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How to make a billion dollars all in one shot.

L

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
Just pick the perfect March Madness bracket. :D
http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-perfect-bracket-2014-1

Count me in!!!

Yesterday, Quicken Loans and Warren Buffett announced that they would be giving a prize of $1 billion to anyone who can fill out a perfect March Madness bracket this year.

The thing is just a marketing stunt, but it's total genius. The odds of a perfect bracket being picked is 1 in 9.2 quintillion. A quintillion is a billion billion. So everyone on earth could fill out millions of brackets each, and there probably wouldn't be anyone to hit the prize.

So given the odds, the prize is pretty small. But still, it's like a lottery ticket: You feel like if you're smart you might have a chance of winning.

Technically, Quicken Loans is running the prize, and Buffett is offering Quicken Loans the insurance just in case someone wins the prize. This is a classic Buffett move. A key part of his business is using his gigantic cash pile to write insurance on events others can't afford to. He'll collect a nominal amount of money for this move, while also garnering some publicity for what he does (though he probably doesn't need it).

Furthermore, an oversized Bracket challenge is a quintessentially Buffett thing to get behind. His whole style is plain-folks activities but on a whole different level.

For a marketing stunt, this is one of the best ones we've seen in awhile.
Click to expand...
 
rdowns

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
12,521
So you have to pick which 64 teams make the NCAAs and then the winners???
 
ucfgrad93

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Aug 17, 2007
19,529
10,816
Colorado
RedTomato said:
What is a March Madness Bracket? I'm lost.
Click to expand...

In order to determine the NCAA (college) basketball champion, a tournament of 64 teams is held. Once the teams are picked, in order to win the billion dollars, you need to pick the winner of each game in the tournament.

Here is a link to last year's winning bracket.
 
L

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
ardchoille42 said:
This is nothing more than a publicity stunt and there will never be a winner. The people who can afford to give this amount of money away didn't make this money by giving it away ;)
Click to expand...

Who cares if it's a publicity stunt. A chance is a chance. And this chance is not costing me anything but a little fun picking brackets. ;)
 
dukebound85

dukebound85

macrumors Core
Jul 17, 2005
19,131
4,110
5045 feet above sea level
The odds are 2^64

That is 1:1.8*10^19
That is 1:18 PENTILLION

It's not going to happen

You have better odds winning the powerball consecutive times

Granted odds get better if you realize that a 1 has never list to a 16 and so in but still.....not going to happen
 
L

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 27, 2009
8,778
10,844
dukebound85 said:
The odds are 2^64

That is 1:1.8*10^19
That is 1:18 PENTILLION

It's not going to happen

You have better odds winning the powerball consecutive times

Granted odds get better if you realize that a 1 has never list to a 16 and so in but still.....not going to happen
Click to expand...

Those odds are based on guessing. Those who follow the NCAA season have much better odds, probably equivalent to a powerball lottery.
 
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