Billion Dollar Bracket - Cigar Asylum Cigar Forum

Even though this is sports, I thought it might be better put here. The odds are 1 in 128 Billion and Buffet says if it comes down to the final game for someone, he will take them to that game and have a check in his pocket.

Registration starts March 3rd, they are taking the first 10 million people to register.

Originally Posted by :
Financial guru Warren Buffet's company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is insuring the colossal prize that would go to someone who successfully picks all 64 team brackets in the NCAA men's basketball tournament –- a feat so complex that the company is betting $1 billion it won't happen.

The prize is being offered by Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc., the nation's fourth-largest mortgage lender, and would be doled out in 40 annual installments of $25 million, unless the winner opts for a single lump-sum payment of $500 million.

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/warren-...ry?id=21615743
[Reply]

I'm gonna take the 500 mil :-) St. Ann's By The Sea college to win it all :-)
[Reply]

This makes no sense at all. On March 3rd, the bracket won't even be set, so it would be impossible to predict all 63 games at that time. Every year you have some 8-20 team get hot in their conference tournament and win themselves a bid, thus one would first have to predict this in order to even submit a "perfect" bracket, much less predict the outcome of the games.

For such a smart investor, Buffett's being pretty damn dumb with this one.
[Reply]

Originally Posted by The Poet:

For such a smart investor, Buffett's being pretty damn dumb with this one.

Really? Look at how many people are talking about this. It's all over the tv news. Talk about publicity...
[Reply]

Originally Posted by AlohaStyle:
Really? Look at how many people are talking about this. It's all over the tv news. Talk about publicity...

Well, he knows he's not gonna lose any money, but he's not selling anything or running for anything, so what good is the publicity to him? Besides, that's not part of his laid-back "billionaire of the people" personality profile.

Yet I do wonder why, Adam, you elected to call me out on that while completely ignoring the main point of my comment. :-)

:-)
[Reply]

Originally Posted by The Poet:
This makes no sense at all. On March 3rd, the bracket won't even be set, so it would be impossible to predict all 63 games at that time. Every year you have some 8-20 team get hot in their conference tournament and win themselves a bid, thus one would first have to predict this in order to even submit a "perfect" bracket, much less predict the outcome of the games.

For such a smart investor, Buffett's being pretty damn dumb with this one.

I take it to mean that while registration doesn't begin until 3/3, you don't have to fill in your bracket until the brackets are set.
[Reply]

Originally Posted by yourchoice:
I take it to mean that while registration doesn't begin until 3/3, you don't have to fill in your bracket until the brackets are set.

Let's hope! The odds are impossible enough even when you KNOW who's playing. :-)
[Reply]

And Buffet's company is only insuring the prize, not offering the prize. Quicken Loans would have to fork over the money if someone wins. Let's say someone did win and they couldn't pay, Quicken Loans is probably worth that much, or enough that Buffet figures, if they default, he just owns another company.

:-)
[Reply]

This is one of the largest 'free' marketing campaigns ever, it's over a month till you can even register, then you still (as you pointed out) have to wait to fill in your bracket. They are only letting 10 million people register, I think another safe bet is more than that number will try to register and on the day the registration opens it will be all over the news again, as well as when play starts. You can throw in some comparisons to the gov. health care site as well, just think when this site doesn't go down with all those people trying to register, when the gov site went down like *insert sexual reference to girls and prom here*.

There is almost no chance someone will win this, hence the "free" comment about the marketing.

Edit: Oh I'm taking the 500 million too!
[Reply]