Sports

Warren Buffett backing $1B in March Madness sweepstakes

Warren Buffett’s office is probably the only one in America that can cover this pool.

His Berkshire Hathaway is insuring a $1 billion sweepstakes offered by Quicken Loans for anyone who can perfectly pick all the winners of each game in the NCAA’s men’s basketball “March Madness” tournament this spring.

The prize will be paid in 40 annual installments of $25 million and split among multiple winners if there is more than one perfect entrant, the Detroit-based lender said today in a statement. The winner also has the option of a single payment of $500 million.

The 68-team single-elimination tournament begins in March. Submissions will be limited to 10 million entrants, according to the statement.

The odds of picking every winner correctly in a 64-team bracket are lower than 1 in 9 quintillion, according to Jeff Bergen, a math professor at DePaul University.

Even with some basketball knowledge, the odds improve to only about 1 in 128 billion, Bergen said in a YouTube video.