London ’12 Remind Applicants Payments Taken from Today

Around 1.8 million applicants for London 2012 Olympic Games tickets are being reminded payments are being taken from their accounts from today, May 16, with 6.6 million available tickets being awarded from over 20 million applications.

A London 2012 spokesman said: “People should make sure they have sufficient funds available from this date.”

Successful bidders will be notified of the tickets they have won by 24 June, meaning that in some cases, money will be taken out of people’s accounts before they know which tickets they have been able to buy.

Refunds are not available but London 2012 will launch its official resale platform early next year, through which people can offer their tickets for resale at face value – although there is no guarantee they will be bought.

Any tickets unsold by organisers are expected to be made available in further ballots, along with the possibility of additional tickets for higher-profile events being released as venues are tested and capacities finalised.

The opening and closing ceremonies were unsurprisingly over-subscribed, as well as big athletics events, swimming nights, track cycling and some of the cheaper tickets, with oversubscribed events being decided by a ballot.

Ticket allocation is completely random, so some unlucky applicants might end up without any, while others may be allocated all the tickets they applied for.