March Madness Auctions

[HitHard69]

Anyone ever done one of these? Auction off each team in the tourny, Top 8 teams pay out. Thinking of hosting one and looking for some advice on how to set it up. Thinking about lumping seeds 10 and down in each bracket together, otherwise they wouldnt generate much action. Looking for a good payout structure and also what a fair house take would be (10%?). Thanks

[Matt24]

You take 10%. This is called a calcutta.

1st round worst loss 2% 1 payoff
2nd round worst loss 2% 1 payoff
Lose in Sweet 16 2% 8 payoffs
Lose in Elite 8 4% 4 payoffs
Lose in Final 4 8% 2 payoffs
Lose Championship 14% 1 payoff
Win Championship 24% 1 payoff

You should lump the 13-16 seeds from each bracket into one "lot" Also, you can do the #1 seeds as for example, Illinois A, and Illinois B, to generate more action. Of course if Illinois wins, then each winner only gets 12%.

[HitHard69]

Thanks for the help. I knew there was a fancy name for it, but couldnt remember what it was.

[HitHard69]

One more question for ya Matt-
Do you start the bidding at the same amount for each team, or do the higher seeds have higher starting bids?

[Rick Diesel]

I hold an auction for myself and friends each year, and it runs like this:

There is no house cut, so I can't help you there.
Buy-in is $200. So $200 is the maximum that you can spend. Any amount unspent is lost.

All bids are in $1 increments. No $1.50 bids for example.
We group all 15 and 16 seeds as one team. The play-in game does not count.

We draw teams out of a hat to determine the auction order.

Payout:
We take the total pot with usually 10 participants ($2,000) and divide it by six = $333.

In the first round there will be 32 winners, so we divide the $333 for that round by 32 and each winning team gets $10.40.

In the second round there will be 16 winners, so we divide the $333 for that round by 16 and each winning team gets $20.81.

Third round - $333/8 = $41.62
Fourth round - $333/4 = $83.25
Fifth round (final four) - $333/2 = 166.50
Sixth round (champ.) - $333/1 = $333

Using this format, if you have the winning team you will get $655.58 just for that team alone, plus of course any winnings that your other teams had.

Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

Rick Diesel