Employee wins $1 million in Warren Buffett’s March Madness contest

• For the first time in years, billionaire Warren Buffett will award $1 million to an employee of Berkshire Hathaway. The employee won Buffett’s March Madness bracket challenge.
• The winner had 31 of 32 games picked correctly in the first round and 44 of 45 overall.
• Eleven other employees won $100,000 for also having 31 of 32 correct games, but they fell slightly short of the winner’s accuracy in predictions for the men’s basketball tournament.

---

Full Story

For the first time in nearly a decade, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett will give out $1 million to the lucky winner of his annual NCAA basketball bracket challenge.

How did the winner do it?

CNBC is reporting that an employee of Berkshire subsidiary Flight Safety International won Buffett’s annual contest. The anonymous employee correctly guessed 31 of the 32 games in the first round of the men’s tournament.

There were 11 other workers who also had 31 correct guesses. However, the grand prize winner nailed the first 29 games before finally missing. The winner also picked 44 of 45 games correctly in March Madness.

What is the history behind the bracket challenge?

Buffett, the so-called Oracle of Omaha, began the contest for employees back in 2016, and the threshold to attain the grand prize was a set of correct predictions for the Sweet Sixteen. Anyone who could do it would win the $1 million. However, when years went by without anybody winning, Buffett lowered the standard. In 2024, the contest eliminated the eight games involving the number one and number two seeds. But again, nobody won.

This year, the rules were changed to allow anybody who picked at least 30 of the 32 games correctly in the first round to be eligible to win the big prize. That lower bar saw a dozen people qualify.

Besides just the grand prize winner, the 11 other employees who guessed 31 of 32 games correctly will each receive $100,000.