After the ticket registration closed on 26th April, everyone has been checking their bank account to see if they are among the lucky few who have scored Olympic tickets. Fear not, if you've yet to have a mysterious sum of money disappear from your account. According to Olympic officials, the vast majority of payments will be taken by 31st May. Although they said the same thing on 18 May... But look on the bright side, this gives you a bit more time to pad your bank account if you're waiting to get paid. Sadly, you will still have to wait until 24 June to know which tickets you have been allocated.
As this is a ticket "for the greatest show on Earth" (I believe that catchphrase belongs to the Ringling Brothers Circus, no?), there has been huge demand for tickets. If you missed the first round of ticket registration, there will be a 2nd chance selling. These sales will include tickets for basketball, beach volleyball, and boxing among other sports. There are very few details regarding when the 2nd chance selling will begin.
The entire ticket allocation procedure has been widely criticized with even Mayor BoJo himself calling the process "peculiar". The main complaint is that you will not actually know which event that you have received tickets for until after you have already paid for them. Consumer group Which? has suggested that the ticket allocation system encourages consumer to take a gamble with their finances. Several people have applied for tickets to multiple events in hopes of winning at least one ticket to an Olympic event. However with the current system, it is possible for you to get tickets for all of the events that you have applied for but you won't be able to choose which ones you actually want. It also doesn't help that you won't actually discover where your seat is until you receive your tickets in the post!
LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) has admitted that they system is flawed. They predict that roughly 25% of the ticket sales won't go through due to lost debit/credit cards, insufficient funds or technical problems. However, Paul Williamson, the head of LOCOG ticketing, has no regrets and argues that telling people that they've won tickets before they had fully paid for them is not sensible business practice. I totally agree. I wish there was a way for computer to be able to match credit card details to email addresses and send an automatic message when that card is charged. If only such a system existed...
Some people have tried to avoid using the LOCOG allocation system all together. Ticket sellers in EU countries are selling Olympic tickets at a first come, first serve basis. Due to a little known EU law, these ticket agents must treat all EU customers the same no matter when they actually live. For example, Brits can purchase Olympic tickets from Germany sites directly and avoid the lottery all together. Once word of this got out, sites like Sportsworld.co.uk were inundated with requests and have subsequently stopped selling Olympic tickets to review their ticketing procedures. I'm not sure how these sites determine if your an EU citizen. I assume they just need a permanent address which is located in a member state. In which case, I'd encourage you to purchase your tickets elsewhere. Just be sure to check the officially Olympic ticket site to ensure that you're buying from an authorized dealer.
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