An auction draft is a type of fantasy football draft in which team owners have a virtual budget that they use to bid on players. The draft functions like a real auction, with each owner given a certain amount of money and the players auctioned off one by one. Once a player is nominated, team owners can make offers or bids on the player, which is the dollar amount they are willing to spend to draft that player. The team with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the player.
Not every fantasy football platform supports auction drafts, but ESPN Fantasy is the most commonly used platform that does. Other viable platforms include NFL Fantasy, Yahoo! Fantasy, and CBS Fantasy. In order to create an auction draft, the commissioner of the league just has to set the draft to auction in the league settings. Once the draft starts, team owners can nominate players when its their turn and bid on the players they want.
In auction drafts, it is important not to overspend on one or two players. The top tier running backs and wide receivers are usually the most expensive players, so it is important to have a strategy in place for how much to spend on each position.
