implementations of its tech first, but that has created other opportunities for back-of-house access control using facial authorization, which the Browns are doing at their Berea, Ohio, training facility and HQ. And the company is increasingly looking at sports industry adjacencies, like concerts and conferences, while Partington said the company is also looking to Europe for expansion, which he expects to begin in the second half of 2023. 

Partington and Boehm use “facial authorization” instead of facial recognition , which has some obvious PR issues, part of a wider image issue that has been a slight ball-and-chain on the biometric identification realm. But as Boehm points out, most of the negative stories around biometric access control stem from non-opt-in models, like surveillance-type scenarios. Boehm said that Wicket not only doesn’t provide biometric info to any outside groups but also doesn’t manage the data -- the clients do.

"We operate an opt-in model,” Partington said. "If you’re going to use the system, you’re going to voluntarily provide your metrics in exchange for an expedited experience. We think that’s very important, that fans can opt out if they’re not comfortable with it.” 

Resources will be critical to scale. Wicket has supportive investors, including Haslam Sports Group, but the company will need more within the next year or two, during which it’s likely to expand the investor group. Strategic partners like Haslam would be ideal, Partington said.

“There is definitely thought going into what the investment landscape looks like in the coming year or so,” he added. “There is interest in getting the right kind of investors engaged and expanding that very supportive investor team that we already have with additional parties.”

The internal view seems to be that while Wicket’s tech -- driven by AI and computer vision -- is ready for wider deployment, the company’s sales and marketing efforts need boosting. Boehm: “Part of Wicket’s desire in hiring both myself and Alastair was based on that supportive investor group saying now is the time to invest more money and grow it.” -- Bret McCormick

The NHL has been so happy with the results of its late April release of NHL Blast that it’s launching a new feature to bring key plays to life during the Stanley Cup Final -- 3D re-creations of goals using Puck and Player tracking technology from NHL Edge.

Built with metaverse development studio The Gang and visualization specialist Beyond Sports, fans can choose individual goals to experience the speed and skill of NHL Players through their Roblox digital avatars while taking pictures of the goal developing from multiple angles. You can see it in Game 1 action here .

NHL EVP/Business Development and Innovation David Lehanski, a finalist for Technology Executive Of The Year  at this year’s  Sports Business Awards: Tech , explained the move: “The introduction of 3D goal re-creations in NHL Blast furthers our commitment to use innovation to engage with new and existing fans -- especially during our biggest event of the year, the Stanley Cup Final. After years of investing in NHL Edge technology, we are continuing to uncover ways in which the data can create entirely new fan experiences for younger audiences and showcase elements of our great game in entertaining ways.”

NHL Blast has posted some impressive results in the two months since its launch. The game is approaching 3 million total visits and 1 million unique users. It’s also generated greater interest in hockey for a younger demographic -- the launch has driven a 50% increase in hockey searches on Roblox. NHL Blast is also helping expand the fan base into a more global audience, with less than 29% of players hailing from the U.S. and Canada.

Will NHL go for the Roblox hat trick? Maybe next season. -- Jenn Azara

• In this week's magazine, SBJ's Bret McCormick writes about how blockchain and NFT projects like Credenza and True Tickets are finding interest in the ticketing and fan experience sectors despite "crypto winter."

• SBJ's Joe Lemire explores how Gatorade Sport Science Institute’s new clinical research HQ in Valhalla, N.Y., is "one of the crown jewels" within PepsiCo's life sciences division. 

• By reaching the NBA Finals, the Nuggets were able to co-sign on the NBA Cares Finals Legacy Project -- presented by YouTube TV -- and donate a STEM Lab to the Arthur E. Johnson Boys & Girls Club near downtown Denver, reports SBJ's Tom Friend.

• This week's Startup Series profiles Rithmm, a betting company that uses a custom analytical model back by AI and is preparing to launch an NFL offering, notes SBJ's Matt Ehalt.