What a sport horse auction actually needs from its tech

The constraints are different

A sport horse auction isn't a marketplace. It's a live, time-bound event with bidders in 28 countries, broadcast-quality video, and a catalogue where every lot carries a six-figure reserve and a vet history that has to stand up to scrutiny.

When Greg Broderick asked us to build the online auction platform for Ballypatrick Auctions, the brief wasn't "make us an auction site". It was "make sure nothing drops during the next sale."

What the platform does

• Lot pages with pedigree, full vet radiograph library and professional video.
• Registered-bidder KYC with country-aware payment collection.
• Anti-sniping bidding engine with server-side timing (not browser-timed).
• Broadcast-quality streaming tied to the bidding state.
• Post-sale dispatch, export documentation and results publishing.

What it deliberately doesn't do

• No generic "horse marketplace" listings between auctions. That's a different product.
• No full PMS for the yard. Yard operations are adjacent but separate — we kept the auction platform focused.

What we'd build again from scratch

The same core. The bidding engine and the live video sync are the two hardest parts, and we'd re-pick our tech choices on both knowing what we know now. Everything else has held up across €8.2M+ in cumulative sales — and that's the only benchmark that matters in this world.