In a bold pronouncement, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett is offering to pay $1 billion to the individual who would be able to correctly predict the winner of every basketball game played in the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament. According to a report from the LA Times, this may be the largest sports bet in history for the March Madness classic.
Buffett said, "This would be the most fun. Imagine if there's one person left at the last game. I will go to that final game with him or her and I'll have a check in my pocket... I think we'll be rooting for different teams."
Forbes reported that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. would be partnering woth Quicken Loans to offer what is to be known as the "Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket". The odds of winning in this contest is one in 4,294,967,296. This is considered a safe investment by Berkshire Hathaway and Quicken Loans, according to Fox News.
ESPN had also been running a tournament challenge in the past 16 years and there has never been a perfect bracket in all of the entries it has received. Among its participants is U.S. President Barack Obama.
Quicken Loans owner Dan Gilbert, a fellow billionaire like Buffett, is said to offer $100,000 each to the twenty most "accurate imperfect" brackets. The funds given would be available to purchase, refinance or remodel a home.
The Bleacher Report quoted Quicken Loans president Jay Farner saying, "It is our mission to create amazing experiences for our clients. This contest with the possibility of creating a billionaire, definitely fits that bill."
The contest is available to U.S. citizens aged 21 years old or more. The contest would begin on March 3 and is free of charge. A URL would be provided by Quicken Loans for the contest submissions but initial details are already available at the Quicken Loans Facebook page and Twitter account.