P I X E L P E T A L S
Custom Solution · Real-time

A live player auction that runs like a broadcast

Real-time team bidding, a captain's bidding screen, and a transparent OBS overlay — one system runs the whole auction night.

The Problem

Running a live player auction off a spreadsheet falls apart the moment bidding speeds up.

Captains shout over each other, the running price is disputed, and there's no clean way to show the room — or a livestream audience — what's happening right now.

Why it hurts

One mistyped bid or a missed "sold" and the fairness of the whole auction is in question. The organisers wanted the energy of a real auction house, on stream, without a person frantically updating a sheet between bids.

The Solution

Every bid is broadcast to all screens the instant it lands.

A real-time auction platform built on Next.js + a dedicated Socket.io server + PostgreSQL, with a transparent OBS overlay so the live price, player, and team appear straight on the stream.

Our Approach

Load the player pool

The admin control room imports the players and teams from Excel and sets each captain's budget before the night begins.

Bid in real time

Each captain bids from their own device over WebSockets, and every bid is broadcast to all screens the instant it lands.

Show it on the stream

A transparent OBS overlay and event-display screens put the live price, player and team straight onto the broadcast.

Close & export

A countdown timer marks each lot sold and logs the result instantly, then the final squads export back to Excel.

Real-time bidding

One bid, every screen, the same instant

Captains bid from their own devices. The moment a bid lands, a WebSocket broadcast pushes the new price to every screen at once — so there is one shared source of truth and no disputed running total.

OBS overlay

Broadcast-ready, straight onto the stream

A transparent lower-third drops onto the livestream the instant a lot opens — current player, live price and leading team — so the at-home audience sees exactly what the room sees.

Proof

Zero disputed prices across the night — every screen shared one live source of truth.

140 players auctioned across 8 teams in a single evening
600+ live bids processed — zero disputed prices
~1,000 peak concurrent viewers on the livestream
<3 hrs to run the full auction, from first lot to final squads

Booked again for the following season.

700+ projects · 450+ UK/EU buyers · 5★ on PeoplePerHour

Let's build yours

Want an auction night that runs like a broadcast?