Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, has become the first sports venue to use Amazon One for age verification.

Amazon One is a palm-based identity service to create a faster and more convenient way for people to pay or enter a location.

“Customers love the convenience of paying with their palm,” said Dilip Kumar, vice president at AWS. “However, when it comes to purchasing alcohol, friction is reintroduced as customers must produce a government-issued ID for age verification.”

The age-verification capability enables adult customers to purchase alcoholic beverages by hovering their palm over an Amazon One device, without digging into their wallets for a physical government-issued ID. Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, will be the first location to offer Amazon One’s age verification capability.

“Hearing from Amazon One customers across the country, we understand that they love the convenience it delivers: shorter wait times, quick access to buildings and locations, being able to link their loyalty memberships, and now an easy way to grab their beer,” said John McKay, senior director at Colorado Rockies.

Those already enrolled in Amazon One can take advantage of the age verification feature by uploading a photo of the front and back of their government-issued ID, such as their driver’s licence, and a selfie. Amazon One does not store customers’ government-issued IDs, which are verified by an ISO 27001-certified identity verification provider. Once signed up for age verification, they will no longer need to produce an ID when purchasing alcoholic beverages at participating outlets.

Those not yet enrolled in Amazon One can pre-enrol online or at the enrolment kiosks wherever Amazon One is available. In Coors Field, Amazon One kiosks are available at the SandLot Brewery, the first brewery inside a Major League ballpark, and Silver Bullet Bar, a full-service bar specialising in local and national craft beers.

When an enrolled user who is of age hovers their palm over an Amazon One device, the bartender will see a “21+” message along with the customer-uploaded selfie on the screen. The bartender will do a quick visual match of the photo on their screen with the person in front of them, and then proceed with the sale. When the customer is ready to pay, they simply hover their palm over the Amazon One device again, and they will be charged for their purchase.

Verifying a customer’s age for every alcohol purchase is a known friction point for retailers, bars and breweries. It leads to longer transaction times and puts a strain on employee productivity. Amazon One’s age verification capability addresses these challenges and alleviates the burden and time of manual ID verification.

“We are excited to team up with Amazon One to launch their age verification feature at Coors Field,” said Alison Birdwell, CEO of Aramark Sports + Entertainment, a provider of food, beverage, retail and facility service programmes in sports venues across North America. “Consumer preferences are ever evolving and demand for faster service models continues to grow. Amazon One’s latest capability directly responds to those demands by delivering a new level of convenience to the age verification process, shortening the time it takes to make an alcohol purchase, and improving the overall guest experience at Coors Field.”

Amazon One is available at more than 100 Whole Foods Market stores, select Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores, and multiple third-party locations, including Panera Bread restaurants, sports stadiums, entertainment venues, convenience stores, and travel retailers such as Hudson and Crews at several US airports. The age verification capability is available at Coors Field and will be rolled out to additional establishments in the coming months.