The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament brackets were released Sunday, so on Monday the flood of marketing messages by sportsbook operators began.
One of the most eye-catching is bet365’s Bracket Challenge, which is offering what it termed a “life-changing” top prize of $5m to any customer who can correctly predict the outcome of all 63 matches once the tournament gets underway Thursday.
The bet365 Bracket Challenge is available to new and eligible customers residing in the United States or Canada. If located in the USA, players must register or already hold an account with Hillside (New Jersey) LLC to take part.
Customers must be age 21 or older and fully verified for identity by bet365, the operator noted.
Points will be awarded for each correct pick, starting with 10 points per First Round game. The points double each level, to 20 points in the Second Round, 40 for Sweet 16 games, 80 in the Elite 8, 160 for the National Semifinals, and finally 320 points for picking the winner of the National Championship Game on April 4.
The player who scores the most points during the contest will win $100,000.
The bet365 will pay the top 250 leaderboard places. Second place gets $25,000, third $10,000, fourth $5,000, fifth $1,000, with further prizes available up to 250th position.
Only one entry is permitted per person. bet365 said it monitors the use of multiple accounts by the same individual or group. If bet365 has reasonable grounds to suspect that an individual(s) has submitted multiple entries either by themselves or in collusion with a group of people, then all entries for that individual(s) will become null and void.
