How the Pro Kabaddi auction works

The auction is where squads are actually built, and its rules shape the kind of teams that appear on the mat. Understanding it explains why certain positions cost so much more than others.

The constraints

Element	Typical rule
Minimum squad size	18 players
Maximum squad size	25 players
Overseas players permitted	Capped per squad
Retentions before the auction	Limited, at set prices
Salary purse	Fixed and equal for every franchise

Exact purse figures, retention counts and overseas caps are revised between seasons, so check the current season’s regulations before quoting numbers. What does not change is the shape: an equal, capped purse for every team.

That equality is the single most important design decision in the league. It is what stops Pro Kabaddi becoming a spending contest between the richest owners, and it is why the table turns over year to year rather than calcifying around two clubs.

Retention and release

Franchises can keep a limited number of existing players before the auction, at prices set by the league rather than negotiated freely.

This is a genuine strategic decision, not a formality. Keeping a star raider eats a large share of a fixed purse that could otherwise buy two dependable corners and a second raider. The maths is unforgiving: a marquee retention at a high set price can consume close to a third of what you have to spend.

The teams that consistently do well tend to retain a defensive spine and buy raiding talent, for a simple reason — raiders are more replaceable than a settled corner pairing. Raiding is an individual skill; corner defending is a partnership that takes seasons to build.

Player categories

Players are grouped by experience and past performance, each category carrying a base price. Categories typically run from marquee names down through capped internationals to uncapped domestic players.

Young and uncapped players enter at the lowest bases, which is what keeps the auction a viable route into the league rather than a closed shop. A New Young Player category exists specifically to funnel domestic talent in, and it is the mechanism through which most of the league’s stars first appeared.

This matters for the sport as a whole. Kabaddi’s talent pipeline runs through rural India and small-town tournaments, and a system with no cheap entry point would simply never find those players.

The Final Bid Match card

This is the mechanism that makes the room genuinely tense. A franchise holding an FBM card can match the winning bid for a player and take him instead, after the bidding has closed.

It changes behaviour completely:

• Teams push prices up on players they do not especially want, knowing a rival may be forced to match an inflated figure.
• Nobody is safe simply because they bid highest — the auction is not over when the hammer falls.
• Holding a card is itself leverage, because rivals must bid as though it will be used.

The strategic depth here is real. Using a card early guarantees a player but removes your leverage for the rest of the auction. Holding it too long risks the auction ending with the card unused and the purse unspent.

What good auction strategy looks like

1. Secure a corner pairing early. They are scarce, they set the defensive ceiling, and they appreciate in value as the auction proceeds.
2. Do not spend a third of the purse on one raider unless the rest of the squad is already settled through retention.
3. Buy depth in the 18–25 slots. An eight-week season with rolling injuries punishes thin squads brutally.
4. Hold the FBM card for the position you cannot fill any other way — usually a specialist corner or an all-rounder.
5. Take two or three New Young Players. They cost almost nothing and one in five becomes a starter.

Why auctions produce better competition than free agency

An auction with a capped purse forces every team to make the same trade-offs at the same moment, under time pressure, with public information. A free market would let the wealthiest club simply outbid everyone for every position.

The result is a league where a well-run team with a modest owner can beat a badly run team with a rich one — which is, in the end, the only thing that keeps a sports league worth watching.