Here’s Where To Play Free Brackets—And Why There Likely Won’t Be A Perfect One

Topline

Millions of Americans are expected to attempt to beat the odds and win a perfect bracket when the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament begins this week, and though multiple free challenges offer millions of dollars for contestants who submit a perfect bracket, odds are astronomically low that anyone will win.

There has never been a perfect NCAA March Madness bracket, but that is not deterring people from … [+] entering for a chance to win millions of dollars.

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Key Facts

BetMGM, a sports division of casino giant MGM, offers $10 million to any contestant who correctly predicts the winner of all 67 games of the tournament—an astounding feat that nobody on record has ever accomplished in the history of the NCAA—while the person who comes closest to perfection will receive a $100,000 prize.

Bet365 will also award a $10 million jackpot for a perfect bracket, with a $100,000 grand prize for the best bracket if a perfect one is not entered.

DraftKings offers $5,000 to the contestant with the best bracket, with $1,000 for the second and third place contestants and $500 for contestants who come in fourth and fifth place.

ESPN will award a $5,000 grand prize for 10 randomly-drawn people who correctly pick the winner of the National Championship game at the end of the tournament, while contestants who submit 25 completed brackets—the most that can be entered into the contest—will also be eligible to win a $1,000 prize, which is also chosen at random.

Yahoo Fantasy is holding a $25,000 “pick-em” contest for both the women’s and men’s NCAA basketball tournament, awarding $25,000 to the person who creates the best bracket for each tournament.

Sports Interaction will give the winner of a perfect bracket $1 million, though in the likely event that doesn’t happen, the player with the best bracket will receive $10,000.

Surprising Fact

There has never been a verified perfect bracket, despite several contestants coming painstakingly close in recent years. The closest to perfection came in 2019, when a Columbus, Ohio, resident correctly chose the winners of the first 49 games of the tournament, avoiding the dreaded bracket bust into the Sweet 16. A perfect bracket requires the correct selection of all 67 games over six rounds in the tournament, including four play-in games that determine the make-up of the round of 64.

Big Number

1 in 9.2 quintillion. Those are the odds of making a perfect bracket, if selections are made by a simple coin flip, according to the NCAA. Contestants who know something about basketball have a significantly better chance of winning, but still face absurd odds, at a measly 1 in 120.2 billion. That’s worse odds than getting struck by lightning (less than 1 in 1 million, according to the CDC) or being attacked by a shark (1 in 11.5 million).

Tangent

Out of the four number-one seeds in their regions (Alabama, Houston, Kansas and Purdue), Houston has the best chance of winning the tournament, according to FanDuel’s betting lines, which puts its odds at +500, meaning a contestant who bets $100 on Houston would win $500 if they win. The next best are Alabama (+800), Kansas (+1,000), Purdue (+1,200) and the second-ranked University of California Los Angeles (+1,400). Betting on those teams has proved successful in past years. Since 2000, number-one seeds have won the tournament 16 out of 22 years.

Contra

While contestants less optimistic about winning the tournament can opt for free bracket challenges, others choose to wager money in more traditional ways, including with a bookie or in a sports book in states where sports betting is legal. A recent Morning Consult survey released by the American Gaming Association found more than 68 million Americans plan to wager a total of roughly $15.5 billion on March Madness, including 21.5 million who plan to bet casually with friends, 31 million who plan to place traditional wagers either online or with a bookie and more than 56 million who plan to play a bracket contest. Sports betting is legal in 33 states and Washington D.C.