For those of us who don’t happen to be the heir to an oil fortune or a company executive with a paycheck showcasing a bunch of zeroes, becoming a billionaire is something that could only happen in our wildest, probably lottery-related dreams. Unless you’ve got crazy good March Madness skills, that is.
Super Very Rich Guy And CEO Warren Buffett’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway is partnering up with Quicken Loans to dangle a $1 billion-bounty to anyone who can complete a totally perfect March Madness bracket, reports the Detroit Free Press.
That means calling the winner of all 63 games in the NCAA March Madness men’s college basketball tourna,ent correctly, something that appears to be pretty much impossible to do. The prize will be paid out in 40 annual installments of (gulp) $25 million. Or you can take $500 million in a lump sum payment if you’re really jonesing for that money.
Because the odds of someone actually winning the grand prize appear to be ridiculously small, the two companies will also split $2 million among the 20 most accurate predictions submitted, as well as a $1 million donation from Quicken to to educational charities in Detroit and Cleveland, the two cities that are the main focus of Quicken founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert’s activities.
“We’ve seen a lot of contests offering a million dollars for putting together a good bracket, which got us thinking, what is the perfect bracket worth? We decided a billion dollars seems right for such an impressive feat,” said Jay Farner, president and chief marketing officer of Quicken Loans.
And while Buffett seems like a firm believer in working hard to achieve a massive fortune, it sounds like he’s in the mood to throw a bone this time.
“Millions of people play brackets every March, so why not take a shot at becoming $1 billion richer for doing so,” Buffett explains (his company is insuring the prize). “While there is no simple path to success, it sure doesn’t get much easier than filling out a bracket online.”
Registration for the contest starts March 3 and runs through March 19. Participants will receive their brackets on March 16 if they’ve registered by then, and can start filling them out at that time. You’ll have to act quick, as you’ll need to be one of the first 10 million to register.
The odds of predicting all the winners in all the games with a flip of the coin is 1-in-100 million trillion, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000. So good luck!
Quicken Loans offering $1 billion for perfect March Madness bracket [Detroit Free Press]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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