The office pool is now just an appetizer. Sure, you can still brag about your March Madness bracket around the water cooler at work, but that’s only the beginning. Pennsylvania online sportsbooks are filled with NCAA Tournament bracket contests. Some have big jackpots and are free-to-play. Here is your playbook for getting in on the bracket madness.
BetMGM NCAA bracket contest
BetMGM sports betting app in PA is hosting a free-to-play bracket challenge that will pay out $10 million for the ever-elusive perfect bracket.
However, if no one has a perfect bracket (and it has never happened yet), the player that accumulates the most points throughout the tournament will be rewarded with a $100,000 guaranteed prize.
BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt said in press release:
“March is the one of the greatest times of the year for sports fans, and it’s a huge moment for us at BetMGM to reach more customers than ever before. Our team created fun and interactive content to enhance the tournament experience for our players online and in-person regardless of whether or not their bracket has busted.”
Here’s how to enter:
- Visit the BetMGM free-to-play bracket challenge
- Fill out your March Madness bracket
- The player with the best bracket will win $100,00. If a player fills out a perfect bracket, they will win $10 million.
DraftKings NCAA Tournament bracket contests
There are a number of ways you can dive into DraftKings’ NCAA Tournament Pools.
There’s a College Basketball Bracket Challenge that is going to make someone a millionaire. Entries cost $100 each (max. of 20) and points for correct bracket picks will be awarded as follows:
- First Round (64): 10 pts
- Second Round (32): 20 pts
- Third Round (16): 40 pts
- Fourth Round (8): 80 pts
- Final 4: 160 pts
- Championship: 320 pts
First place takes home $1 million. Second-place gets $50,000 and third place gets $35,000. The top 52 entries are paid in all, with the tiebreaker being the total points in the NCAA Championship game.
There is a $25k March Mania Survivor Pool that costs $20 to enter and a $75K March Madness Pool with a $250 entry fee. You pick one team each day to win during the tournament. If your team wins, you advance. But you can only pick each team once per entry.
FanDuel Bracket Contest
FanDuel PA sportsbook is hosting a free Bracket Pick’em. To play, participants must have a registered FanDuel account and enter through the FanDuel website or using the FanDuel sports betting app.
Participants must then select five teams participating in the NCAA Tournament. The sum of the Tournament seeds for the five teams making up the entry must be twenty or greater. For example, if a participant’s entry involves a 1-seed, 2-seed, 3-seed, 5-seed and 9-seed, then the sum of those seeds would be twenty, and the entry would be eligible for the contest.
If the sum of the seeds in an entry is less than twenty (20), the entry will not be eligible for the contest. Once an entry is submitted, participants may not cancel or make any changes to their entry.
Points will be awarded as follows:
- First Round (Round of 64): 10 points multiplied by team seed
- Second Round (Round of 32): 25 points multiplied by team seed
- Sweet Sixteen: 50 points multiplied by team seed
- Elite Eight: 100 points multiplied by team seed
- Final Four: 250 points multiplied by team seed
- Championship: 500 points multiplied by team seed
Participants will win prizes based on the number of points accumulated. All participants who accumulate 400 or more points will win a voucher into a FanDuel contest. Those who accumulate 2500 or more points will win a share of $20,000 in cash. The cash prize will be split evenly among all participants who accumulate 2500 or more points. In addition, the participant who earns the most points in the contest will win $5,000 in cash.
Lead image Aaron Doster/AP
