Paciolan Partners With Wicket in Latest Facial Recognition Venue Entry Play

Paciolan is expanding its push into identity-based ticketing with a new partnership with Wicket, introducing facial authentication capabilities to its PAC io Entry platform as part of its broader PAC Link partner ecosystem.

The integration will allow colleges, arenas, and performing arts venues using Paciolan to offer opt-in biometric entry, enabling fans to enter venues without scanning a barcode or presenting a mobile ticket. Instead, enrolled users can access events through facial authentication at designated entry points.

Paciolan supports ticketing operations for hundreds of venues across the U.S., including a significant share of major college athletics programs, making the partnership a potentially wide-reaching expansion of biometric entry in live entertainment. The companies said the integration will be available for pilot programs in the coming months, with an eye toward broader rollout during the upcoming college football season.

The move is aimed squarely at one of the most operationally challenging aspects of live events: ingress. With large portions of attendees arriving shortly before start time, venues face a compressed window to process thousands of fans efficiently. Paciolan is positioning the Wicket integration as a way to accelerate entry and reduce friction during that critical period.

“Paciolan has always focused on providing best-in-class ticketing solutions for our partners and their fans and patrons,” said Brendan Lynch, President of Paciolan. “Partnering with Wicket allows us to extend that mission by introducing innovative identity technology that enhances both operational efficiency and the fan experience.”

Wicket has gained traction in the sports and live event space as venues look for faster, more secure ways to verify ticket holders and manage access. By tying credentials to an individual rather than a device, biometric systems aim to reduce issues related to ticket transfer, barcode sharing, or mobile access failures.

“College athletics are all about the gameday culture, and in these high-energy environments, ease of use, speed, and reliability matter,” said Alastair Partington. “This partnership allows Paciolan schools and facilities to easily enhance their existing ticketing solution with Wicket’s facial authentication platform to deliver sensational event experiences to their fans.”

Both companies emphasized that the system is opt-in, with fans choosing whether to enroll by submitting a selfie. According to the announcement, the technology converts that image into an encrypted mathematical representation rather than storing an actual photo, with processing occurring locally at the point of entry. Venues retain control over the data, and traditional ticket scanning remains available for fans who do not participate.

The integration was previewed earlier this year at Paciolan’s PACnet user conference, where attendees were able to test Wicket’s technology for event check-in and see demonstrations of its broader applications across ticketing, payments, and credentialing.

The partnership reflects a broader shift across the ticketing and venue operations landscape, where companies are increasingly exploring biometric and identity-based tools to improve throughput and security. At the same time, such systems continue to draw scrutiny over privacy, data governance, and the long-term implications of normalizing facial recognition at live events.