Demandhai user handbook

Everything you need to run your auction.

Step-by-step help for organizers, team owners, players, spectators, broadcasters, and site administrators. All schedule times in this guide use India time.

16 sections found · Updated October 9, 2026

Everyone

1. Start here

Demandhai helps organizers run cricket player auctions, owners build squads, and audiences follow live bids. Auction amounts are points; the website does not collect or transfer bid money.

  1. Create an account, then sign in. Organizers create an auction; owners ask the organizer to assign their account to a team; players use the registration link supplied by the organizer.
  2. Organizers: create auction → add teams and players → assign owners → share links → open auction controls → run bidding → review results.
  3. Spectators and broadcasters can open public live views and overlays without signing in.

Things to know

  • Access is currently free for all users. Creating auctions and adding teams do not require a paid plan while free access is enabled.
  • Keep one organizer in charge of live controls. Give viewers the public link and owners their team bidding link.
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Everyone

2. Accounts, sign-in and profiles

Your account connects your auctions, owned teams, and player registrations. Use the same email when the organizer assigns you a team.

  1. Open Sign Up and enter your name, email, and a password of at least 12 characters. Passwords have a maximum of 72 bytes; use a unique password.
  2. After registration, sign in with your email and password. If your email already exists, use Sign In instead.
  3. Use your dashboard and profile/settings screens to review your account and the auctions linked to it. Sign out when using a shared device.

Things to know

  • Creating an account does not give site administrator privileges or control of another organizer’s auction.
  • If you lose your password, contact the site administrator through the contact information on the homepage. There is no self-service password reset flow.
  • Social sign-in depends on the site’s configuration. Email and password is the supported route on this deployment.
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Everyone

3. Roles and access

Access is checked on the server. A public URL lets someone watch, but it does not give them bidding or management rights.

  1. Organizer: manage auctions you created, configure teams and players, assign owners, and operate live controls.
  2. Team owner: bid only for teams assigned to your signed-in account. You cannot change auction settings or finalize player results.
  3. Player: register your own player entry through an auction’s registration link; registration does not grant bidding rights.
  4. Spectator/broadcaster: watch public data, use the overlay, and configure its appearance. These views cannot place bids.
  5. Site administrator: manage site-wide settings, users, plans, content, and auctions; authorize the blog MCP connection.

Things to know

  • An organizer may also own a team or register as a player. Team assignments, rather than the page you open, determine your bidding rights.
  • Player phone numbers, email addresses, and account passwords are excluded from the live socket broadcast.
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Organizer

4. Create and schedule an auction

Open Create Auction from your dashboard or homepage. Set the event details and rules before you invite participants.

  1. Enter the auction name and venue, choose a date and time, and review all required fields.
  2. Set points per team (the starting budget), players per team (squad limit), minimum/base bidding amount, and bid increment.
  3. Save the auction and open it from My Auctions. Use Manage to prepare its teams, players, user assignments, and shared links.
  4. Review the event settings before going live. Finish the current player before changing the auction status.

Things to know

  • Schedules use India time (Asia/Kolkata). Past dates and elapsed times today are rejected by both the form and API. Future dates allow any time on that date.
  • Editing unrelated details of an older auction does not require changing its historical schedule. If you change the schedule, the new date/time must be in the future.
  • UPCOMING means preparation, ACTIVE means the auction is running, and COMPLETED closes the event. Starting a player changes its status to ACTIVE; the scheduled time alone does not start bidding.
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Organizer

5. Teams, budgets and owner assignments

Prepare each team with its name, owner details, optional logo, and points budget. Link the owner’s existing account to enable remote bidding.

  1. In Manage, open Teams and add a team. Check its purse and owner email carefully. Add a short name or logo where the form supports it.
  2. Ask the owner to sign up first. In the user assignment area, enter their registered email, choose Team Owner, select the team, and save.
  3. Ask the owner to sign in and open their team dashboard and live bidding screen. Confirm the expected team appears before the first player.
  4. Review each purse and squad after a sale. Deleting or changing a team with auction results can be rejected to preserve those results.

Things to know

  • Typing an owner email into the team form is not a substitute for assigning their account. Use the assignment workflow and verify access.
  • Reassigning a team transfers its ownership to the selected user. The previous account loses that team assignment.
  • A sale deducts the winning price from the team’s remaining purse. A permitted undo refunds that exact price. Budgets cannot be bypassed by opening another view.
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Organizer

6. Add and manage players

Players belong to a specific auction. Prepare their identity, role, base price, rating, and optional photograph before running bidding.

  1. In Manage, open Players and add the player’s details. Check spelling, role, base price, and any contact details the form requests.
  2. Use edit controls to correct a player profile and upload a photo where available. Avoid changing sale-related data while a player is being auctioned.
  3. Share the auction’s Player Registration link for participants who will register themselves. Review their entries in the player list.
  4. AVAILABLE entries are ready to auction. SOLD entries belong to a winning team. UNSOLD entries can be considered again by the organizer.

Things to know

  • Self-registered players start AVAILABLE with the auction minimum bid as their base price and a default rating of 50. The organizer should review the roster.
  • The same signed-in email cannot register twice in the same auction. A person can register in different auctions.
  • Finalize or undo results through live controls rather than trying to delete sold players.
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Player

7. Register as a player

Get the registration link for your event from its organizer. A general account signup and an auction player registration are separate steps.

  1. Sign up or sign in, then open the organizer’s /register/auction-id link.
  2. Enter your player name, mobile number, and cricket role. Review the information and submit once.
  3. Wait for the success message. Ask the organizer to confirm your entry if you are unsure, and follow the public live link on auction day.

Things to know

  • Registration is closed once the auction is COMPLETED.
  • An “already registered” message means your account has an entry in this auction; ask the organizer to correct it instead of submitting another.
  • Registration does not guarantee selection or a sale. The organizer controls player order and final outcomes.
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Organizer

8. Run the live auction

Open the live auction control screen from your auction. Check all teams, budgets, player entries, and owner connections before starting.

  1. Select an available or unsold player and start that player. The player’s base price is shown and a 45-second bidding timer starts.
  2. Owners place bids from their assigned team view. The organizer can record a bid for a selected team in the control screen.
  3. Each accepted bid restarts the timer at 45 seconds. Pause stops bidding and preserves time; Resume continues it.
  4. Choose SOLD only when there is a valid winning team. Choose UNSOLD only when no team holds a bid. Then start the next player.
  5. To correct the most recent result, use Undo before starting another player. After the final player, finish any current result and mark the auction COMPLETED.

Things to know

  • The timer reaching zero closes bidding; it does not automatically sell the player. The organizer must finalize SOLD or UNSOLD.
  • Starting another player while one is current is blocked. Undo is available only for the latest valid result and when no player is current.
  • Simultaneous bids are processed in order on the server. Wait for a confirmed update or error before deciding the winner.
  • A pause changes bidding availability immediately. Displayed countdowns should be treated as a guide; the server decides whether a bid arrived in time.
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Team owner

9. Place bids as a team owner

Sign in with the email the organizer assigned to your team. Open your team dashboard, then that auction’s team live screen.

  1. Confirm the team, current player, remaining purse, and squad size before bidding.
  2. For the first bid, meet the player’s base price. Later bids must meet the current bid plus the configured increment.
  3. Submit your bid and wait for the live update. If rejected, read the message and check your purse, ownership, squad limit, and timer.
  4. After the organizer confirms SOLD, review your new squad member and remaining points. The public live view can be shared with supporters.

Things to know

  • A team cannot bid above its purse, exceed the squad limit, or raise its own currently winning bid.
  • Bidding is blocked when paused, completed, without a current player, or after the timer expires.
  • Points accept up to two decimal places. The first bid may equal the base price; subsequent bids must meet the minimum increment.
  • If two teams bid at nearly the same moment, one may receive an error because another bid already raised the minimum.
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Everyone

10. Watch live and review results

Use the public /live/auction-id link to follow player presentation, bids, the timer, and results. You can watch without an account.

  1. Find an auction through the homepage or Live listing, or use the organizer’s shared link.
  2. For upcoming auctions, check the event details and wait for the organizer to start. Follow the current player and bidding log during the event.
  3. Review sold/unsold outcomes and team squads using the results view when available. Ask the organizer about corrections or disputed outcomes.

Things to know

  • The audience view is read-only. Owners should use the team live screen to bid.
  • A bid is a provisional offer until the organizer confirms the result. Undo can change a previously shown result.
  • An inactive event may display a waiting screen. The event’s start depends on the organizer.
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Broadcaster

11. Broadcaster studio and OBS / vMix

Open Broadcast Studio from an auction’s Manage links or My Auctions. You can also use /broadcast/auction-id. Appearance controls do not change auction rules or results.

  1. Choose Chroma green, Transparent, or Dark background. Choose Gold or Blue accent and Wide lower third or Compact layout.
  2. Toggle player photo, live timer, and auction totals. Set result duration between 3 and 20 seconds. Check the real live preview.
  3. Click Copy overlay URL. Add a Browser Source in OBS / vMix, paste the URL, and set width 1920 and height 1080.
  4. For graphics over camera video, choose Transparent. For a green screen workflow, choose Chroma green and apply your streaming software’s chroma key filter.
  5. Keep the source active. If you change controls, copy the updated URL into OBS / vMix. Open overlay provides a clean output; Public live view provides the audience page.
  6. Test a player start, bid, pause/resume, sale, unsold result, and undo before your broadcast. Check player photo quality and long names at your output size.

Things to know

  • The overlay shows actual player photos, current/base points, winning team, and timer. Confirmed results show the winning price and team for your chosen duration.
  • When a new player starts or a result is undone, the previous result graphic clears immediately. Unsold results use the same timed cleanup.
  • With no current player and no recent result, the player graphic is blank. Optional totals can stay visible. This is normal between players.
  • On disconnection, stale player data is cleared and a reconnecting message is shown. The source rejoins automatically when the connection returns.
  • The site supplies browser graphics and a public viewer page. Configure your video, audio, encoder, and streaming destination in your broadcast software.
  • Overlay links are public. Share them with your production team; never include your password in a URL.
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Organizer

12. Photos, logos and uploads

Use recognizable player photos and team logos so participants and audiences can identify the current auction clearly.

  1. Upload JPEG, PNG, or WebP files from the relevant player or team form. Each file must be at most 5 MB.
  2. Use a clear portrait for players and a readable logo for teams. Check the final crop after saving.
  3. If an image fails, reduce the file size, confirm its format, and try again while signed in.

Things to know

  • Uploads are resized to fit within 1024 × 1024 and converted to JPEG. Very large pixel dimensions can be rejected; logo transparency is not preserved by this conversion.
  • Only upload images you have permission to use. Saving an image alone does not save other unsaved form changes.
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Site administrator

13. Blog section and ChatGPT MCP connection

Published guides appear in Blog. Drafts and scheduled articles remain private. The MCP server is available at https://demandhai.in/mcp for authorized administrator tools.

  1. Install the private Demandhai Daily Blogs plugin or configure a compatible ChatGPT MCP connection with the site MCP URL.
  2. Sign in to Demandhai with a site administrator account when prompted. Review the website consent screen and explicitly allow blog access.
  3. Use list_posts and get_post to review content. When you explicitly want an article prepared, use save_draft and review the result before publishing or scheduling.
  4. Use schedule_post for a future day at 09:00 India time; use cancel_schedule to return a queued article to draft. Use publish_post for an authorized immediate publication.
  5. Verify a published guide in /blog and its article URL. Review queued posts regularly and remove unwanted schedules before they are due.

Things to know

  • The default plugin workflow is setup/status review. Connecting the plugin does not itself generate, schedule, or publish articles.
  • Articles require original Markdown content of at least 500 words, a valid unique slug, and a distinct title. Raw HTML is not accepted.
  • The scheduler checks queued posts every 15 minutes. Due articles publish when the next check runs, with at most one actual publication per India calendar day. An overdue queue may continue on later days.
  • The tools support blog management only. They do not grant SSH, database, user, team, or auction management access.
  • A normal organizer account cannot approve the blog connection. Expired authorization or lost administrator status requires reconnecting or administrator help.
  • Published and scheduled articles cannot be edited through the draft tool. Use cancel_schedule first for a queued draft correction.
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Site administrator

14. Site administration

Site administration affects all participants. Use an administrator account only for administration and verify each change before an event.

  1. Use the administration screens for site settings, user access, auction oversight, plan configuration, gallery, and blog content.
  2. Keep homepage contact details current so users can request account and event help. Review owner assignments with the organizer when access is disputed.
  3. Confirm free access remains enabled for the current launch. Stored plan settings are not enforced while this mode is active.
  4. Before production maintenance, keep a database backup and use the deployment guide in the project repository. Verify sign-in, a live auction, and the public pages after changes.

Things to know

  • Do not share administrator passwords with owners or broadcasters. Public links are sufficient for audience and overlay access.
  • Website hosting credentials, database credentials, OAuth tokens, and backup files are private and are not part of these public guides.
  • Data exports may contain private participant details. Handle them only within the authorized administration workflow.
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Everyone

15. Troubleshooting and common errors

Start with the message shown on screen. A rejected action has not been accepted by the server.

  1. Signup fails: check the email, name, and password requirements. For an existing email, sign in. After too many attempts, wait and retry.
  2. Team not visible or “you do not own this team”: sign in with the assigned email and ask the organizer to check the account assignment.
  3. Bid rejected: check current minimum, purse, squad size, active player, pause state, and time left. Wait for the latest live update before retrying.
  4. “Finish the current player”: finalize SOLD/UNSOLD before starting another player, undoing a prior result, or changing event status.
  5. “Cannot pass a player with a winning bid”: a valid bid exists; finalize the sale or resolve the situation with the organizer.
  6. Date or time rejected: use India time and select a future date/time. For today, use an available minute after the current time.
  7. Overlay blank: check the auction ID and whether a player is current. Enable totals to see a persistent summary. Refresh the source after replacing its URL.
  8. Connection interrupted: restore internet access and let the live connection rejoin. Confirm the latest state before bidding. A submitted request should not be assumed successful without confirmation.
  9. Blog missing: drafts and scheduled articles are private. Confirm it is published; an empty queue produces no new posts.

Things to know

  • If an issue continues, contact the event organizer for roster, team, bid, or result questions; contact the site administrator for account or website problems.
  • Include the auction name/link, approximate India time, your role, action attempted, and exact error message. Share a screenshot if useful; omit passwords and private tokens.
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Organizer

16. Auction-day checklist and glossary

Use this checklist before admitting live bids. Agree on your tournament’s eligibility and dispute rules separately with participants.

  1. Confirm future schedule, venue, points budget, increment, and squad limit. Review all player base prices and team purses.
  2. Verify each owner can sign in and see the assigned team. Share the correct public, player registration, and broadcaster links.
  3. Check photos and logos, test streaming graphics, and confirm a reliable internet connection for the organizer.
  4. Explain timer, pause, sale confirmation, and correction rules to owners. Assign one person to run the control screen.
  5. After the event, finish any current player, mark COMPLETED, check squads and remaining purses, and review final results.

Things to know

  • Purse: remaining team points. Base price: minimum opening offer. Increment: minimum increase after a bid. Squad limit: maximum sold players on a team.
  • Current bidder: team holding the highest accepted offer. SOLD: finalized team selection. UNSOLD: finalized result without a winning offer. Undo: reversal of the most recent eligible result.
  • Registration link: player entry. Team live: authenticated bidding. Public live: audience viewing. Overlay: graphics for streaming. Broadcast Studio: browser-source appearance settings.
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