Kolkata Overview

• At a Calcutta auction, when a team in an NCAA tournament wins a game, they are entitled to a percentage of the total pot. Payouts per round can vary, but a common (and highly recommended) payout scheme is 1.0% for a first round win, 1.5% for a second round win, 2.5% for a third round win, 3.0 % for a victory in the fourth round, 4.0% for a victory in the fifth round and 4.0% for a victory in the final round.
• Because teams are entitled to a percentage of the total pot, the value of each team fluctuates during the auction until the total pot size is known. Even if an auction participant knew that Kansas would win the NCAA tournament, the exact value of the team would not be known until the auction ended and the size of the pot was known.
• A Kolkata auction must have no fewer than 5 participants to provide a minimum amount of bid diversity. While there is no theoretical limit to the number of participating teams, 12 teams is a reasonable limit to ensure that each participant can purchase multiple teams if they wish.

Auction Mechanics

• NCAA Calcuttas uses an auction format. To facilitate the auction, an impartial person should be selected as the auctioneer. This person should be able to keep participants interested while extracting maximized bids.
• Before the auction begins, the names of each team from the NCAA tournament are placed on a hat.
• A team name (for example, Kansas) is selected from hate. Auction participants bid on that equipment in a “live auction” format where bids are announced verbally until a winning bid arises (Note: set a minimum bid increment to avoid “micro-bidding”).
• The auctioneer must record the name of the equipment, the participant who purchased the equipment, and the price paid on a “master list.”
• Repeat this process until all equipment has been auctioned. Immediately after the auction, the “master list” should be distributed to all participants to verify that there are no discrepancies in equipment ownership or purchase prices.