After last years desaster with its registration process (they were selling the first 10,000 tickets for 20 EUR resulting in server crashes and a sellout within a few minutes - these spots were bought by companies selling these tickets on ebay), BMW Berlin Marathon changes its registration process for 2014:
1. From end of September until early October you can register (for free) for the lottery.
2. Then there is a drawing
3. The winners can register in early November (for 98 EUR)
4. If not all winners register, the remaining spots will be used for another lottery
I see quite a few flaws with this process:
1. No registration fee for the lottery means a lot of runners are going to apply "just in case"
2. small chances of getting in with a partner/friend (can't apply together)
3. it doesn't say that lottery spots are personalized, so they will probably end up on ebay again
4. No guaranteed entry based on time