OT: $1 billion offered for a perfect March Madness bracket
January 21st, 2014 at 3:28 PM ^
I'm offering a billion to anyone who can successfully hit the Mega Millions and be struck by lightning at the same time. The door prize will be your own spot in an Alanis Morrisette song.
January 21st, 2014 at 10:13 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 10:21 PM ^
Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?
January 21st, 2014 at 3:37 PM ^
My prediction is that someone wins.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:37 PM ^
"Bergen estimated in 2012 that someone who knows college basketball, that is, someone who understands that 1-seed teams never lose to 16-seed teams, for example, has about a 1-in-128-billion shot at picking all of the games correctly."
I think they'll be all right.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^
Bookofodds has it significantly lower than that - I believe somewhere in the range of 1 in 40 billion for an educated entrant. Sure, it's a longshot, but I have a feeling someone will do it.
EDIT: Entries will be limited to one per household. Nevermind.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:58 PM ^
How are they going to check that there is only one entry from each household?
January 21st, 2014 at 4:12 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 11:10 PM ^
I would honor none of them
January 22nd, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
Scientists estimate that approximately 20 billion humans have been born in the entire history of the species, which means the odds of collecting on this is one in twice the number of people who have ever existed.
I'm comfortable saying that nobody collects on this....ever.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^
Wonder what the actuaries think?
January 21st, 2014 at 9:18 PM ^
I don't even know why they bother with the insurance--if I'm the quicken CEO, I think I'm okay with taking my chances that if someone picks the perfect bracket, the company goes under. There's a greater chance the company headquarters are struck by a meteor.
January 22nd, 2014 at 9:06 AM ^
Quicken is a tens of billion dollar company. They won't go bankrupt on a billion dollar payout. Hit their bottom line, yes, but not bankrupt. The massive amount of business being driven to them will pay for this in the long term, so there's no risk to them.
Oh, and I hate Dan GIlbert and his thug army of lawyers. That's all.
January 22nd, 2014 at 4:27 PM ^
The payment options are $25 million per year for 40 years or one lump sum of $500 million. That means they can surely afford those hits.
January 21st, 2014 at 10:59 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
it into the tournament? I mean that drives fan interest all seaason long, bracketology and daily Kenppom ratings, and all of that, you could use that information, but you'd still have to get all the selections right. You cutoff the entries before the final selection weekend. You have to get all the conference tourney results correct and the at large choices.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^
The tournament teams are selected by a committee though, which opens the real possibility of bribery, collusion, intimidation, and other such activities.
January 21st, 2014 at 7:00 PM ^
January 22nd, 2014 at 9:50 AM ^
You're correct. There is no difference at all between the selection process and outcome of the actual games played.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:39 PM ^
So, for the sake of argument, let's just take 9 quintillion and then assume that I start filling out brackets at 4 PM EDT today and do not cease until an hour before the tip of the first play-in game. That only means I have to fill out 1.9011 trillion or so individual brackets per second between now and then. Best start making copies of bracket sheets.
In all seriousness though, it would be awesome to win this thing as it is so improbable.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:47 PM ^
Part of me thinks about the sheer number of participants in yearly brackets and realizes that these games have outcomes that are not coin flips, and that many people play multiple brackets. So eventually... but no. It'll never happen.
January 22nd, 2014 at 4:34 PM ^
I actually know who will win each game. I went to the future and came back with the winners of all the games. The only thing is I'm not a resident of the US, so I can't play. But if someone wants to split it 50-50 with me I will divulge my findings. Any takers?
January 21st, 2014 at 3:49 PM ^
Too bad that will literally never happen.
January 21st, 2014 at 3:52 PM ^
I wonder if they'll award $650 million for only getting it 65% correct, because that's how I usually do.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^
Wow, says they're paying out $100,000 to each of the top 20 places. I wonder how much Quicken is thinking they'll make off this marketing when they don't mind giving away $2M.
EDIT: Seems that $100,000 must be used towards financing a house, makes sense now.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^
I've had some really good years. I even won a giant pool at General Motors when my dad was working there, but even then I missed like 15 or 16 picks. Missing none seems impossible. Be good to hear from the Mathlete on this one.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:23 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 6:32 PM ^
If I win a billion my first order of business will be finding an investment group to help me buy an nfl franchise.
January 21st, 2014 at 9:53 PM ^
most certainly has NOT happened in the past 10 years or 1000 years.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:15 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 4:26 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 9:51 PM ^
be the insurer negotiating the settlement not Quicken.
January 22nd, 2014 at 11:08 AM ^
Or you hedge your bet and make more gaurenteed money than they probably would want to settle for.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:32 PM ^
Watch this be the year we get a 16-over-1 upset and everyone loses the first day.
January 21st, 2014 at 4:37 PM ^
of the players on that team might be sitting pretty, though.
We'll be having a little* tailgate party if I get the billion, by the way.
*Relative to a guaranteed $25m salary, that is.
January 21st, 2014 at 5:07 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 4:44 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 4:52 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 5:18 PM ^
one-in-50 billion-odds is...there is that one.
and i'm feelin' purrrty lucky.
January 21st, 2014 at 5:25 PM ^
after we win. But, then, The Knowledge already knew that.
January 21st, 2014 at 5:50 PM ^
We need to just find a way to enter a bracket for every single possible outcome. Get the MgoBoard bots on this now.
My idea so obviously I get 50%. Everyone else can split the remainder evenly.
January 21st, 2014 at 8:01 PM ^
January 21st, 2014 at 5:53 PM ^
Battle of the Bots - UNLEASH!!
What happens when there are 9 billion unique entries?
January 21st, 2014 at 5:56 PM ^
there has to be a limit to the number of unique entires. Hell, *I* could write a code that runs thru that algorithm
January 22nd, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
1 per household. They will only check if you win.
January 21st, 2014 at 6:36 PM ^
If I win, I'm giving it all to this blog, but only if I get mod powers.
January 21st, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
but I'll walk away from modding and give you my password for only 1/10th of the prize.