Flash Biometrics has announced a partnership with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to add facial identity verification to participant licensing and check-in at regulated combat-sports events. The company says a phased rollout is beginning across Nevada events governed by the commission.
The partnership covers licensed athletes, referees, judges, cornermen and promoter personnel. Its scope includes mixed martial arts, UFC events and professional boxing, with facial recognition used to verify fighters before competition.
The system is intended to support accurate credentialing and event check-in. The people being verified under this partnership are licensed participants and personnel, whose roles differ from those of spectators presenting tickets to enter a venue.
Co-founder Neil Lenhoff said Flash’s technology can verify identity in less than a second. The company also says its platform can recognize multiple faces simultaneously and scale to large datasets, targeting high-volume settings where identification and check-in need to move quickly.
Sports organizations already use facial authentication for both working credentials and fan entry. Wicket has surpassed one million opt-in users and eight million biometric interactions across sports and live events. Wicket uses an opt-in enrollment model, requiring users to register actively for facial authentication. Its customer base spans nearly 100 organizations, including professional sports, conferences and live entertainment. Its credentialing applications include NFL field access, locker rooms and press boxes.
Those uses check access to restricted working areas, separately from ticketing. Wicket’s broader sports business also covers facial authentication for spectators, connecting a registered face with a ticket or account to support entry and other venue interactions.
In another initiative, Wicket and Paciolan have partnered on college-sports fan entry. That integration matches enrolled fans against registered images, providing an alternative to presenting a mobile ticket barcode.
The college-sports partnership began with pilots and a plan for broader availability during the 2026 football season. It is a separate arrangement involving a different biometric provider and a ticketing platform, rather than the Nevada commission’s licensing system.
For Flash Biometrics, the Nevada partnership applies facial checks to the participant verification process before competition. The company says implementation will proceed in phases across major Nevada-based combat-sports events regulated by the State Athletic Commission.
Sources: The Blast
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
