Cricket Auction Pro
Cricket Auction Pro vs Running a Manual Auction
Plenty of local tournaments still run their auction with a whiteboard, a notebook for tracking purse spend, and someone shouting bids across a hall — and it works, especially for small, informal events among people who trust each other. The trade-offs show up as the player pool or the number of teams grows, or when disputes need a factual answer rather than someone's memory of a chaotic ten minutes.
Why organizers use this
- No risk of a whiteboard smudge or a miscounted purse total mid-auction
- Every bid is timestamped, giving a factual answer if a price is disputed later
- Purse balance updates instantly instead of needing manual recalculation after every sale
- Results are ready to export the moment the auction ends, no retyping from notes
- A public display gives spectators the same experience a whiteboard never could
Typical use cases
- A tournament that has outgrown a whiteboard as player pools and team counts have grown
- A committee that had a purse-tracking dispute they couldn't resolve after a manual auction
- An organizer wanting a more professional, spectator-friendly presentation this season
How we approach this comparison
A manual auction genuinely works and plenty of good tournaments still run this way — this isn't about manual auctions being wrong, just about what changes with software.
Evaluation checklist
| Aspect | What to evaluate | Cricket Auction Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Purse accuracy | How does your current process prevent a missed or miscounted purse deduction from causing a dispute later? | Purse balances update automatically and instantly on every sale, removing manual recalculation entirely. |
| Dispute resolution | If two people remember a bid differently, how do you settle it today? | Every bid, retraction, and sale is timestamped and logged, giving a factual record to reference. |
| Spectator experience | What do family, team owners, and fans who aren't at the whiteboard actually get to see? | A public display and shareable link let anyone follow live bidding and sold outcomes in real time. |
Frequently asked questions
- Is a manual auction actually bad?
- Not necessarily — for a small, informal event with a trusted group, a manual auction can work perfectly well. Software becomes more valuable as scale, stakes, or scrutiny increase.
- What's the biggest practical risk with a manual auction?
- Purse tracking errors are the most common issue — a missed deduction or a miscounted total can snowball into a dispute that's hard to resolve without a recorded, timestamped history.
- Does switching to software make the auction feel less personal?
- Most organizers find the opposite — the auctioneer can focus on running the room and building energy instead of doing arithmetic, while the software quietly handles the bookkeeping.
- Is it expensive to move from manual to software?
- The free plan covers auctions with up to 3 teams at no cost, so a small tournament can try software with zero financial risk before deciding to scale up.
Ready to run your auction?
Start free for up to 3 teams. Scale per auction when your tournament grows.
Looking for pricing? See current auction plans or auction pricing explained.