$1 Billion Offered for Perfect NCAA Tournament Bracket

Talk about March Madness. With a little luck — maybe a lot of luck — you could become a billionaire overnight.

Detroit-based Quicken Loans, America’s fourth largest mortgage lender, has joined forces with Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway to pay a billion dollars to anyone who completes a perfect bracket, predicting the winner of every game in the March 2014 men’s college basketball championship tournament.

Any U.S. citizen over 21 years of age who correctly enters the contest and predicts the winner in all 63 tournament games will win, or share, the $1 billion prize. In addition to the potential grand prize, Quicken Loans will award $100,000 each to the contest’s 20 most accurate “imperfect” brackets submitted by qualified entrants in the contest to use toward buying, refinancing or remodeling a home.

In conjunction with the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge, Quicken Loans will also be directly donating $1 million to inner-city Detroit and Cleveland non-profit organizations that are dedicated to improving the education of young Detroit and Cleveland residents.

“We’ve seen a lot of contests offering a million dollars for putting together a good bracket, which got us thinking, what is the perfect bracket worth?” said Jay Farner, president and chief marketing officer of Quicken Loans. “We decided a billion dollars seems right for such an impressive feat.”

“Millions of people play brackets every March, so why not take a shot at becoming $1 billion richer for doing so,” said Warren Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, who is insuring the contest’s grand prize. ”While there is no simple path to success, it sure doesn’t get much easier than filling out a bracket online.”

Free registration for the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket will begin on Monday, March 3, 2014 and run until Wednesday, March 19, 2014. All participants registering prior to the tournament selection process will receive their brackets the evening of Sunday, March 16, 2014 when entrants can begin filling out their bracket. The grand prize will be paid in 40 annual installments of $25 million. Alternatively, the winner(s) may elect to receive an immediate $500 million lump sum payment or share in that lump sum payment if there is more than one perfect bracket submitted.

To be eligible for the $1 billion grand prize, entrants must be 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen and one of the first 10 million to register for the contest. At its sole discretion, Quicken Loans reserves the right and option to expand the entry pool to a larger number of entrants. Submissions will be limited to a total of one per household. All qualified entrants are eligible for the 20 first prize awards of $100,000 for selecting the competition’s top 20 most accurate “imperfect” brackets.

Full contest rules along with more information about the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket challenge will be released and published in the days and weeks leading up to the men’s collegiate March championship tournament.

For contest updates, and to share what you would do with a billion dollars, visit Facebook.com/QuickenLoans and on Twitter using the hashtag #billionbracket.

Read more at www.quickenloans.com/blog/quicken-loans-billion-dollar-bracket-challenge