Your league auction, run like a broadcast.
One system for the whole night: a stage screen for the hall, a private page for every team owner, squad rules checked on every bid, and complete squads the moment the last player is sold.
Already an organizer? Open your auctions
What goes wrong on auction night
If you have run one before, you have seen at least two of these.
A team finishes a player short
Every league has squad rules: so many women, an over-35, a spread of skill levels. On a spreadsheet nobody notices a team can no longer meet them until the last ten players, when it is too late to fix.
One wrong click in front of the room
Sold to the wrong team, the wrong price typed, a player who should have gone unsold. With eighty people watching, you need to put it right in seconds, not restart the sheet.
Owners arguing about the purse
Who has how much left, and can they still afford a full squad? If owners cannot see it for themselves, every bid turns into a debate with the organizer.
A big night that looks like a spreadsheet
Sponsors, players and families are in the hall and on the stream. A projected Excel file does not match the money teams are spending.
Every team leaves with a complete, legal squad.
This is the part organizers ask about first. Your squad rules are not a checklist you tick at the end of the night. They are watched on every bid, for every team, while there is still time to do something about it.
Owners see their own limit. On each player, an owner knows how far they can go and still afford the rest of their squad.
The auctioneer is warned in time. If a sale would leave any team unable to finish its squad, you hear about it before the hammer, in plain words.
You stay in charge. The system advises and the auctioneer decides. You can override a rule with a reason, and undo anything.
You find problems before the day. A pre-auction check and a full practice run on your real player list show whether your rules and your pool actually fit together.
One auction, a screen for everyone
The hall, the team tables, the auctioneer, the players at home and the stream all follow the same auction, updated the instant a bid lands.
Stage screen for the hall
The player on the block, the current bid, every team's purse and squad count, a full-screen SOLD moment, sponsors and a break screen. Built for a projector or LED wall.
A private page for every team owner
One link per team, no login and no app. Owners see their purse, their squad, what they still need, and how far they can go on this player and still finish a complete squad.
A console for the auctioneer
Bring up the next player, take bids with one key per team, sell, mark unsold. Every action can be undone, and helpers can run it with you under their own sign-in.
A live page for players and fans
Share one link or a QR code. Anyone can follow who is on the block, who went where and for how much, with every team's squad building up live.
A broadcast overlay for your stream
Add one link to OBS and your YouTube or Instagram stream carries the player on the block, the bid and the leading team, the last sales, every team's purse and your partners' logos over your camera feed.
Posters the moment a player is sold
A square poster and a story-size poster for every sold player, plus a squad poster for every team, ready to share while the room is still buzzing.
From rule sheet to live auction in four steps
Setup fits in one sitting, which leaves the rest of the week for rehearsal.
- 1
Set your league's rules
Squad size, purse, bid steps, player categories with base prices, and the squad rules your league has agreed. Start from a ready format and change anything.
- 2
Add teams and players
Create your teams with logos and colours. Bring players in from Excel or Google Sheets, or from a tournament you already ran on PickleballScorer.
- 3
Check and rehearse
The system tells you before the day whether every team can end with a complete squad, and lets you run a full practice auction on your real list.
- 4
Go live
Open the stage screen, send owners their links and start. When the last player is sold, squads, spreadsheets and posters are already there.
Built for how pickleball leagues really work
Pickleball squads are harder to balance than most sports: mixed doubles needs women, age-group ties need seniors, and skill categories have to be spread across teams. The auction is set up around your league’s rules, not the other way round.
- Squad rules by gender, age group, skill category or rating, in any combination
- Paddle auction in the hall, or bidding from owners' phones — your choice
- Icon and retained players assigned before the auction, with retention limits
- Player categories with their own base price and price cap
- Draw order by category, by set, in your own order, or drawn at random
- A bid clock you can pause, resume and restart
- An unsold round at a reduced price, and walk-in players on the day
- Trades after the auction, with the same squad rules applied
- Purse in rupees, points, US dollars or dirhams
- Linked players get a notification on their phone when they are sold
Player and squad posters are generated for you as each sale is made.
The auction is only the first night of the league
When the auction ends, send the squads into a PickleballScorer tournament with one click. The same teams and players carry through to fixtures, court assignments, live scoring from the phone, public standings and player ratings. One system from the first bid to the final.
Send us your rule sheet.
We will set up a practice auction with your league’s rules and player list, and walk you through it on a call. You see your own auction working before you decide anything.
Questions organizers ask
Planning your first auction? Read how to run a pickleball player auction. Anything else? Get in touch.
What is a pickleball player auction?
It is how franchise-style pickleball leagues build their teams. Each team owner gets the same purse, players come up one at a time, owners bid, and the highest bid wins the player. The league sets squad rules — for example a minimum number of women or a player from each skill category — so that the teams end up balanced.
How is this different from running the auction on a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet records what happened. This system runs the night: it shows the room what is happening, tells each owner what they can afford, checks your squad rules while bidding is still open, and lets you undo any mistake. When the auction ends the squads, downloads and posters already exist.
Do team owners need to install an app or create an account?
No. Each team gets one private link that opens in the phone's browser. Everyone at the team table can open the same link. If a link is shared with the wrong person you can replace it with a new one in a tap.
We run a paddle auction in the hall. Does that work?
Yes. In a paddle auction the auctioneer takes bids from the floor and enters them, and owners use their phones as a live dashboard for purse, squad and limits. If you prefer, you can let owners place bids from their phones instead. You choose this per auction.
What happens if the auctioneer makes a mistake?
Every action can be undone and redone, including a sale. You can also correct the team or the price of an earlier sale, or put a player back into the auction, without disturbing anything else.
Can we try it with our own players before the real auction?
Yes, and we recommend it. Load your real teams, rules and player list, run a full practice auction, then start over with one click. Retained players can be kept when you reset.
How many teams and players can it handle?
Small club leagues and large franchise leagues run on the same setup. Player lists of well over a hundred import in one paste from Excel or Google Sheets.
Our league has unusual rules. Will it fit?
Most leagues do. Rules are set up by you rather than fixed by the software, and a rule can be set to block a sale, warn the auctioneer, or simply be recorded. Send us your rule sheet and we will set up a practice auction with it so you can see it working before you commit.
What do we get when the auction is over?
A spreadsheet of every team and every sale, a poster and story for each sold player, a squad poster for each team, and a public page showing every squad. You can also send the squads straight into a PickleballScorer tournament to run the league's fixtures, live scores and standings.
How do we get started?
Book a demo or message us on WhatsApp. We set up your first auction together on your own player list, and you rehearse it before the day.