Who's in the Quicken/Buffet $billion pool?

[rthomas]

I am. Even with
“odds of winning the Grand Prize are 1:9,223,372,036,854,775,808.” That’s 1 in 9 quintillion and change. See the image to the left for what a mere 1 quintillion pennies would look like (the larger white sliver is the Empire State Building). Another way to think about it: If all 317 million people in the U.S. filled out a bracket at random, you could run the contest for 290 million years, and there’d still be a 99 percent chance that no one had ever won.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...n_buffett.html

Still, why not?

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Everyone?

[rthomas]

Everyone?

Will we be on a spam list forever for signing up?

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

I am. Even with

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...n_buffett.html

Still, why not?

Also, I don't come close to buying the odds. Games are not a coin flip. There is an element of randomness and chance, but also evaluating teams makes a big difference.

[jay]

Also, I don't come close to buying the odds. Games are not a coin flip. There is an element of randomness and chance, but also evaluating teams makes a big difference.

There's a YouTube video out there somewhere where a statistics professor accounts for some rudimentary knowledge of matchups. The odds are still ridiculous.

[FerryFor50]

I'll enter once the Yahoo site is back up. Guess everyone is on there filling em out.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

There's a YouTube video out there somewhere where a statistics professor accounts for some rudimentary knowledge of matchups. The odds are still ridiculous.

I am sure the odds are absurd. But pretending every game is 50/50 makes it much much harder.

[freshmanjs]

I am sure the odds are absurd. But pretending every game is 50/50 makes it much much harder.

the article does not pretend that. it actually addresses this issue.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Then... nevermind

[Kdogg]

Will we be on a spam list forever for signing up?

Worse. It requires a mobile phone to verify the account. You then get spam SMS Texts from Yahoo. You automatically opt-in by signing up and the opt-out is very intrusive.

"Submitting your mobile phone number and clicking on “Send SMS” also constitutes your electronic signature and consent to receive automated, marketing text messages from Yahoo. Providing your consent to receive these text messages is not a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services. To participate in the free Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick‘em 2014 or Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge with Yahoo Sports, you must initially agree to receive text messages from Yahoo, if you provided a mobile phone number. However, you can text STOP at any time or use this link to opt out of further text messages. Message and data rates may apply."

[flyingdutchdevil]

...I promise to donate 1% of the winnings to DBR. I mean, without DBR, I wouldn't know 20% of what I now know about college ball.

Warren Buffet, I'm about to decrease your wealth by 0.34%!

[SCMatt33]

Worse. It requires a mobile phone to verify the account. You then get spam SMS Texts from Yahoo. You automatically opt-in by signing up and the opt-out is very intrusive.

"Submitting your mobile phone number and clicking on “Send SMS” also constitutes your electronic signature and consent to receive automated, marketing text messages from Yahoo. Providing your consent to receive these text messages is not a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services. To participate in the free Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick‘em 2014 or Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge with Yahoo Sports, you must initially agree to receive text messages from Yahoo, if you provided a mobile phone number. However, you can text STOP at any time or use this link to opt out of further text messages. Message and data rates may apply."

I signed up a few weeks ago when it first went live. They texted me a code to prove my number was real. I replied with "STOP" as mentioned and have never received one bit of spam on my phone. I used a throwaway email account for my Yahoo id, so I can't speak to potential email spam

[Dev11]

When I have a billion dollars, I think maybe I'll change my phone and email address, and that should prevent the spam. Also, I hope everybody is cool with watching Duke home games at Dev11 Indoor Stadium.

[roquin]

When I have a billion dollars, I think maybe I'll change my phone and email address, and that should prevent the spam. Also, I hope everybody is cool with watching Duke home games at Dev11 Indoor Stadium.

A billion dollars? You're aiming low... I hope that'd at least get us watching the Duke Blue DevI1s!

[hurleyfor3]

If you have a 74% success rate of picking NCAA Tournament games throughout the entire tournament, your odds of winning are the same as those of winning Powerball. (Actually 73.986%.)

[flyingdutchdevil]

If you have a 74% success rate of picking NCAA Tournament games throughout the entire tournament, your odds of winning are the same as those of winning Powerball. (Actually 73.986%.)

So you're telling me there's a chance?

[hurleyfor3]

So you're telling me there's a chance?

There's "a chance" of winning Powerball too; people do it every few weeks. I'd rather win Powerball, where the prize is more or less guaranteed to be given away and where I can stay anonymous.

[nmduke2001]

Let's say you are one of those guys (or gals) that enters multiple brackets over different sites (i.e, ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, etc). Each time you submit a bracket it is slightly different. Now let's say that you have a perfect bracket but it isn't the Billion Dollar Bracket. That drives you to drinking, right?

[flyingdutchdevil]

There's "a chance" of winning Powerball too; people do it every few weeks. I'd rather win Powerball, where the prize is more or less guaranteed to be given away and where I can stay anonymous.

Btw, I was using a famous Dumb and Dumber quote. But you can't really use accents on forums. Damn you internet!

[tux]

It's interesting to do the math of

$1 billion / ( 5 * 64 )

But I doubt the starting five guys on all 64 teams would think about something like that...

[DukeUsul]

I was reading a story on this and word is that if you are the one with a perfect bracket through X games (the Elite Eight maybe?) they'll offer you a buyout. Would you take $10 million at that point guaranteed over a small chance of getting the rest of the games right for the $1billion?

[UrinalCake]

Does anyone know what is the closest anyone has ever come to a perfect bracket since the field expanded to 64? I guess you can't really start tracking until the 2000's when Internet entries became common. I seem to remember someone having a perfect bracket through the final four a few years ago, but I could be wrong.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

To my knowledge, this is the closest anyone has come. (http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/8632/autistic-teen-picks-perfect-bracket) And that ain't all that close, really.

I mean, until this year when I win a billion dollars.

Don't worry, I will leave a fantastic endowment to DBR.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Wow. As of 10 minutes before 11am, it seems Yahoo Fantasy Sports has crashed for a bit. Must be all the people clamoring for a chance to win the prestigious DBR pool.

[hurleyfor3]

I was reading a story on this and word is that if you are the one with a perfect bracket through X games (the Elite Eight maybe?) they'll offer you a buyout. Would you take $10 million at that point guaranteed over a small chance of getting the rest of the games right for the $1billion?

For $10m, yes. There's not a lot I want to do with $1bn that I can't do with $10m.

For lesser amounts, you can just go to Nevada and bet the money lines on all the teams you didn't pick. But with a billion involved, you'd need someone to loan you enough money and a bookmaker willing to take a bet for at least a few hundred grand. Neither is likely. If you're an established customer you may be able to do a million or so for the Super Bowl, but for lesser games books will get real suspicious in a hurry.


Btw, I was using a famous Dumb and Dumber quote.

Of course you are, but it has literal applications. No single player has a reasonable chance to win Powerball, but people do win it.

[Highlander]

For $10m, yes. There's not a lot I want to do with $1bn that I can't do with $10m.

For lesser amounts, you can just go to Nevada and bet the money lines on all the teams you didn't pick. But with a billion involved, you'd need someone to loan you enough money and a bookmaker willing to take a bet for at least a few hundred grand. Neither is likely. If you're an established customer you may be able to do a million or so for the Super Bowl, but for lesser games books will get real suspicious in a hurry.



Of course you are, but it has literal applications. No single player has a reasonable chance to win Powerball, but people do win it.

I've heard the buyout was $100M for a perfect bracket thru the FF. You'd have 3 games left at that point. I'd probably take the buyout at that point. Not much the average joe would want to do with a billion that you couldn't also do with $100M.

[pfrduke]

I wonder if Yahoo will be tracking, on a game by game basis, how many perfect brackets remain? That would be kind of fun. For example, if Dayton wins this first game, I think roughly 84% of the entrants will be eliminated by 2:30 in the afternoon on Day 1.

[Marc81]

How many of you have Duke winning it all in your billion dollar bracket? I do.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

How many of you have Duke winning it all in your billion dollar bracket? I do.

I actually don't. I figure, that way, if Duke loses, I have this nice consolation prize of winning a cool billion.

Go Duke!

[Olympic Fan]

I entered, picked my bracket ... but don't expect to win.

The only thing that bothered me is that Yahoo won't let me print out my bracket. Every time I try it locks up my computer.

[UrinalCake]

It's interesting to do the math of

$1 billion / ( 5 * 64 )

But I doubt the starting five guys on all 64 teams would think about something like that...

What if I approached the athletic directors of each of the schools and offered them each $10 million to fix their games? Obviously they would be penalized by the NCAA and probably disqualified for a few seasons. But for $10 million? I think some smaller schools would definitely do it. Duke, maybe not so much. But if everyone agreed, then I could walk away with my $360 million.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

What if I approached the athletic directors of each of the schools and offered them each $10 million to fix their games? Obviously they would be penalized by the NCAA and probably disqualified for a few seasons. But for $10 million? I think some smaller schools would definitely do it. Duke, maybe not so much. But if everyone agreed, then I could walk away with my $360 million.

I was just thinking about this... I mean, if you got down to the final four and someone had a billion dollars on the line... it would be very easy to question the integrity of the games.

[brevity]

What if I approached the athletic directors of each of the schools and offered them each $10 million to fix their games?

John Calipari, is that you?

If you can't have the perfect season, I guess the perfect bracket will suffice.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

And... I lost one billion dollars in the first game. Seems appropriate.

[pfrduke]

Well, I won't win the money. Dayton did Warren a solid just one game in.

[Duvall]

Well, now I'm glad I didn't bother entering. Thanks, Dayton.

[jacone21]

Like I tell my wife every time we fail to win the Megamillions jackpot...

"Hunny, we still po!"

[OldPhiKap]

Price of an NCAA ticket package? $235

Price of a thirty-second television commercial during the NCAA broadcasts: $375,000.

Price of The Ohio State University losing in the first game of the first real round? Priceless.

[El_Diablo]

I am still in the running...time to go yacht shopping.

[CameronBlue]

And... I lost one billion dollars in the first game. Seems appropriate.

Not me. 1 for 1. I can already taste those sweet, sweet Benjamins, come to papa!

[OldPhiKap]

Not me. 1 for 1. I can already taste those sweet, sweet Benjamins, come to papa!

Well, he's paying in Bitcoins, so . . . good luck to all.




(j/k)

[CameronBlue]

Well, he's paying in Bitcoins, so . . . good luck to all.




(j/k)

Right, my next financial gambit is to corner the Bitcoin market...after my much heralded successes in the out-of-date lottery ticket and discount pizza coupon markets.

[OldPhiKap]

Right, my next financial gambit is to corner the Bitcoin market...after my much heralded successes in the out-of-date lottery ticket and discount pizza coupon markets.

It seems like the time is right to start growing and hoarding tulips again. All things go in cycles.

[tux]

What if I approached the athletic directors of each of the schools and offered them each $10 million to fix their games? Obviously they would be penalized by the NCAA and probably disqualified for a few seasons. But for $10 million? I think some smaller schools would definitely do it. Duke, maybe not so much. But if everyone agreed, then I could walk away with my $360 million.

Technically, you'd only need to ask 63 ADs to tank one game each. I suggest you just leave Duke out of it ;)

[moonpie23]

i'll be sending OSU an invoice for a Billion.......i had picked Harvard...

[Acymetric]

Well, I hadn't entered my bracket in the billion dollar contest, but if I had St. Joe's would have taken me out. Oh well, missing one game (so far!) in the first day ain't bad right?

[moonpie23]

state trying to mess me up right now...

[Newton_14]

I was reading a story on this and word is that if you are the one with a perfect bracket through X games (the Elite Eight maybe?) they'll offer you a buyout. Would you take $10 million at that point guaranteed over a small chance of getting the rest of the games right for the $1billion?

All day long and twice on Sunday. Don't even have to think about it.

[Edouble]

I was reading a story on this and word is that if you are the one with a perfect bracket through X games (the Elite Eight maybe?) they'll offer you a buyout. Would you take $10 million at that point guaranteed over a small chance of getting the rest of the games right for the $1billion?

Heck no!

Contact the mob. Have them fix the games to align with your bracket for $100 million, payable on April 15th. Net $900 million!

[CameronBlue]

i'll be sending OSU an invoice for a Billion.......i had picked Harvard...

That' a "1" with nine "0"s following. Haven't seen that many zeros in a row since the Julius Peppers' transcripts went viral.

[Wheat/"/"/"]

I'm in, but I don't know how I'm doing. I want to be really surprised when they contact me with the banking options.

I went through it fast and made my picks on gut feel and a lots of hope.

I do remember my final four. Pitt, UNC, Az, Ky.

[rthomas]

Lasted until 9:29 PM, St Joes game, then quickly went downhill from therewith teams I've never heard of, New Mex State, Oklahoma, and Ariz St.

[gurufrisbee]

Made it through the first day. Not sure I've ever even done that before. Probably means I'm due for a 1-15 second day. Hope Duke is the one. Hey Warren - I'll take a buyout now!

[Olympic Fan]

I didn't make it through the first game -- my billion dollars slipped away with Aaron Craft's last shot rolled off.

The funny thing is, I had my best first day ever. The only other game I missed was NC State's choke job ... 14-2 and all eight of my Sweet 16s still alive.

Obviously, that's a new Murphy's Law ...