Format Summary
Some people call this a Blind Bid Draft format, but on Drafty we call it the Silent Auction.
If you've ever been in a league that uses FAAB money instead of waiver priority for free agency, this draft format works in a similar fashion.
In the Silent Auction, every team submits a private bid for each player that no one else can see. To pass on a player, a team can submit a $0 bid.
When every team locks in a bid, the timer will skip ahead to the end, making this one of the fastest auction drafts you'll ever experience.
When the timer expires, the top submitted bids are revealed and the active player is added to the high bidder's roster. The Bid Reveal can be turned off by the commissioner under Draft Settings.
It is important to note that in a Silent Auction Draft the system will not recognize any bids unless they are locked in before time expires. Trying to make a last-second adjustment could be your doom.
There is also an optional Stewardship Rule that makes this draft format newbie friendly. When turned on, the team who submits the winning bid will only be charged $1 more than the second highest bid.
Inevitably, two teams will occasionally submit the same winning bid so let's discuss tiebreakers.
The default mechanism is to reset the timer and give all teams a second chance to change their bid and win the auction. This unique concept results in some real psychological warfare as teams who submitted a low-ball bid will second-guess their choices.
The commish can switch this so that only the teams who tied for the highest bid are allowed to participate in the second chance auction.
BUT, what happens if the second chance auction also results in a tie?
In the event of back-to-back ties, the player is returned to the pool of Undrafted Players and they can be nominated again. This keeps the action moving without any random results, but Drafty is the most customizable draft platform on the planet so there are alternative options available for handling a double tiebreaker.
You can read more about tiebreakers.
A typical 12-team redraft league with 15 players on each team can expect a Silent Auction Draft to last about 2 hours; actual draft times will vary.
Our mission at Drafty is to innovate online draft rooms and make draft day the best day of the year.
If you have any questions just leave a comment or else you can open a Silent Auction Mock Draft to give this format a go. For tech support, please use the help panel in-draft for fastest response time.
FAQs
Common questions about this format will be posted here so don't hesitate to ask!