Hybrid Combo / Half-and-Half Draft (Part Auction and Part Regular) with FanDraft?

Some leagues perform a Combination / Half-and-Half draft, where the first part is an Auction Style, and then at some point in the draft it switches to a Traditional/Regular Style draft.

Starting in 2026, FanDraft added an option to support this specific draft type.

Combo/Half-and-Half Setup Details

Your very first step should be setting your Draft Style as "Combo/Half-and-Half" in the SETTINGS area. Do not do any other setup steps until you do this.

There are then a variety of options you must set, which we have explained below:

Auction Portion

Auctioned players per team: This is how many players each team will select during the auction portion of the draft. For example, if this value is set to 4, there will be 4 rounds of auction, where each team must select exactly 4 players via auction.

If you will be performing a Serpentine style draft for the regular portion:

We HIGHLY recommend you set this value to an even number

The reasoning being that the serpentine reverses order in even number rounds, so if you set the "Auction players per team" to an even number, you will begin your Regular style draft going in reverse.
Starting Budget: The amount of bid dollars each team begins with.
Minimum Bid: The minimum amount any owner can bid on a player.
Bid Increment: The amount each bid must be raised by.
Nomination Order Type: This is the order teams will nominate. FanDraft only supports "Non-Serpentine" at this time.

Regular Draft Portion

The Regular style draft will begin once the Auction is complete (the round is decided by the value of "Auctioned players per team" — If that value is 4, then the Regular draft begins in round 5.)

Pick Order Type: You can change this to Serpentine, Non-Serpentine, or Custom.

Draft Clock

It's critical to setup all of the information in the "Draft Clock" area, as it pertains to the timing of both the auction and regular draft. It's also important to note that you can edit the draft clock within the draft room, by clicking the EDIT icon next to the clock. You will likely want to do this once the "Regular" portion of the draft has begun.

Visibility & extras

Nomination Clock: If you want to utilize a nomination clock during the auction portion, you should check this box.

Hide Draft Clock: Some leagues perform an all live in-person draft, where the auction is performed completely vocally and then processed by the commissioner. You can turn off the auction clock with this option. It's important to note: At any point in the draft, if you want to turn this back on, simply exit the draft and change and save this setting.

EXTRA NOTES AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

If your league has "Traded Picks" or "In Lieu of Keepers", and you change your pick order type mid-draft, you should read this link: https://help.fandraft.com/article/144-repercussions-of-changing-pick-order-type
You should not setup "Traded Picks" or "In Lieu of Keepers" until all other settings have been completed.
We HIGHLY recommend performing a mock/practice draft with your league, following your setup completion. You should perform this at a minimum through the completion of the auction portion, to assure your draft flow performs as you expect.

Can I Change the Draft Order of the Regular Portion, after the Auction portion of the draft is complete?

Yes, in a Combo/Half-And-Half draft only, immediately after the auction portion is complete (and only at that moment) you may do this...provided you do not have any Keepers assigned to specific picks.

For example, if your auction portion will last 4 rounds, at pick 5.01 you can perform a draft order change for the regular draft.

How to do this:

First, go to Settings->Reports, and email yourself a "Draft Summary Report". This will assure if anything goes wrong, you will have a backup of the auction portion of your draft.
Go to Settings->Nomination/Draft Order.
If you see a button that says "Unlock Draft Order" do NOT click that button, and proceeding with that will reset your draft.
If you have entered the Nomination/Draft Order immediately proceeding the auction portion, you should be able to re-order the draft order. Once complete with your re-ordering, click the "Finalize Draft Order" button and you will immediately be routed back to your draft.

Additional Notes:

If you have setup "In Lieu of" Keepers, where a keeper is assigned to the first pick of the regular draft portion, you will not be eligible or capable of changing your draft order.
The "Draft Board" display may appear confusing, as the players will not appear to be aligned in the column with their team. This is due to the fact that the "Draft Board" display shows picks in the order they were taken. You will notice a small cell tag at the bottom-right of each pick, and that is the team the player is assigned to.

Because of this you will likely want to view either the "Roster Board" or "Player Board" display during the remainder of your draft.