Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

By Jacquelin Magnay

The opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games is 10 times oversubscribed and more than 20 million Olympic tickets have been applied for across all sports in the first stage of the Olympic ticket process.

More than half of the 650 Olympic sessions are oversubscribed, with officials set to conduct a ballot for tickets.

The sold-out sign includes all sessions of track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon, modern pentathlon, equestrian and the opening and closing ceremonies. Most of the swimming sessions and tennis will also be ballotted.

The public application process, which closed yesterday after an hour's extension because of overwhelming last-minute demand, should see organisers hit their target of raising £400 million from this stage, with up to another £100 million of tickets to be sold in further ballots.

There were 6.6 million tickets for sale in this public ticket process.

Locog chairman Sebastian Coe said: "We are thrilled with the response right across the board, in all sports and all sessions.

"Certain events have seen massive demand - for example the Opening Ceremony, which is more than 10 times oversubscribed, so there will understandably be disappointment and we will find a way to go back to those people with other tickets.

"What is most encouraging is that the majority of applications are for multiple tickets and for several sports, which shows that friends and family are planning to go to the Games together."

Nearly 1.8 million people have applied for tickets, with 95 per cent of orders coming from within the United Kingdom, pleasing organisers who want to see British fans in the stands.

Locog will now check and de-duplicate applications before running ballots across sessions which are oversubscribed and process applications.

Money will be taken from accounts from May 10, 2011 and customers will receive confirmation of which events they will receive tickets for in June 2011.