Help guide

Create your account

1. Go to Sign in and tap Continue with Google.
2. Pick your Google account. There is no new password to remember.
3. The first time, we create an organisation for you, and you are its owner. Rename it any time from the organisation menu.

You stay signed in on that browser for 30 days. To sign in on another device, repeat the same steps.

Your first event in ten minutes

1. In Events, choose New event. Give it a name and a date. It starts on the free trial with sample categories and two teams. You can import every registration and add any number of teams. The auction uses the first 10 players until you upgrade, so you can try everything straight away.
2. Open the event. The Overview tab is a checklist: rules, teams, players, share, auction. Work down it.
3. Do a practice run on the Auction tab, then press Reset auction in Settings to clear it before the real thing.
4. When you're ready to go live, upgrade the event in Settings. That unlocks every player and removes the DEMO mark from the screens.

Rules: purse, squad and bid steps

How max bid works

Max bid = points left − (slots still to fill after this player × reserve). It stops a team spending everything on one star and then being unable to complete its squad. Every screen shows each team's max bid live, and the auctioneer's buttons grey out for teams that can't afford the next bid.

Teams and owner PINs

On the Teams tab, add each team's name, a short name (shown on small screens), colour, logo and owner's name. Press Save teams.

After saving, every team gets a 4-digit owner PIN. Send each owner their own PIN privately. If a PIN leaks, press New PIN. Anyone signed in with the old PIN is signed out at once.

Add as many teams as you need. Plans only count players.

Players: add, import, retain

Add players one by one with Add player, or import them all at once.

From Excel or CSV

1. Choose Import Excel or CSV and pick the file. The first row must be the column headings.
2. Match the columns: name (required), role, category, base price, note and photo link. We guess the match from the headings, so usually you just check it.
3. Leave Create categories that don't exist yet ticked if your sheet has categories you haven't added.

Retained players

A retained player joins a team before the auction at a price you set. Pick the team under Retained by and the price under Retained at. It counts against that team's purse and squad, and never comes up for auction.

Photos

The easiest way is to collect photos in your registration form: add a File upload question ("Upload a clear photo of your face") to your Google Form. When you import the sheet, match that column to Photo link. Activ Sports then copies every photo in, so the big screen never waits on Google Drive.

Players still missing a photo can add their own. Share the Player photos link from the Links & QR tab. They find their name and pick a photo from their phone. You can also click the photo square next to any player to upload one yourself.

Google Form and Google Sheet sign-ups

If players register through a Google Form, their answers land in a Google Sheet. You can pull that sheet in directly.

1. Open the sheet and choose Share. Under General access pick Anyone with the link, set to Viewer.
2. Copy the sheet's link from the address bar.
3. In Activ Sports, on the Players tab, choose Import Google Sheet or Form and paste the link. If your answers are on a different tab of the sheet, open that tab first so the link includes it.
4. Match the columns, as for Excel.

Late sign-ups: import the same link again. Players already in the list (same name) are skipped, so only the new ones are added.

Branding

In Settings, set the event's subtitle, sponsor line, main colour, accent colour and logo. They appear on the big screen, the overlay and the results page.

Big screen, overlay and owner phones

The Share tab has a link and QR code for each screen.

Sound and celebrations

Every sale gets confetti in the winning team's colours and a short fanfare, and each bid makes a soft tick. Browsers only play sound after someone clicks the page, so on the big screen press Turn sound on once (it's at the top of the screen; move the mouse to see it). The setting is remembered on that laptop. In OBS the overlay plays sound by itself; mute it in OBS if you don't want it. Owners' phones vibrate and celebrate when their team wins a player.

Running the auction

1. Open the Auction tab on the auctioneer's laptop.
2. Press Pick at random (or N), or search the pool and pick a player. The player appears on every screen with the opening bid.
3. When a team bids, tap its button (or press its number, 1 to 9). The bid goes up by the step for that amount. For a jump bid, type the amount in Custom amount.
4. When bidding stops, press Sold (S). Or press Unsold (U) if nobody bid, or On hold (H) to bring the player back later.
5. Repeat. Back to pool puts the current player back without a result.

Keyboard shortcuts

Mistakes

Undo (Z) reverses the last action, a bid or a sale, and you can press it again for earlier ones (up to 40 steps).

Breaks

Pause screens shows "Short break" on the big screen and stops phone bids. Press Resume to carry on.

Bidding from owners' phones

Turn on Let team owners bid from their phones on the Rules tab. Each owner then sees a Bid button with the exact next amount. One tap places it, and the auctioneer sees it straight away, marked "phone".

If two owners tap at once, the first one wins and the other is told "Someone bid first", with the new amount. Nobody ever bids more than the amount on their button.

The auctioneer stays in charge: only the auctioneer can sell, mark unsold, or undo.

Unsold and on-hold rounds

When the pool is empty, press Re-auction unsold and held. Choose the new base price as a percentage of the original (for example 50%). Those players go back into the pool for the next round.

Finishing and results

Press Finish auction when you're done. Squads become final. You can Reopen if you need to sell more.

On the Results tab, choose Download Excel. You get four sheets: Squads, Team purses, All players and the Bid log.

Inviting colleagues and roles

In People, invite someone by email and pick a role. They get an email, sign in with that address, and join your organisation.

Every organisation keeps at least one owner. You can belong to several organisations. Switch between them with the menu at the top.

Plans, invoices and payment

You pay once per event. There is no subscription.

1. Open the event's Settings tab and press Upgrade on the plan you want.
2. Fill in the billing name, phone and address. Add your GSTIN to claim input credit. We remember these for next time.
3. Your invoice opens in a new tab. Pay by UPI, card or net banking.
4. Come back to Activ Sports. The event upgrades as soon as the payment clears, usually within a minute.

Every invoice is listed under Billing. Zoho also emails you a copy.

Common questions

The big screen says "Reconnecting"

The laptop lost its connection. It reconnects by itself and shows the latest state. Nothing is lost, because the auction is saved on our servers, not on the laptop.

A team's button is greyed out

That team already has the highest bid, its squad is full, or the next bid is above its max bid. Each team's button shows its max bid.

Some players show 🔒 Locked

They're saved, but your plan auctions fewer players than you have. Players count in list order. Upgrade the event in Settings and they unlock at once. Teams are never limited.

An owner can't sign in

Check the PIN on the Share tab. After 8 wrong tries, that phone has to wait 10 minutes. If you changed the PIN, send the new one.

I sold a player to the wrong team

Press Undo straight away. Undo steps back one action at a time, so if you've moved on since, finish or cancel the current player first, then undo back to the sale.

How do I start again after a practice run?

Settings, then Reset auction. That keeps your teams and players but clears every sale and bid.

Can I delete an event?

Yes, in Settings. You'll be asked to type the event's code to confirm. It can't be undone.

Still stuck?

Email events@activ.in with your event code (the 6 letters in the event's links) and what you see on screen.