Unlucky bidders get their pick of one million tickets in six-day sale

Those who lost out in the first round and then again when the second round was hit by a systems glitch will have a 24-hour window at the start of a six-day sale to make their choice.

The Standard can today reveal further details of how Locog plans to distribute the remaining one million tickets as evenly as possible among the 1.2million left empty-handed last year.

The organisers face a decision on whether to cap the number of tickets per household at two or four. The first option will ensure a wider distribution of seats but the four-ticket cap would be more family-friendly. Even if tickets are limited to two each, some 50 per cent of those entitled to enter the next stage will miss out.

However, Games chiefs believe the fail-rate will in fact be lower because a large minority of the million were casual applicants who applied for the £20 opening ceremony ticket or the sprint finals and are not hard-core sports fans likely to reapply.

Each applicant will be given a schedule of how the sports will be sold over the week. Locog will spread demand by staggering the sale of highly popular events during the period. If an applicant is unsuccessful, entitlement to bid will be rolled over to the next day.

Sports may be categorised low, middle or high availability but precise numbers are unlikely to be given. Large venues such as the Olympic stadium will offer the best chance of success.

Bosses are braced for a backlash from those who effectively ruled themselves out of this sale by buying niche sports tickets such as handball, weightlifting or Greco Roman wrestling last year to ensure they got to the Games.

Tickets go on sale in late April and include up to 20,000 unwanted ones returned to the online exchange.

The sale will close before the April 24 draw for the Olympic football tournament, which will prompt a marketing push to shift the remaining 1.5million seats for that event. Some venues' capacities will not be finalised until close to the Games and tickets for these will be sold at on-site box offices or in central London.

Games chiefs aim to manage demand and expectation as well as minimise the risk of another sales website failure.