The Auction Draft bidding process

This article shows you how prepare and participate in a Fantasy Sports auction draft.

Please note: The Auction Draft format is specifically designed for live drafts. The "auto-pick" functionality was only added to ensure drafts are completed at their scheduled times. The draft strategy involved in Auction formats is not auto-pick friendly, as we must include limits on what we allow the system to bid for each player. With this hard limit in place, it is very difficult for an auto-pick team to obtain top quality players, as managers who are live drafting will typically outbid the hard maximum that is in place.

In auction drafts, teams are given a budget for acquiring players. They can exhaust this budget in any way they choose. Teams can bid on and draft any player within their remaining budget. The two highest-ranked players could be drafted by the same team, which would almost never occur in a standard draft.

Before the draft, teams may customize players’ default auction values using the Edit Pre-Draft Player Values page.

• For Fantasy Baseball the default player values are based on a 12 team, 23-man roster league with a $260 default budget.
• For Fantasy Basketball the default player values are based on a 12 team, 13-man roster league with a $200 default budget.
• For Fantasy Hockey the default player values are based on a 12 team, 16-man roster league with a $200 default budget.
• For Fantasy Football the default player values are based on a 10 team, 15-man roster league with a $200 default budget.

If your league does not use these options, consider adjusting player values accordingly.

If your league has keepers, the Commissioner can choose either to import keepers automatically to each team, or they can choose to manually assign them using the Assign Auction Keeper Players tool.

This tool is used to add keepers to each team, as well as set the cost of the player. This amount will be deducted from the team's auction budget.

Note: It's possible for commissioners to enter in a different amount of keepers for teams. This will not affect the nomination order for the draft.

The Commissioner also can adjust the following settings for a custom league's draft using the Auction Draft Settings tool:

• The nomination order
• The nomination time limit
• The bid time limit
• Each team's draft budget

During the draft, teams take turns nominating in a circular order (e.g. 1-12, 1-12, 1-12, etc.). A player auction begins once a nominating team places an opening bid on a selected player. Team managers may bid whatever amount they feel a particular player is worth. When a single high bid remains, the player is awarded to the winning team and the bid amount is deducted from the team manager’s funds. This process repeats until every team's roster is completely filled.

Teams have 30 seconds to nominate a player for auction. If no player is selected within the time limit, the system will automatically nominate the first player in their nomination queue. If a team does not have any players in their queue, the player with the highest pre-rank value order balancing a player's roster will be nominated.

When a player is nominated, the default opening bid is $1. This amount can be increased by the nominating manager before submitting.

Once a player is nominated, he appears "on the block" and the auction begins. The nominated player's information and statistics are displayed once they are nominated. The auction clock will count down from 30 seconds. Any bids made within 10 seconds remaining will reset the clock to 10 seconds. The player is awarded to the manager with the highest bid when the auction clock counts down to zero.

During an auction, managers can automatically bid $1 more than the current high bid, or manually enter a dollar amount. Managers can bid up to a dollar amount that allows them at least $1 for any remaining roster slots.

Auction Draft Interface

• Team module: The Team module lists all the teams that are participating in the draft, along with how many slots they have filled. Bids for the current player on the auction block show up below the bidding team. Users can view by:

1. The total dollar amount remaining for each team.
2. Highest single bid each team can place, while still having enough to fill each open slot.
3. Average amount per player that each team can bid.

• Grid View: Grid View allows you to see the positions filled on all teams at the same time. By hovering over an occupied slot, the drafted player and amount paid for them is displayed. Grid View can be toggled on and off by clicking on Open Grid View below the Team module.
   
• Auction Block: The player up for auction is displayed on the Auction Block. Their stats and information, including the projected draft value and average cost, appear in this section as well.
   
• Bidding Module: The Bidding module displays the time remaining for the current bid. It also shows the amount of the current bid. Here you can place a bid of $1 more than the current, or enter your own bid amount. If you choose, you can use the Auto-bid feature to automatically nominate and bid for you. If you are inactive during the draft, your team will default to Auto-bid.
   
• Player Research: The Player Research module allows you to review all players in the draft, or filter players by position. Players can be sorted by name, projected value, or average cost. The arrow next to each player moves that player into the Player Nomination module, or you can manually drag the player to the Player Nomination module.
   
• Player Nomination: In the Player Nomination module, you can keep track of the players you want to put on the auction block. Players can be sorted by dragging them to the desired position on the list. When it's your turn to nominate, if the time expires before manually adding someone, the next player in the nomination list will be added.
   
• Draft Results: The Draft Results module provides you with the draft picks you have made, as well as the picks of all other teams. Clicking on the team avatar will also populate this information.
   
• Chat: In the Chat block, you can chat with other Managers during the draft. You even have the option to display recent picks in the chat.

Note: If you have money left over after an Auction Draft, it will not be added to your FAAB. There is NO advantage to holding on to money after the draft.