Before tickets for an event go onsale, users are allowed to register for the event. The registration requires completion of verification steps useful for discriminating between human and robot users. Due to the complexity of the first verification step, it can be estimated that registered users are more likely than other users to be human. Registered users are allowed to electronically submit requests for tickets for the event prior to the tickets going on sale. Unregistered users must wait to request tickets until a later time (e.g., when the tickets are onsale) and may—at that time—complete similar or simpler verification steps, further delaying receipt of their requests. Requests from registered users may further be preferentially served simply due to the registrations. Thus, tickets can be preferentially provided to users estimated to be more likely to be human.