How Auction Style Fantasy Football Works

Like your typical snake drafts, people will take turns selecting players in a serpentine format. Here is where the real fun begins, instead of adding players to their rosters they put the players up on the auction block. The league will set a salary cap, i.e. $1 million or whatever figure they choose and the people cannot go over that cap. The people then begin bidding on players and remove the ending price from their cap. This process continues until all of the rosters  are full.

This adds a real dimension to the game and really gets people riled up and involved. Your typical wait and pick draft turns into a game of strategy, correctly managing your player selection and when to place a bid. Here are some reason as to why your typical snake draft fantasy player switches to the auction style format.

Auctions are Fair

Remember that the salary cap is predetermined before the bidding starts. Therefore everyone starts with an equal share of the pie and have the chance to get any player, regardless of their draft position.  In a typical snake draft system if you get stuck with the 12th pick in a 12-team snake draft league then you practically have little chance for any franchised players. With the auction setup you have every chance to get the top ranked players as long as you’re willing to pay ‘going market price’ for them. This allows for a level playing field from the start and implements strategy.

Auctions Provide Flexibility

Where as with a snake system you are stuck with an ‘evenly’ distributed player selection, auctions allow for you to build a team however you want it to be created. For example:

Got a good feeling on one or two first rounders? You can spend as much or as little as you want on first round selections and balance the rest of your team with sleepers.

Have you had a bad experience with a first round core team? Balance your team by skipping the first round choices and pick up more of the 2nd and 3rd round choices.

Or if you are the good ol’ traditional snake player and want the usual balanced team you can also build that. It’s up to you and your control, if you are a big San Diego fan and wear around nfl helmets of your favorite team and think that their offense is on the upswing then you can make sure that they are all on your squad. Welcome to the beauty of auction style play.