Danielle Gibson earned a £190,000 payday to become the highest-paid English woman at the inaugural Hundred auction, while uncapped teenager Tilly Corteen-Coleman picked up a bumper £105,000 deal.
The level of spending at the United Kingdom's first player auction in a major professional sport represents a huge uplift in the women's game, where the top salary band in the previous system started at £15,000 in 2021 and was still capped at £65,000 last summer.
The tournament has received a major cash injection after selling off stakes in all eight franchises to private investors and the new owners of the rebranded Headingley franchise, Sunrisers Leeds, went big to secure Gibson's services on the bidding floor in London.
Injury problems mean the hard-hitting all-rounder has not played for her country since October 2024, but she still ended up closing a contract worth £50,000 more than England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt and pace bowler Lauren Bell, who had already agreed deals as pre-auction 'direct signings'.
Gibson is one of 30 players to have arrived in South Africa for an England training camp and intra-squad series and now carries the heftiest price tag of anyone there, despite her relatively junior status in the national set-up.
She said: "I am still in shock. I had a cold shower to try and calm down but it didn't really help. I am absolutely buzzing and excited to start.
"I was calm and then when I turned the TV on I got really nervous. I was shaking, getting more and more anxious and then when the bidding war happened, I thought it was crazy."
Only two overseas players attracted bigger offers - Australia's Beth Mooney reeling in £210,000 from Trent Rockets and New Zealand's Sophie Devine fetching the same from Welsh Fire.
South Africa all-rounder Nadine de Klerk went to London Spirit for £170k.
Overseas players in bold
Like Gibson, left-arm spinner Corteen-Coleman, 18, was also in Pretoria celebrating a remarkable result, fetching six figures from her previous franchise, Southern Brave.
Corteen-Coleman became the Hundred's youngest player when she first appeared as a 16-year-old in 2024 and is a highly-rated prospect, who specialises in the powerplay overs.
She has an outside chance of featuring in this summer's T20 World Cup on home soil but finds herself behind the world's No 1 left-armer Sophie Ecclestone and Linsey Smith in the pecking order.
Smith was another big winner, taking home £100,000 from Birmingham Phoenix.
Southern Brave shelled out £130,000 for pace bowler Issy Wong, while rising star Davina Perrin, who became the first woman to hit a century in the Hundred last year, was a relative bargain at £50,000 for Birmingham Phoenix as she was first to go under the hammer.
England's South Africa-born batter Paige Scholfield went to Manchester Super Giants for £115k, while talented spin-bowling all-rounder Charis Paveley earned £85k after Spirit came calling.
The women's overall salary pot was £880,00 each with men's sides allowed a budget of £2.05m.
The tournament runs from Tuesday July 21 to Sunday August 16, with Sunrisers Leeds Women and MI London Men starting their title defences on day one, at The Kia Oval.
Every match from the men's and women's competitions will be live on Your Site, including the eliminators on Friday August 14 and finals two days later, with every day seeing a women's game precede a men's fixture at the same venue.
Teams play eight group games, meeting six sides once and their local rivals twice.
MI London face London Spirit on two occasions, with the other home and away fixtures Sunrisers Leeds vs Manchester Super Giants, Trent Rockets vs Birmingham Phoenix, and Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire.
The men's and women's sides that top the league phase will qualify directly for the finals, with the sides ending second and third meeting in the eliminator to decide the table-toppers' opponents.
