Veridas biometric solutions on song

Article posted by Coliseum, November 9^th, 2023

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Alfonso U. Santos who is the Business Development Director Americas for Veridas swears by the fact that biometrics indeed helps make life easier for fans at the ingress points of venues. And this entire experience of fans is made more enthralling by the global company Veridas who develop biometric solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI) so that people can verify their identity in an agile and simple way.

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Alfonso is from Spain and is based in Houston, US. He leads Veridas’ international expansion in the Americas, with a focus on the United States and Mexico. With expertise in engineering and sales, Alfonso has spearheaded numerous groundbreaking biometric projects whilst working with Veridas.

In an exclusive exchange with ‘Coliseum’, Alfonso asserted that biometrics and a hands-free experience for fans indeed helps venues and sports teams generate more revenue and also improves the entire fan journey to ultimately generate more engagement.

Veridas

Veridas is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company headquartered in Pamplona, Navarra (Spain), which provides solutions to verify people’s real identities in the digital space. They do this with face biometrics, voice biometrics and identity document verification.

Alfonso U. Santos informed that at Veridas, the biometrics solutions are developed based on artificial intelligence (AI) so that the people can verify their identity for who they truly are.

Biometrics Business

Veridas is among the top facial biometrics engines. The Veridas engine analyzes a facial image, which is then converted into an irreversible vector, making it impossible to recover the original image if that vector is lost. The vectors obtained from the images are then compared to determine the similarity score between the two images.

Santos averred that the present generation of fans “play a pivotal role in driving revenue, not only during matchday but also around the matchday. Providing fans with a hassle-free experience when they enter the venue is paramount”.

He added, “Venues and teams do not know their fans. They just know that an individual has bought a ticket and has entered the venue to attend a game/concert. Veridas provides the technology which helps venues identify their fans.”

CA Osasuna Case Study

Veridas pulled off a success story with the LaLiga club CA Osasuna by introducing facial recognition technology in their home ground – the 23,576 capacity El Sadar Stadium in Pamplona, Spain.

Narrated Santos, “CA Osasuna approached us stating that they did not know 80 percent of the fans entering their stadium. The top-flight was well aware of the fact that in order to earn more revenue, one must know the fans well. A very down-to-earth team, they were also looking for home court advantage. The club realized that the majority of their fans were glued to their mobile screens even while coming to watch a game and the chants or roars of supporters were consequently missing.”

He further narrated, “To help this LaLiga club overcome the above challenge, we introduced facial recognition technology in their home ground. This is the first team in Europe as well as the first soccer team in the world to fully integrate more than 8 gates of their home stadium with facial recognition technology connected to the ticketing system. This technology is indeed working wonders for CA Osasuna.”

Ingress a Cakewalk

For CA Osasuna, the Veridas platform has improved the access experience for its members: Faster due to the reduction of queues and more comfortable as they are not obliged to carry their physical or digital membership passes. It is simply phygital.

Reaping Rewards

The introduction of the facial recognition technology has resulted in a five-fold increase in the number of people entering through the facial recognition turnstiles compared to the conventional turnstiles at the CA Osasuna home. The rate of entry through the gates enabled with the terminals is 50 people per minute, an unprecedented figure in fans accessing a stadium.

As Santos put in, “Now fans can enter the El Sadar Stadium in less than a second and serpentine queues have become passé. Now, 8,000 supporters are able to enter the stadium within minutes via these eight gates.”

Biometrics Boon

Veridas’ user identification technology has come as a boon for CA Osasuna, for with the complete hands-free experience “fans are no longer busy with their cellphones and are more into chanting, resulting in the team winning more matches at home. Fans are also very happy to skip the line and enter the venue within nanoseconds.”

Veridas is also carrying out pilots in a few venues in Europe and America.

Sum-up

Veridas represents a milestone in user identification and the company is also helping in revolutionizing online payments and identification with biometric technology.

Alfonso U. Santos wrapped up by stating, “Our brand of biometric technology has helped CA Osasuna in facilitating seamless and secure access of their fans into their home venue, 50+ accesses per minute, zero tailgating, and last but not the least, improving the fans and attendees’ experience. Veridas has indeed revolutionized digital and physical access and identification with biometric technology.”

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