Introduction: This blog is written by Steven Boerma, a friend of me(Kevin Plasmans) which i got to known thanks to the Olympics.

Hopefully you have put your hands on your first Olympic Tickets via the announced Cosport sales or the huge amount of ticket drops afterwards. It certainly got my adrenaline flowing with this start of the Tickethunt season! But also you feel immediate frustration when your tickets are not available! Despite these setbacks, my Olympic aspirations are fully fuelled again!

My experience is that in Tickethunting you often fail at the first attempt(s). Don't give up. There are still many chances on your way to Tokyo2020! We will help you. Read this blog, get the Olympic Tickettracker and you will get plenty of hope to achieve your Olympic Tokyo2020 journey

In this blog I will explain how the Olympic Tickettracker works and how to apply for your most important tool to get your Olympic tickets.

 

The Tickettracker

It was somewhere in October 2011. London'12 would be my third Summer Games, after Athens'04 and Beijing'08. I had the opportunity to buy a few tickets for London via the official IOC sale. But I did notice that it was becoming increasingly difficult to get my desired tickets. The Games were getting bigger and the corresponding general (ticket) interest! My biggest challenge became; How do I get the rest of my tickets?

 

In the same period Twitter came up and through that medium I encountered Kevin Plasmans. He was just like me a big fan of the Olympic Games and was also busy preparing for London. We found out that Cosport often dropped new tickets on their website without announcement. This fact, combined with Kevin’s unique IT expertise, inspired him to develop the so-called Olympic Tickettracker.

But what is it exactly, how does it work and above all; how can you use it?

 

#1 Cosport ATR and European ATRs

The sale of tickets to Japanese residents is tied to a Japanese resident’s permit. So you can only get tickets in cooperation via your Japanese network. The same for European ATR's. You can only buy there if you have somebody willing to receive and order in the EU.

Sales to the rest of the world is organised via the authorized national ticket resellers (ATRs). In the USA this is Cosport. There are ATR’s in all countries that have obtained these sales rights from the IOC. Sunweb in The Netherlands, DERTOUR in Germany, Eventeam in Belgium and France, CoSport in Sweden, etc. Via this link you can view all the ATRs and register.

Most of these organizations have started sales. In the beginning this is often combined in a travel package (flight, hotel and tickets). But also the first individual tickets have been sold.

#2 Sales phases (even during the games)

It is important (also for good hopes!) to know that not all tickets are allocated to these national organizations in one go. Additional tickets are often allocated later in the year - even until shortly before the Games. In addition, also in a later phase, unsold tickets from travel packages are sold individually.

This means that you must stick to your own Olympic bucket list. So, don't be afraid if for now you only have a few events (or even 0!).

#3 The Tickettracker

But how do you know exactly when Cosport(or one of the European ATR's if you are allowed to buy from them) has new Olympic tickets to offer? If you check their site randomly, in 99% of the cases you are too late.

The TICKET TRACKER has been developed exactly for that! A piece of software that tracks changes on the websites of those ATR'S. An email is then sent to the registered members at exactly those moments. That is really an Olympic innovation!

So, in 2011 I received an email when Cosport had tickets on offer for the Basketball Final("the dream team"). Five minutes later they were sold-out. And I had put my hands on two! Without the Tickettracker I would have had no chance!

Thanks to the Tracker for London'12 and Rio'16, I have been able to buy tickets in The United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark and Iceland. About 80% of my tickets I collected through the Tracker!

And the best thing is to obtain those tickets that I thought would be impossible to lay my hands on: Men's Basketball Final 2012, Gymnastics final in Rio, Olympic football & volleyball finals in Rio, Women's Hockey Finals in London and Rio. 100m final in London and Rio. All unique experiences and memories that I will cherish all my life!

#4 Registration & costs

The Olympic Tickettracker for Tokyo2020 has again been developed by Kevin. The costs have also been kept very low to give as many people as possible a chance to experience their Olympic Fan Feeling! The one-time contribution is 15 euros. You can now subscribe to the Tokyo2020 Tracker via this site. After your registration and payment, you then can indicate which tickets (via the ‘’session code”) you are looking for. You will only receive an e-mail if any of the (mostly European) ATRs release any of these indicated tickets. Very effective! The codes for the tickets can be found via this link on the official Tokyo2020 website.

 

Register here

 

My last advice when it comes to your Tickethunt; be patient! There are still 12 months to go in which you will get your opportunities to buy tickets. For me this-phase gives me that unique pre-Olympic fever! I therefore have asked the IOC to include Tickethunting as an official Olympic sport!