College basketball fan wins $1 million for their NCAA Tournament men’s bracket success
A decade ago, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ensured a promotion that offered a $1 billion prize to anyone who filled out a perfect bracket in the men’s NCAA Tournament.
The odds of doing that are somewhere between 1 in 9.2 quintillion or 1 in 120.2 billion, depending on whose math you believe. Either way, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning or watching a YouTube video without a commercial stuck in the middle of it.
Buffett later lowered the bar to make it correctly picking the entire Sweet 16 for those in the Berkshire Hathaway company pool. That prize was $1 million a year for life, as Yahoo reported.
Alas, no one managed that feat either. And so, Buffett made it even easier this year.
As CNBC reported, Buffett said he’d give an employee $1 million if they correctly pick winners of 30 out of the tournament’s 32 first-round games.
“I’m getting older,” the 94-year old told The Wall Street Journal about this year’s challenge. “I want to give away a million dollars to somebody while I’m still around as chairman.”
Front Office Sports reported there was a winner this year as someone correctly picked 31 of 32 games in the first round.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that a dozen of Buffett’s employees picked 31 games correctly. The million bucks is going to the person who got the first 29 games right. Those other 11 people will have to make due with $100,000.
The lack of upsets over the weekend hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament as much fun to watch this year, but it did make it easier to pick winners.
And someone at ESPN’s bracket challenge did even better that Buffett’s employees. One person picked the first 42 games correctly, which means a perfect first round. That’s also two-thirds of a way to a perfect bracket.
That person won’t make any money from Buffett, but but is still a great accomplishment.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 12:06 PM.
