Online Auctions: WOW, have they come a long way

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:06 am

There is a great technological advancement being made in the fantasy sports space and few people are talking about it, but they should. In case you haven't tried them in the last two years, the ESPN and Yahoo auction sites have progressed BIG TIME and have now made the online auction experience as good as the online draft experience.

I mean, the software for both companies is FANTASTIC and it makes doing auction leagues online A FREAKIN' BLAST!! Seriously.

I used ESPN's auction site last year and it was great. I commend George del Prado and everyone behind fantasyauctioneer.com because it was the first useable online auction site for our industry. It was a blast to see that clock roll down 3,2,1 and then have someone jump in with a last micro-second bid. But the site froze up many times during each online auction and it just wasn't improving at all. Eventually the company folded after ESPN debuted its product.

ESPN took the baton and created a first-rate online auction site for football and baseball two years ago and I still think it's the best. The voice that does the countdown makes you jump out of your seat when you first hear him. It's a great, great auction site.

This week we used Yahoo's auction site and it is also very good. We just did a 12-team auction in less than two hours and 30 minutes as Yahoo has a few features that speeds up the end game. When owners are down to their last $1 players, the software knows when nobody else can outbid the high bid and immediately awards that player to the right team, saving plenty of time in those last 15 second countdowns. If you do that over 20+ players it really makes the end game go fast.

ESPN and Yahoo are allowing auction leagues to grow thanks to their software advances. I'm happy for that because I also want to grow the auction business. Our NFBC Auction Championship for baseball was a good first year success in 2010 and we are giving out a $15,000 grand prize with our live auctions. For football this year the NFFC is offering a $10,000 grand prize for the Auction Championship, again with the hope that football auctions will continue to grow in popularity. Auctions are a BLAST and really the fairest way to compile teams.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the online auction software and if you think this market can or will grow because of this. Could we ever offer online auctions as part of our overall championship? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks all.

BillyWaz · Post by **BillyWaz** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:19 am

Greg,

I agree 100% that auctions are easily the fairest way to assemble a team. There is no "if I woulda had this pick, etc." going on, as everyone starts from ground zero.

As for the online sites, ESPN is fantastic. I have never tried Yahoo, but Couchmanagers.com is pretty weak IMO.

To answer your question about having online auctions, I think I would say you COULD NOT. In a standard draft, someone can stop the draft and say "I meant to pick this guy".....no harm, no foul. In an auction, all it takes is for one person to "freeze up", and you would have problems on your hands.

I recall doing an auction on fantasyauctioneer a few years ago and a certain player was winding down for WELL below his perceived value. I and at least 6 or 7 others tried to "up the bid", but we all were frozen. Well the owner who won him felt he should of got him for the low price. Technology should NEVER get in the way of the outcome of a draft, scoring, etc. You don't have this when everyone is live in the room, but it would be a problem online.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 5:51 am

Originally posted by BillyWaz:
Greg,

I agree 100% that auctions are easily the fairest way to assemble a team. There is no "if I woulda had this pick, etc." going on, as everyone starts from ground zero.

As for the online sites, ESPN is fantastic. I have never tried Yahoo, but Couchmanagers.com is pretty weak IMO.

To answer your question about having online auctions, I think I would say you COULD NOT. In a standard draft, someone can stop the draft and say "I meant to pick this guy".....no harm, no foul. In an auction, all it takes is for one person to "freeze up", and you would have problems on your hands.

I recall doing an auction on fantasyauctioneer a few years ago and a certain player was winding down for WELL below his perceived value. I and at least 6 or 7 others tried to "up the bid", but we all were frozen. Well the owner who won him felt he should of got him for the low price. Technology should NEVER get in the way of the outcome of a draft, scoring, etc. You don't have this when everyone is live in the room, but it would be a problem online. Give Yahoo a try. You'll like it. And yes, couchmanagers isn't ready for prime time yet. That's a frustrating site.

I agree with your past experience on fantasyauctioneer.com, but we rolled back picks on Yahoo very quickly and easily when something happened. I don't think you see folks freezing up on ESPN or Yahoo like you saw in the past. I guess it can happen, but again on both sites I do believe you have commissioner access to stop and roll back. I'm not trying to push for these one way or another, I'm just saying your experience is why we didn't do auctions online, but I really think things have changed thanks to ESPN and Yahoo.

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:01 am

I may need some positive software experiences under my belt before I invested $850 in an online version of the auction championship.

But if the NFFC could make it happen, I would sign up today for a $125 online satelite auction/ auctionDC league! (and many more after that).

This is worth exploring. With the work stoppage looming, this may be the only way that any of us get our auction fix in 2011.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:02 am

I was very impressed with the Yahoo site. If I was going to pony up $850 I would have no trouble doing so on their site. I was very impressed with the software when we used it this week.

norb_55 · Post by **norb_55** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 12:39 pm

I would pony up for online auction satellites or an auctoin championship thru either site. Yahoo and ESPN both feature great products.

I really hope NFBC offers an online auction championship and satellites for baseball next year. Auction leagues are the ONLY way to go for baseball.

weber7777 · Post by **weber7777** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 1:34 pm

- Greg, can we do a few online auction satellites to see the interest out there using one of these these sites?

boutrous11 · Post by **boutrous11** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:21 pm

you guys know i'm always in for an online auction!

RiFF · Post by **RiFF** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:28 pm

Just tried a mock auction on Yahoo with myself and 11 mechanical dummies (and still ended up with a crappy team!!). Seemed to work fine. If there's no reported problems doing a "live" auction, I'd be up for a satellite or two.

Coltsfan · Post by **Coltsfan** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:52 pm

Originally posted by RiFF:
Just tried a mock auction on Yahoo with myself and 11 mechanical dummies (and still ended up with a crappy team!!). Seemed to work fine. If there's no reported problems doing a "live" auction, I'd be up for a satellite or two.