14 DAY TRIAL // How does $1 billion (€738 million) sound? Sounds impossible, but that's exactly the amount of money Warren Buffet and his company Quicken Loans are putting up for anyone who can guess the winners of all 63 games in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament.
The Americans call it March Madness and a line-up is called a bracket. It's simple really, get the perfect bracket, and you're one billion (yes, that's with a “B”) dollars richer. The chances of anyone getting all 63 games right is 1 in 4,294,967,296.
But don't despair though. Quicken Loans said that it would be giving away $100,000 to each of the 20 most accurate “imperfect” Brackets to use on buying, refinancing or remodeling their home.
Given that the chances to guess all 63 games are so low, it's likely Quicken will only have to pay out the imperfect brackets and the billion will still be safe in Warren Buffet's bank account.
However, if by some miracle of God or some other force of nature, you manage to guess the perfect bracket, Quicken are saying they'll give you the choice between taking a lump payment of $500 million (€369 million) or monthly payments of $25 million (€18,4 million) until you receive the entire billion, which is in 40 months' time.
Although the contest has already been announced on their Facebook page, it doesn't really start until March 3, with the March Madness kicking off on March 18.
The rules of the contest say that only one bracket can be posted by each household, so don't start calling your relatives to help you with improving your odds. There is no fee to enter the contest and already people have been flocking to the Quicken Facebook profile to make inquiries.
If you think you've got what it takes, why not give it a try? There's about one billion reasons why this contest could change your life.