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Buffett’s March Madness offer: $1M a year for life for perfect bracket

Posted at 6:42 PM, Mar 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-11 18:42:51-04

It’s that time of year again: 68 college basketball teams earn bids for the NCAA March Madness tournament. And Berkshire Hathaway employees are given a challenge by their boss.

The company’s CEO, Warren Buffett, promised $1 million a year for life to the Berkshire employee who picks a perfect bracket through the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

And Buffett will sweeten the pot if a team from his home state of Nebraska clinches the national title, he announced last month.

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“If either Creighton or Nebraska ends up winning the tournament, we’re going to double the prize. So instead of being $1 million, it’s gonna be $2 million,” he said on CNBC.

The odds of winning either are astronomically high.

But Berkshire employees don’t need perfection to win some money. Buffett gives out $100,000 to the employee who’s bracket stays intact the longest.

Last year, a West Virginia factory worker won $100,000 for picking 31 of the tournament’s first 32 games.

Buffett held his first bracket competition in 2014. The inaugural contest, which was open to the public, offered a grand prize of $1 billion for anyone who could correctly pick the winners of all the games. No one won.