Patent ID: 7778853

Claim:
A method of providing access to tickets, the method comprising: transmitting over a network to a first user an offer to participate in a first of a plurality of phases of a ticket sale for a first event for a first participation fee, the plurality of phases including at least one phase after the first phase in which users do not need to pay the first participation fee in order to be entitled to purchase tickets for the first event; receiving over the network at a ticketing system, including one or more computing devices, an indication that the offer has been accepted by the first user; during the first phase of the ticket sale, receiving over the network at the ticketing system a ticket request from the first user; at least partly in response to receiving the ticket request, determining, using the ticketing system, that the first user is entitled to participate in the first phase of the ticket sale by determining the status of the first user; and determining, by at least one computing device, how many seats are to be made available during the first phase based at least in part on the number of users that paid the first participation fee.