{"id":2417,"date":"2025-03-25T00:08:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T00:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/warren-buffetts-march-madness-contest-finally-yields-a-1m-winner\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T00:09:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T00:09:05","slug":"warren-buffetts-march-madness-contest-finally-yields-a-1m-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/25\/warren-buffetts-march-madness-contest-finally-yields-a-1m-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett\u2019s March Madness Contest Finally Yields a $1M Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Warren Buffet sitting courtside at a 2014 game between the Charlotte Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers. Jason Miller\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For nearly a decade now, Warren Buffett<\/a> has been trying to lose $1 million. This year, he finally succeeded. The Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)<\/a> head will be doling out a seven-figure paycheck to one lucky employee who managed to predict the outcomes of 31 of the 32 initial NCAA tournament games.<\/p>\n

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The award is part of Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s annual March Madness bracket contest, which is open to the nearly 400,000 employees working at the conglomerate and its subsidiary companies like Geico and See\u2019s Candies. Officially running since 2016, the contest\u2019s grand prize\u2014a lifetime payout of $1 million per year to any participant able to predict the winners of the tournament\u2019s first 48 games\u2014has never been claimed. Tired of waiting for a winner, however, Buffett earlier this month decided to tweak the rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the first time ever, participants this year were also eligible for a one-time $1 million payment if they submitted brackets correctly calling the outcomes of at least 30 of the 32 first-round games played on March 20 and March 21. The amendment was inspired by the fact that, at age 94, Buffett isn\u2019t getting any younger. \u201cI want to give a million dollars to somebody while I\u2019m still around as chairman<\/a>,\u201d the billionaire investor told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.<\/p>\n

An employee of FlightSafety International, an aviation training company acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 1996, is making Buffett\u2019s dreams come true, announced the holding company today (March 24). The staffer will be taking home $1 million after correctly predicting all of the NCAA\u2019s first-round games barring one match between the Xavier Musketeers and Illinois Fighting Illini.<\/p>\n

While the employee was one of a dozen Berkshire Hathaway workers who filled out brackets correctly calling 31 of the first-round games, the winner secured the prize because they had the largest number of predictions right in a row after calling the initial 29 games. Don\u2019t feel too bad for the remaining 11 contestants\u2014they\u2019ll all be receiving a runner-up award of $100,000 each. The FlightSafety staffer\u2019s \u201ccredentials were further burnished\u201d over the weekend with an additional 13 wins, said Berkshire Hathaway, bringing their record to 44 correct predictions out of the 45 games played so far.<\/p>\n

As has been the case for the past nine years, Buffett\u2019s original grand prize of $1 million annually for the rest of a participant\u2019s life will go unclaimed. But that shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise, given that only one person<\/a> has ever predicted the outcomes of the tournament\u2019s first 48 games in the history of brackets tracked by the NCAA. Ever the Omaha loyalist, Buffett has long promised to double this pot if the Creighton Bluejays or Omaha Mavericks\u2014both of which hail from his Nebraska hometown\u2014 make it to the final round.<\/p>\n

Buffett\u2019s initial foray into NCAA brackets made it even more difficult for Berkshire Hathaway workers. In 2014, his company partnered up with mortgage lender Quicken Loans and promised to give a staggering $1 billion to whomever submitted a perfect bracket predicting the winners of the entire tournament. This task is nearly impossible, with the NCAA estimating that the odds of a perfect bracket could be as low as 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9.2 quintillion)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the years, winners of Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s March Madness prizes have spanned the holding company\u2019s roster of more than 60 subsidiaries. In 2018, for example, a group of eight contestants splitting Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s $100,000 consolation pot included workers from insurance company General Reinsurance, railroad operator BNSF Railway and home furnishing store Nebraska Furniture mart. \u201cWe like doing it because we often act as separate companies and this brings us all together<\/a>,\u201d Buffett told ESPN the year prior.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Warren<\/p><\/div>\n