What’s A Perfect Bracket Worth? $1 Billion, Says Warren Buffett

Buffet is willing to put up the money, so it's got to be winnable. Right?

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Quicken Loans announced Tuesday a $1-billion March Madness contest, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is backing the prize.

Free registration begins March 3 ahead of the 68-team, single-elimination college basketball tournament that starts March 18. Winners can choose to share 40 annual installments of $25 million or a lump sum of $500 million.

“Millions of people play brackets every March, so why not take a shot at becoming $1 billion richer for doing so,” Buffet, the billionaire chairman and chief executive officer, said in the statement. “While there is no simple path to success, it sure doesn’t get much easier than filling out a bracket online.”

If you’re already thinking how you’re going to spend that money, take note: there is less than a 1 in 9 quintillion chance that you can guess the results of every game in a 64-team bracket correctly, Jeff Bergen, a math professor at DePaul University, said in a video posted to YouTube. Even if you know something about college basketball, your chances are about 1 in 128 billion, Bergen said.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Smkv11Mj4&w=640&h=390]