As I mentioned in my introductory article on this exciting Fantasy EPL format, the draft day experience in auction leagues is drastically different from drafts that follow the serpentine format. As such, being successful in an auction draft requires a significantly different approach. I’ll take you through my top five recommendations for you to set yourself up for success in an auction league. Click here for details on how you can access our 22/23 Draft Kit.
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Strategies for a Successful Auction Draft
As I’m sure is the case for many of you, I got my start in fantasy playing the official Premier League game. But, unlike most managers who make their way to draft fantasy, my introduction to the game was through the auction format. I’ve been playing in a highly competitive auction league on Fantrax since the 2015-16 season, and over the span of those seven years I've arrived at some key takeaways that, when combined, have resulted in a positive drafting experience.
Here are some of the tips I wish I had at my disposal back when I first started playing:
Set up budget tiers with flex players
Let’s start with something you’re (hopefully) already familiar with. We at The Draft Society have always been proponents of creating tiered rankings as a critical component to your draft preparations in traditional leagues, and I’ve found the same approach to be extremely helpful for the auction format. The major difference for your tiers is that, rather than trying to determine which players you’d be willing to select at a particular point during the draft, you’ll instead want to assign a valuation for how much of your auction budget you’d be willing to spend for that player to be part of your roster.
As a reminder, any player can be nominated at any time during an auction draft, so having a guide for how much of your budget you’re willing to invest in a player when they are on the auction block is critical to not overspending or watching a competitor place a winning bid for a player you wanted and had room in your budget to bid more for.
One thing to note when coming up with your valuations is that the most desirable fantasy assets are going to be subject to bidding wars involving multiple managers, and the winning bids for these players will almost certainly be higher than what you’ve planned for. I’ve found it particularly helpful to create some sort of indicator (a different background color or font weight in your tiers document, for example) for players you’re willing to “flex” your valuation on in the event you get into a bidding war with another manager. This doesn't only apply to elite-level assets; think about which players you'd really like to have on your roster and set them apart from players you'd be content with, but not excited by.
I won’t recommend a certain percentage you should be willing to exceed your valuation by to get a flex player, however; your tolerance for how high you push will be influenced by how far into the auction you are, which other players still remain that you’re interested in rostering and how much of your budget you have left to complete the rest of your roster. This is just one of those decisions you have to make a judgment call on “in the moment”. If you haven’t taken part in an auction draft before, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about the second you find yourself in this situation. Trust your gut and keep moving, whatever the outcome.
Stick to your valuations for non-flex players
In order to have the room to bid extra on your flex players, you’ll need to be disciplined when it comes to bidding on the other players who are nominated. It can be incredibly tempting to jump in when you see other managers bidding up a player (“Am I missing out? Did I undervalue them?”), or to keep going with your bids because you think the end is in sight (“Just one more bid and the other manager will drop out”). This is a gambler’s mentality and can bleed you dry in a hurry and leave you with a squad you’re not particularly excited about. The pace of the auction will test your resolve in these moments. Don’t give in.
Nominate lower value players early
This recommendation may seem a bit out of left field, but it can have a very powerful effect. The natural tendency for fantasy managers, particularly those who are more familiar with a snake draft, is to choose the best available player when it’s their turn to nominate. This leads to a mad frenzy in the opening minutes of the auction when managers are on high alert and primed to spend a significant chunk of their budget. It also has the effect of setting a standard expectation for what premium players are going to cost to roster.
But, by nominating a player you’ve valued in a lower tier (but still someone worth rostering) during this stage of the draft, you’re introducing uncertainty and creating a whole heap of confusion for your fellow managers. This will likely go one of two ways: either the bids will take off in the same fashion as they have for other players in the draft and the player you nominated will go to another manager for far more than they should; or, managers will be reluctant to spend their funds while they wait for a shot at the next premium asset and you’ll have an opportunity to roster a player for less than your valuation.
I’ll illustrate this tactic with an example. Let’s say you are the 6th person to nominate in your auction draft, and the first five managers have nominated Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah, Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane and Trent Alexander-Arnold, each of whom have commanded a significant bid. Rather than nominate Joao Cancelo when it’s your turn, you could instead drop down a couple tiers and put up a player like Ollie Watkins, Gabriel Martinelli or Kieran Trippier to either land them at a cut-rate price or goad your fellow managers into overpaying. With the prep you’ll have done with your tiered valuations, you’ll be in a position to make a more calm and collected assessment of whether to invest in your nomination or move on to the next player, and all the while you'll be keeping your competing managers in a heightened mental state that can lead to errors.
Note: I would not recommend nominating your flex players as part of this ploy. You don't want to put yourself in a position to consider paying more than your valuation here. Try to keep your flex players around for later in the draft when you'll face less competition to place the winning bid and ideally not have to exceed your valuation.
This strategy has diminishing returns as the draft goes on, with the difference between player values drawing closer as the most sought-after players leave the player pool. You may find success with this approach for 3 or 4 rounds of nominations. Once the majority of your tier 1 and 2 assets have been selected, though, you should switch your nominations to the best available players you want for your remaining roster spots.
Invest in at least one premium asset
One of the most common dilemmas when determining how you will approach an auction draft is whether you should go big on a premium asset and complete your roster with a collection of lower-cost fliers, or whether you should strive to share the wealth with a balanced squad of mid-range players. As someone who has tried both strategies, my recommendation is to do your absolute best to come away with at least one elite player.
Where you have the relative parity of picking a player in the same round as each other manager in a snake draft, you don’t have that luxury in an auction. Don’t forget that there’s no order to be followed in an auction beyond the nomination, so it is possible for you or your fellow managers to invest in multiple top-tier assets (it’s highly unlikely someone will be able to afford both KDB and Salah, but not out of the realm of possibility they could end up with a pair like Bukayo Saka and Luis Diaz).
For comparative purposes, imagine that you participated in a snake draft where your entire squad was made up of players with ADPs that would land them in Rounds 5-10. While you may end up with greater consistency of starts among your players than you would if you had to draft players from the late rounds, you’re missing out on all of the players with the highest scoring potential. The competition for these elite players is fierce, and they will command a high price, but they’re in-demand for a reason. Don’t miss out if you can help it.
Be patient and snag some late bargains
The adrenaline rush from the early stages of the auction can also be used to your advantage if you’re patient enough. As mentioned previously, the bidding process can be intoxicating, and I can almost guarantee there will be at least one manager who goes all-in and spends their entire auction budget in the first 30 minutes of the draft. This strategy can be a viable one if the manager is successful in securing multiple premium assets, but it also increases the psychological burden of dropping underperformers during the season, as they will be more reluctant to let go of a player they’ve invested more heavily in.
As the auction starts winding down, you may notice that there are still quite a few players you valued in one of your middle tiers that haven’t been nominated. Be mindful of your roster construction to leave space for one or two bargains in positions where other managers have exhausted their opportunities and you may find yourself with little to no competition for a player that fell through the cracks.
Additionally, because you won't have invested more than 1-5% of your budget on these players, you’ll likely find yourself less attached to them and more easily able to move them on from your squad during the season if they underperform or face an absence through injury or suspension. Having that bit of additional flexibility with your roster can give you an edge over your competitors as the season goes on.
In Conclusion
Keep an eye out for some additional advice on what not to do during your auction draft, as well as our own set of auction values to get you started with your own tiers, in our Draft Kit. As you get more experience in auction drafts, you will develop your own takeaways and strategies for how to get the better of your league mates, but hopefully this set of tactics will put you in pole position to dominate your leagues as you acquaint yourself with the format. This approach is by no means the only way to succeed and, as with any other fantasy game, there is a considerable amount of luck that goes along with the skill. Don’t forget to have fun!
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