It's the most fun way to be in a sports Calcutta. Here's why.
A Calcuttais an auction-style sports Calcutta. Instead of paying a flat entry fee, every player, team, or contestant goes up for bid. The total of every winning bid forms the pot, then it's paid out based on how those teams finish.
Pick an event — a major, a tournament, even a Survivor season. See every player, team, or contestant available for auction.
Place bids on the players you believe in. The high bidder when the timer ends owns that team for the event.
Every winning bid funds the pot. The bigger the auction, the bigger the payout.
When the event finishes, the pot is split based on how your players placed. Winnings hit your wallet automatically.
Each player or team in the event becomes its own auction item. They run on staggered timers — some end early, some end late, all close before the event begins. The high bidder when an item's timer ends owns that team for the duration of the event.
Bidding works like eBay. You enter the maximum you're willing to pay — hidden from everyone else — and we bid for you in increments, keeping you in front at the lowest price needed to beat the next-highest max. You never pay more than your maximum, and if no one pushes you, you win for less. Only your max is held from your wallet while you lead, and it's released the instant you're outbid.
Every winning bid gets added to the pot. Bigger fields = bigger pots. CalcuttaHQ takes a small platform fee — everything else goes back to the players.
When the event finishes, the pot is divided based on the event's published payout structure. If your player or team places, your wallet gets credited automatically.
Anyone who's lost a last-second auction knows the pain. Each Calcutta has a reset window (default 2 minutes) set by the host. Once an item's clock drops inside that window, every new bid resets it back to exactly that value — so timers can't be sniped, but they also can't get stretched way past the window by rapid-fire bids.
Take a $100,000 pot for The Masters. The first place team owner gets $50,000, second gets $25,000, third gets $12,000, and so on. If you bid $4,000 on the eventual winner, you cleared a $46,000 profit on a single weekend.