Fans need no physical tickets, membership cards or e-tickets. To enter Allianz Parque at Palmeiras, only facial recognition is needed. The technology was developed as a solution to a problem every club in Brazil is facing: ticket touting.
“Before we implemented facial biometrics, ticket touters would legally join Avanti, the club’s supporter programme, buy tickets within our system and then sell them for prices well above what we charged, which is a crime,” Everaldo Coelho Palmeiras’ marketing director explains.
“It was something that bothered us a lot, because our fans, including Avanti members entitled to priority purchase, were unable to get tickets for Palmeiras matches.”
This revolution in changing the way fans can access the stadium has been good for the club. In August, Palmeiras hit a milestone of 200,000 active fan members, a record in Brazil. They got 62,000 new members between January and July this year. Due to this, the team expects to rake in over R$70 million (£9.5m) with Avanti in 2024.
Palmeiras claims to be the first football club in the world to adopt the facial biometrics system for all access to the stadium on match days. In Brazil, article 148 of the General Sports Law (LGE) stated that all sports arenas with a capacity of over 20,000 people must have facial recognition on their turnstiles by June 2025.
With these requirements, teams have gradually started adopting technology, but no other club demands facial recognition at 100% of its entrances. There are instances like Flamengo, which uses the system for all tickets sold online, but still sells physical tickets.
“We studied a number of technological options and realised that the problem could only be solved by facial recognition,” Coelho says .
Palmeiras won’t reveal how much it spent to implement facial biometrics at Allianz, in a project carried out with Bepass. “I can say, however, that the investment is worth it,” says the marketing director.
