Game Guide

The Auction

There are two great ways to run a Fantasy League Professional auction; the Traditional Auction - where all managers gather together at a set time and venue; or the Online Auction - where everything can be completed from the comfort of your own home or office.

Traditional Auction

The auction should be organised to take place at a time and place that is convenient for all. Some suggested locations are a home, pub, club or office – anywhere that the group of managers can mingle and get round a table. You can hold your auction at any time, but most will take place in the fortnight leading up to the start of the opening fixture on Friday 8th June. Auctions can even take place after the tournament has started, with the additional option for leagues to backdate points all the way back to tournament kick-off.

Once the venue is sorted, you should work out the league’s local rules regarding budgets, country quotas and formations. We'll suggest some default rules for a rounded competition, but feel free to tweak these as you see fit. The most important thing is to make sure that all managers are aware of the rules before they prepare for the auction! Appoint a responsible auctioneer who can control proceedings and keep a record of players who have been taken. Managers should each have their own player list and team sheets, which you can download from this website along with a handy auction tracker.

Auction Tools

Fantasy League provides you with the tools you need to help make your auction run efficiently.

You should make sure that each manager has an up-to-date version of the Player List, which lists all available players along with their position and country.

Each manager should also have their own Team Sheet with which they can keep track of the players they have purchased and see the gaps that remain to fill.

Finally, the league chairman or auctioneer should make sure they have a copy of the Auction Tracker. The Auction Tracker is a master document that details the picks made by all teams.The auction tracker is a vital piece of equipment as it provides the record of who-went-where, and can be used after the auction to submit each manager's squad into the Fantasy League Pro website.

The Auction - Finer Points

The auction itself will see a flurry of bidding as managers announce their chosen player’s name, set a starting price and counter each others’ bids until all teams have been assigned their full complement of 15 players. The league chairman will then come back to the website and enter the details of all teams in the league. For more details on the finer points of the traditional auction, please read on.

Budgets

Each manager starts with a budget of your league's own choosing. Remember that each manager will be paying what they feel each player is worth, and not some predefined price tag like in some other fantasy football games. The budget provides the currency that allows them to buy their players.

Our suggested league default of £100 million is a nice round figure, although feel free to improvise.

Just as importantly, decide on bidding increments. Our default increment of £0.5m will lead to an auction that should take two or three hours to complete for average-sized leagues - including time to throw in a few drinks and snacks. A £150 million budget with £0.25m bid increments will lead to a long, nervous auction, while £1m bid increments and a £40m budget will lead to a short, sharp affair.

Building A Winning Team

Once you know your budget you'll also have to consider the available formations that you can use? And how many players you can have from each real-life country? These rules are customisable and it is down to individual chairmen to decide on the options before the auction. So make sure each manager knows the rules up front, before the auction begins.

Your league's formations must be selected from the three valid Fantasy League international formations: being 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 5-3-2. The 4-4-2 formation is universal and must be available in all leagues, but the league chairman can decide to restrict one or both of the other available formations.

To reflect the squad rotation of the modern game and to allow you to stop patriotic managers attempting to snatch the entire English, Irish or Ukrainian starting eleven, the chairman is also able to determine the league's Country Quota. This value can be set anywhere from a maximum of one to four players from each country, and can also be changed once the tournament has started, such as to increase the quota before the knock-out stage starts. We suggest a limit of two per country, to spread the out top talent in several directions.

Player positions are strictly determined as per the player list, and no other players who are not on the player list can be included in your team until they have been added to the list by Fantasy League.

The aim of the game is to outscore all other teams in your league, so once you've understood the squad constraints, get ready to outbid your opponents to get your hands on the players you want.

Bidding For Players

The first manager kicks everything off with an opening bid, e.g. "Joe Hart, £0.5 million". The bidding continues until the player is sold to the highest bidder.

The next manager then raises a player and bidding goes on until he is sold ... and so on until everyone has a full squad. Players can be raised in any order with any minimum bid, usually for free. Don't go through the list by position - that's too predictable!

Money Doesn't Grow On Trees

Managers who run out of money before they complete their squad can either pick up all remaining players on free transfers each time it's their turn to bid, or drop out of the auction until the free transfer rounds at the end.

The bidding process continues until everyone has a full quota of players. The broke (or should that be broken?) managers left at the end should then take it in turns to pick up free transfers from the dregs remaining. This is the time that a canny manager can make some decisive moves and pick up the ultimate bargain that escaped everyone else's attention!

Wrapping Up

Once the bidding frenzy is over, everyone should check their team sheets to ensure that:

• They have a valid formation for their first eleven, based on the official Fantasy League player positions.
• No two managers have the same player.
• No one has exceeded the country quotas chosen by your chairman
• No manager has sneakily inserted a player not on the official Fantasy League player list.

If they haven’t already, managers should think up a team name and hand the sheet over to the Chairman to do the necessaries. Don't forget to add the player codes, as this will make life easier when entering the teams into the website!

Now that all the squads have been formed, the Chairman should return to the website, register the league and enter the teams within the league lobby. All is now set for mangers to sit back, relax or sweat it out until the opening fixture of the tournament.

Short Cuts

An auction can and does last anywhere between one and six hours depending on league size, bid increments and the masochistic nature of the managers involved.

For those of you who seem to think that there's more to life than football, then here are some ideas for cutting down the time of your auction.

• Only allow bidding for eleven players and make all subs free. Choose the subs on a rotation basis.
• Have no budgets and stick to a "draft" format by going round the room in order until everyone has a full squad. It's useful to draw the order that managers will pick in advance of the auction, and to make things fairer reverse the order after the completion of each round, so the player who picks first in the first round will pick last in the second round.
• Have a small budget (say £20 million) with a large bid increment (say £1 million). It's not pretty... but it's pretty quick!

Online Auction

The league chairman will set up the league and assign teams and local rules in the League Lobby, before entering the auction and setting a deadline for all teams to have input their first set of bids.

Each manager in the league will put in their secret bids using our Online Auction Engine, entering the maximum price they are willing to bid for each player.

Once the deadline passes, the chairman hits 'Process Bids' and the system reveals each manager’s bids, assigning each player to the team of highest bidding manager.

The league chairman will then set the bid deadline for Round Two of the auction, and the process continues in bidding rounds until all squads are complete.

For more details on the finer points of the online auction, please read on.

Budgets

Each manager starts with a budget of your own choosing. Remember you'll be paying what you feel each player is worth and not some predefined price tag.

£100 million is a nice round figure, although feel free to improvise. Most importantly, decide on the bidding increments. Managers will be able to add their bids for each player in denominations that are set down in the bid increments. If they try to enter a figure that is outside the stated increments, their bid will be rounded up or down to the nearest legitimate bid amount.

Building A Winning Team

So you know your budget; but you'll also have to consider the available formations that you can use? And how many players you can have from each real-life country? These rules are customisable and it is down to individual chairmen to set up the options before the auction. So make sure each manager knows the rules up front, before the auction begins.

Your league's Formations must be selected from the three valid Fantasy League international formations: being 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 5-3-2. The 4-4-2 formation is default and must be available in all leagues, but the league chairman can decide to add one or both of the other available formations.

To reflect the squad rotation of the modern game and to allow you to stop greedy managers attempting to snatch the entire Spanish starting eleven, the chairman is are able to determine the league's Country Quota. This value can be set anywhere from a maximum of one to four players from each country, and can also be changed once the tournament has started, such as to increase the quota before the knock-out stage starts.

Player positions are strictly as per the player list and no other players who are not on the player list can be included in your team until they have been added to the list by Fantasy League.

The aim of the game is to outscore all other teams in your league, so once you've understood the squad constraints, get ready to outbid your opponents to get your hands on the players you want.

Bidding For Players

Once you've set your Auction Rules and your first Bid Deadline, managers can start bidding for players. Managers enter their players with bids alongside them via their own secure bidding page. Before being accepted, bids are checked to make sure they follow the rules of the game and the auction league rules (formations, country quotas etc) set by the chairman.

The Auction Status page tells you all you want to know about your Auction. It includes Budget details, Free Agents list and a Bulletin board for up to date online banter. Basically it allows all league members to see how much money managers have left and whether they are yet to submit their bids for that round - without revealing the details of the actual bids of course.

Process Bids

When the deadline has passed and you are happy that all managers' bids are in, the Chairman can process the bids and set the next round deadline. Each player is then allocated to the highest bidder. In the event of a tied bid, the player is allocated according the pre-specified order (tie preference), which is automatically generated when a bid deadline is set-up.

Each time a round of bids is processed by the chairman and a new deadline set, an email is sent out to the managers, keeping them up to date with their developing squads and the new bid deadlines and tie preferences. The same process continues for subsequent rounds, with the players already bought appearing in each team as confirmed.

Managers who have no money can continue to bid nothing for players (as long as your minimum bid is zero), but when all spaces are filled, a manager takes no further part in the Auction.

Wrapping Up

Once everyone has a complete squad, the Online Auction Engine automatically creates your league, complete with teams, ready for the tournament's start. An email is sent out to all managers in your league and everything is ready for the new campaign ahead - just sit back and await the first match, or tinker with your substitutions bench to set your ideal starting eleven!