Clear, a privately-held biometric identification company that expedites check-ins at sports arenas and airports, has inked a multi-year deal with Major League Baseball and the league’s ticketing partner Tickets.com.
The deal makes Clear the official biometric identity and ticketing partner of the MLB, paving the way for biometrics, rather than paper or mobile tickets, to be used by fans to enter ballparks, including at jewel games such as the World Series and MLB All-Star week.
Clear will leverage Tickets.com’s API to enable members to link their Clear profile with their MLB.com account to gain entry into games with a fingerprint scan, or in the near future, facial recognition. The technology will be piloted at select MLB ballparks this season, with a broader roll-out at ballparks where both Clear and Tickets.com have relationships beginning in 2019.
Clear has been adding sports arenas to its portfolio over the past year and now counts 13 professional sports facilities across MLB, MLS, and the NBA as clients. That includes nine MLB ballparks: Yankees Stadium, SunTrust Park, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Marlins Park, AT&T Park, Comerica Park, Citi Field, Coors Field, and Safeco Field. Tickets.com is the primary ticketing partner for 23 MLB clubs.
“Our collaboration with Clear is an important new technology initiative, delivering safe, simple and seamless experiences for fans,” said Noah Garden, MLB’s executive vice president of business, in a statement.
Biometric ticketing is being hailed as the next quick and secure way to check-in to sports arenas. Instead of needing to show some type of physical or electronic ticket at the gate, a fan would use their biometrics to prove their identity, and prove that they had purchased the right to enter the stadium.
This type of seamless verification could one day expand beyond the gate and into the stadium. Clear is working to use its biometrics database to power contactless sales at concessions, which could one day include age verification.
That would allow people to buy concessions such as alcohol and chicken wings by simply tapping their finger or using facial recognition. Safeco Park, located in Washington State, is expected to be among the first sports arenas offering such a service.
SportTechie Takeaway
Both Clear and its competitor in this space, TSA Pre parent company IdentoGO by Idemia, are working to implement wide-scale adoption of biometric ticketing. IdentoGO has partnerships with teams such as the NFL’s New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers, MLB’s Fenway Group, and Barclays Center,
While these services are being touted for providing convenience and additional safety to fans, they’re also hugely beneficial to the teams themselves. Biometric ticketing promises to deliver a huge amount of data about the people visiting sports stadiums, which teams can use to learn more about attendees and then to target promotions.