Running a waitlist for a sold-out race

When does a waitlist appear?

When a ticket type is full and you have the waitlist enabled. The register button is replaced by a waitlist option, joining costs the athlete nothing, and no card is charged for sitting on the list.

First-come or lottery?

Pick per event, and say which on your race page so nobody misreads it:

• First come, first served. Athletes are queued in join order. Fair, simple, and it rewards being fast rather than being lucky.
• Lottery. Everyone who joins by your deadline goes into a draw. You freeze the list, run the draw, and offers go out in drawn order. Joining early confers no advantage, which is the point.

You can also stop accepting new entries while keeping the existing list live, which is how you close a lottery before drawing it.

How long does an athlete have to accept?

You set the offer window, anywhere from 12 hours to 14 days. Think about your race's timing: a fortnight is generous six months out and far too slow in race week, where 24 to 48 hours keeps the list moving.

When an offer expires the place passes to the next athlete and the lapsed one does not keep their position.

Should I turn on auto-fill?

Auto-fill issues the next offer automatically whenever a place opens, so cancellations recycle without you watching. Leave it off if you want to approve each one, which some organizers prefer for a small field or a championship event.

Where do places come from?

Cancellations, approved deferrals, and any capacity you add to the ticket type. Raising a ticket type's capacity while a waitlist is running releases those places to the list rather than to the open registration page.