Auction terms

Tonight in Elko — auction rules

Effective May 21, 2026.

What you're bidding on

A single “Tonight in Elko” hero card on ElkoTonight for one specific calendar date — covering Elko, Spring Creek, Wells, Carlin, Jackpot, and West Wendover. The hero appears on the home page, the /today feed, and inside chat answers that ask “what's tonight?” — limited to once per chat reply. One winner per date. No bundles, no carryover, no future-dated bids.

How the price is set

Bidding is a second-price (Vickrey) auction. You enter the highest amount you're willing to pay. If you win, you pay $1 more than the runner-up's max bid, capped at your own max. Examples:

• You bid $50, runner-up bid $20 — you pay $21.
• You bid $50, runner-up bid $49 — you pay $50 (capped at your max).
• You bid $50, no other bids — you pay the reserve ($10).

This format rewards honest bidding: your best move is always to enter the true ceiling of what tonight's impression is worth to you.

Payment

When you place a bid we run a Stripe pre-authorization for your max bid amount. If you win, we capture the second-price amount; if you don't, the pre-auth is voided within 24 hours and you're not charged. If your card declines the pre-auth, the bid is rejected.

Wins are non-refundable. Once the auction closes and your creative goes live, the spot is yours and the money is captured. If we have to pull your creative for a content violation, no refund.

Creative content standards

Your hero card represents an Elko County business to an Elko County audience. We reject creative that:

• Promotes firearms or ammunition without a current Nevada FFL.
• Promotes cannabis or cannabis-adjacent products without Nevada CCB compliance and the required licensing on file.
• Recruits for MLM, crypto schemes, or pay-to-join opportunities.
• Contains hate, harassment, or content targeting people by race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
• Is sexually explicit, or sexualizes minors in any way.
• Misrepresents the advertiser, the event, or the price the audience will actually pay.

ElkoTonight reserves the right to reject any creative for any reason — including reasons unrelated to the list above. If we reject before you win, the bid is voided. If we reject after capture for a violation you didn't disclose, the spot is forfeit and no refund is owed.

Image and copy specs

16:9 landscape, at least 1200×675px, under 2 MB, no animated GIFs. Caption is 80 characters or fewer. The link must point to an HTTPS page you control. We may compress images for delivery.

Not the same as the monthly Tonight tier

The daily auction here is separate from the recurring “Tonight-tier” sponsorship product. Tonight-tier is a monthly subscription, billed and governed by its own agreement at /sponsor. Buying a daily hero does not confer the Tonight-tier benefits, and vice versa.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Material changes will be announced on this page at least seven days before they apply to new bids. Bids already captured are governed by the terms in effect when you placed them.

Questions? Email ask@elkotonight.com. Full platform terms at /terms.