Patent ID: 8484058

Claim:
A computer implemented method implemented by one or more processors for managing electronic requests for tickets to one or more events, comprising: providing, by said one or more processors, a shopping module for receiving and storing user requests; providing, by said one or more processors, a group allocation module for allocating tickets to a user designated as representing a group client; providing, by said one or more processors, a lottery module for allocating tickets to a user designated as representing a public patron; providing, by said one or more processors, a quota management module configured to manage the inventory of tickets for each of the one or more events by guaranteeing allocation of no less than a defined percentage of tickets for each of the one or more events to users designated as public patrons; receiving, by said one or more processors, a primary request for at least one ticket to a first event from a user and storing the primary request in the shopping module; providing, by said one or more processors, an option for requesting an alternate request to the user if the user is designated as representing a public patron; receiving, by said one or more processors, an alternate request for at least one ticket to a second event from the user designated as representing a public patron and storing the alternative request in the shopping module; and allocating at least one ticket to the user, by said one or more processors, and by the lottery module if the user is designated as representing a public patron, wherein the at least one ticket is allocated by a random lottery from the primary request or alternate request, and a ticket from the alternate request is only allocated if the primary request is not fulfilled, and wherein the lottery module is configured to allocate tickets using a cascading lottery process wherein if a primary request for at least one ticket to a first event is not fulfilled at an initial price level, the primary request is processed by the lottery module with requests at the next lower price level for the first event; and allocating at least one ticket to the user from the primary request, by said one or more processors, and by the group allocation module if the user is designated as representing a group client, wherein the at least one ticket is allocated based on an average quota availability, wherein the average quota availability is calculated from a ticket quota for the first event divided by the number of group clients requesting tickets.