IPL 2025 Auction Rules: RTM card, accelerated auction process explained; All you need to know

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction is scheduled for November 24 and 25 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, making it only the second time the auction will be held outside India. The previous auction in 2024 took place in Dubai.

A total of 574 players were included in the final pool of players who will up for grabs. There are as many as 48 capped Indians and 193 capped overseas players.

However, with the 10 franchises retaining a total of 46 players, only 204 slots are yet to be filled as each team can have a maximum of 25 players in its squad. Moreover, each squad can contain a maximum of eight overseas players, leaving only 70 overseas spots open.

Here are the some of the key auction rules ahead of the event:

What is RTM card?

The Right-to-Match (RTM) rule is being reintroduced for this year’s auction after it was last used for the 2018 edition. The RTM card will allow teams that didn’t use their full quota of six player retentions ahead of the auction to retain some of the players from their previous squads.

A team can use the RTM card to match the highest bid placed on a player who was part of its squad during the previous season. However, in this auction, the franchise that places the original bid will be allowed one more opportunity to raise the bid for the player after the RTM card is invoked.

If the team with the RTM option decides to match that final bid, it will retain the player in question. If not, the original bidder will secure the player’s services while the RTM card will be restored for the team that loses out.

Barring Rajasthan Royals and defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders, who used their full quota of six player retentions, all other teams will have the RTM option during the auction.

The cap on retaining a maximum of five capped players and two uncapped players will also apply to the use of RTM.

What is accelerated auction?

While a total of 574 players have made it to the final auction list, not all of them will be presented during the auction. The accelerated auction process will begin after 116 players have been presented during the bidding.

The 117th player on the auction list is Ricky Bhui, who is included in the second list of uncapped batters.

The accelerated auction will be held in two phases. In the first phase, franchises will be asked to nominate the players (from 117 to 574) they want presented during the auction. The second phase of the accelerated auction will include all the unsold/unpresented players from the full list of 574 that franchises nominate to be presented again.

Which players will be presented first?

The first two sets of marquee players will be presented first. Each marquee set contains six players each.

Following the 12 marquee players, a host of capped players will go under the hammer, based on the following specialisations – batters, all-rounders, wicketkeepers, fast-bowler and spinnners.

Uncapped players will follow suit – again based on their specialisations before a second round of capped players are presented.

The accelerated auction will begin after this process is completed.

When will the IPL 2025 Auction begin?

The IPL 2025 Auction will be held on November 24 and 25. The bidding will begin at 3:00 PM IST and the action will be telecast live on the Star Sports Networkwhile the live streaming will be available on the JioCinema app and website.