For the first time in nearly a decade, Warren Buffett's March Madness bracket challenge has produced a grand prize winner. One anonymous employee from FlightSafety International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, has done just that and claimed the elusive $1 million prize. The 94-year-old Oracle of Omaha was finally able to give out the big award after a few years’ worth of pandemic-fueled competition.
Our internal bracket contest, which began in 2016. It’s aim was to give a prize to whoever could guess the Sweet Sixteen with perfection. This year, the rules changed, raising the likelihood that somebody would indeed walk away with the grand prize. The Creighton basketball fan community was determined to give her the award.
That’s how one of the contest-winning employees managed to predict the outcome of 31 of the 32 first-round games in the men’s basketball tournament. He followed that up by correctly picking 44 of the last 45 games. In 2024, participants had the advantage of waiving the results of the eight games among the No.1 and No.2 seeds.
One major rule change made this year might save the echoes. If you accurately predicted the winners of at least 30 first-round tournament matchups, you could be eligible to WIN the grand prize! Let’s all make those predictions work for the climate. A dozen Berkshire staff members predicted 31 of the 32 first round matchups correctly.
In the end, the $1 million jackpot was awarded to the first contestant who correctly chose 29 games in a row before faltering on one. The first place winner was awarded $1 million, with the remaining 11 finalists winning $100,000 each.
