What do the Paris Olympics and poker have in common? Both are hoping for a full house. Despite the excitement around the world’s biggest sporting event, there are more tickets than fans might use. Initially, fans had to buy ticket bundles for three events, with the promise of easy resale for any unwanted tickets. But with lower demand on the resale market and additional tickets being released, a surplus has emerged.

• Over 270K tickets for various Olympic events are currently up for grabs on resale sites, a sharp rise from the 180K tickets available just a month ago.
• However, Paris has set a new record by selling 8.85M tickets — with premium seats for the opening ceremony fetching up to ~3K EUR each.

Ticket troubles: Many hotels and apartments that anticipated a boost from the Olympics are now lowering prices. Airlines are seeing fewer summer bookings to Paris as the Games have dampened the usual tourist interest. Disappointed fans on platforms like Reddit have vented their frustration over not being able to offload their tickets — describing their situation as dealing with “sunk costs” due to non-refundable booking fees.