For anyone interested or involved in sports tech, the annual Sports Business Awards are a great opportunity to see some of the most innovative uses of technology across the industry. For the second straight year, Wicket had the honor of being nominated for multiple categories – including Best Technology Collaboration and Best Venue & Franchise Operations Technology.
Going into the awards night on March 4th, 2025 at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City, Wicket had already been named one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies along with 9 other companies that are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible through the use of technology.
Being recognized as one of the 10 most innovative companies by Sports Business Journal felt like a win in and of itself, but Wicket was thrilled when our name was called as winner of the Best in Venue & Franchise Operations Technology category.
From small scale pilot to industry leader
For the past 5 years, the team at Wicket has had one mission: to partner with great customers who share in our vision to become the leading provider of in-venue biometric-enabled solutions. What started as a pilot ticketing deployment at a single entry gate in Cleveland for a few hundred fans, has grown to over 4 million ticketing, credentialing, access control, and payment transactions across nearly 1,000 customer events.
This milestone is possible thanks to early adopters of Wicket technology such as the Cleveland Browns and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, who believed that prioritizing the fan experience could do more than simply benefit fans, but also operations, revenue, and the franchise itself.
That’s an important word here, “franchise”. This word was a new addition to this category from 2024, when it was referred to as Best Venue Operations Technology, and was a notable addition to the 2025 award that Wicket received. It also aligns with how Wicket has built products to serve a variety of use cases, all while feeling “native” to the customer franchise.
Versatile solutions that benefit the entire franchise
A good showcase of this is a recent Mercedes-Benz Stadium video case study that shows how they implemented Wicket technology as part of their MBS Express program, which consists of custom branded experiences like the Delta Fly-Through Express Entry Lanes, Spirited Self-Service Cocktail Bars, and ATL Checkout-Free Market.
Their use of Wicket technology goes beyond fan-facing applications as well, including credentialed access at Falcons games as part of an NFL-wide biometric credentialing program. One of the benefits of the Wicket system is how versatile it is, and how easily it can be added to a variety of applications and use cases.
Some examples of creative uses of Wicket technology at other customers include meal tracking for staff at the Kansas City Chiefs, identity verification for season ticket packages at the Tennessee Titans, and parking lot entry for a Monumental Sports facility. These examples further demonstrate how much value Wicket technology can bring to the entire franchise, even beyond the most notable fan-facing use cases.
Things are just getting started
Although it brings the entire Wicket team great pride in looking back at what has been accomplished in the past 5 years alongside our early customers, the best is truly yet to come. After a day or two of celebrating the award, the team got right back to building the future of the fan experience alongside our great customers and integration partners – with a lot of big things in store for 2025.
