Warren Buffett Offers To Give Away $1 Billion, But There’s No Way You’ll Get It
11 years ago

How would you like to be a billionaire? Thanks to former richest man in the world Warren Buffett, you now have a chance. All you have to do is completely the nearly impossible task of filling out a perfect NCAA bracket, and then it’s welcome to the good life, population: you.

Check out this recent tweet from the @SportsCenter account, which essentially has Buffett quoted as saying “Hey, I’m rich as shit, and I bet you can’t pick a perfect bracket.”

According to Yahoo Finance, Buffett established this nearly impossible contest through a partnership with Quicken Loans. The winner will receive 40 annual installments of $25 million, or can elect to receive a lump sum $500 million payment.

So you have a chance to become a billionaire, but it’s gotta be pretty small right? After all, this isn’t just picking a few lottery numbers. The odds have to be at least one in a trillion right?

Wrong. One in 9 quintillion. 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, to be exact. That’s a 19 digit number, and if every person in the entire world filled out a million brackets randomly, the numbers say that there STILL wouldn’t be anyone who got it right. I got Tech Guy to double check my math on this. Don’t worry.

Thanks for the offer, Warren. I’m more likely to get invited to an orgy hosted by the entire Maxim Hot 100. But you better believe I’m filling out a bracket and crossing my fingers anyway.

[via Yahoo Finance]

Image via Associated Press

  2. JohnCCalhoun

    In the famous words of L. Christmas, “So you’re saying there’s a chance?!!”

    11 years ago at 12:53 pm
  4. AButtChuggingPike

    While those are the actual odds, a majority of the possibilities involve many major upsets. While some are bound to happen, a majority won’t…

    11 years ago at 12:56 pm
  5. emergingfratstar296

    Assuming the first seeds win all of their first games, your chances improve to 1:2^59, or cut that initial number in half 4 times. Also with 96% confidence the 2nd seeds will all win their first games too, cutting that number in half 4 more times. So you can conservatively estimate a winning bracket at 1:300trillion.
    I am also still entering and crossing my fingers.

    11 years ago at 12:57 pm
  6. Deltahigh

    Those arent the odds, thats just the possible combination of outcomes…some teams are better than others

    11 years ago at 1:01 pm
  7. Bush Light

    Not to be a dick but he buttons the bottom button? I thought he’d at least be able to dress the part too, by now….

    11 years ago at 1:05 pm
  8. lewis2032

    It would be great to see him donate the billion dollars to the charity of choice of the closest bracket.

    11 years ago at 1:05 pm
    2. Tuco1855

      1: He donates a fuck ton on money.
      2: I’m sure you would love to donate your 500m lump sum right? You’re such a good guy.

      11 years ago at 1:17 pm
  9. TFM44

    Does anybody know what reinsurance is? Buffett is not offering $1 billion to the person who fills out the perfect bracket. Quicken Loans is putting on the contest and then they’re using one of Warren Buffett’s reinsurance companies to assume the risk from them, for a nominal fee. It’s the same as when McDonald’s offers their Monopoly game. Mickie D’s does not pay you the money, their insurance company does. So Buffett is not offering the money, he’s just making money off Quicken Loans by insuring the game they came up with and are sponsoring.

    11 years ago at 1:18 pm
  10. Nutsack814

    Is anyone else freaking out over the fact that SFPL managed to write something without a list format?

    11 years ago at 1:20 pm