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A free trip to Mars, free burgers for life, and $1 million: what a perfect March Madness bracket could win you as Warren Buffett and Elon Musk chip in

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  • Billionaires including Elon Musk and Warren Buffett are offering millions of dollars in prizes for the lucky basketball fan who can select a perfect March Madness bracket.

If you want to be one of the first people to step foot on Mars for free, now’s your chance: you just have to be unworldly at predicting basketball games.

Elon Musk’s X Bracket Challenge is offering basketball fans a free trip to the Red Planet on SpaceX’s Starship vehicle if you can correctly pick a perfect March Madness bracket. But don’t get your hopes up. The coin flip odds are about 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (that’s 9.22 quintillion), according to the NCAA. If you know ball, the odds are brought down to 1 in 120.2 billion. 

This improbability isn’t expected to stop any of the millions of Americans of all generations who plan to fill out an NCAA Divison I basketball tournament bracket this year. In fact, the stakes are higher than ever, with Musk joining Warren Buffett and sports outlets to offer prizes worth millions of dollars to any luck bracket guessers.

Billionaires’ bracket promises

Because humans aren’t expected to get to Mars for years, SpaceX has standby prizes. Musk’s company will provide the perfect bracket winner $250,000, one year of free Starlink service, and a chance to send a personal item to space on a Falcon 9 launch. If there’s no perfect bracket, the best bracket will win $100,000. This venture into sports is likely part of Musk’s goal to make X an “everything app.”

Warren Buffett keeps his prizes simple: cold hard cash. He once offered $1 billion to anyone if they could pick a perfect bracket in 2014. But he’s since lowered the award to $1 million and limited the competition to his Berkshire Hathaway employees.

As he approaches 95 years old, he’s eager to give away money for a sport he loves. This year, he’s lowered the stakes by promising to award $1 million to someone who wins at least 30 of the game’s 32 first-round games

“I hope it’s this year,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “We made it easier this year than ever.” 

Musk alluded last month that AI, like his own Grok, could be the secret to creating a perfect March Madness bracket and winning challenges, such as Buffett’s.

Everything you can win with a perfect—or pretty good—bracket

Submitting March Madness brackets can feel like a full-time job if you want to maximize your possibilities of winning. Many outlets, including ESPN, CBS Sports, NCAA, and USA Today, have online portals for fans to submit their picks for the men’s and women’s tournaments, and each has its winning possibilities:

  • USA Today: Win $1 million with a perfect bracket in either tournament. The best bracket can win $25,000.
  • ESPN: Upwards of $135,000 in prizes are up for grabs for brackets for both tournaments.
  • CBS Sports: Entered to win a Nissan Armada by submitting both brackets. If your bracket is among the top 10% of point scorers, CBS Sports will put you in a contest to win a trip to next year’s men’s or women’s Final Four competition.
  • NCAA: If the men’s or women’s bracket is within the top 1%, you are entered into a contest to win a trip to one of next year’s Final Four competitions.

If that wasn’t enough, you could win free food for life at some local and regional restaurants across the country. For example, Jesse’s Burgers & Shakes in Texas is offering free burgers for life for a perfect bracket. The best bracket entered in Currito’s, found in Florida, Maryland, and Illinois, competition can win one free meal per week for a year. 

Prediction markets are getting in on basketball, too. Robinhood is launching a dedicated hub offering contracts related to March Madness games. 

With four newcomer teams to the men’s tournament this year—Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, University of Nebraska Omaha, High Point University, and University of California San Diego—this year’s March Madness results may be even more unpredictable—and possibly more exciting than ever before.

But considering many games are played during the workday, bosses may not be happy. One study found that workers will spend six paid work hours focused on sports-related activities during the tournament, such as monitoring the games, checking on their brackets, or yapping with co-workers.

March Madness begins this week with the first four games on Tuesday and Wednesday evening and first-round games on Friday. The championship game will be played on Monday, April 7.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Cathie Wood says most memecoins will end up ‘worthless’

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Most of the so-called memecoins that are flooding the $2.6 trillion cryptocurrency space will probably end up “worthless,” according to Cathie Wood. 

The combination of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence is creating “millions” of meme cryptocurrencies that “are not going to be worth very much,” the ARK Investment Managment LLC founder and CEO told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, adding that her private funds are not putting money into these coins. 

Memecoins are a type of digital asset often inspired by jokes, current events or trends in popular culture. In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said memecoins are not considered securities so they will remain unregulated.

“If I have one message for those listening who are buying memecoins: buyer beware,” said Wood. “There’s nothing like losing money for people to learn, and they’ll learn that the SEC and regulators are not taking responsibility for these memecoins.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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JPMorgan stock traders score windfall as Trump jolts market

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A chaotic run in stock markets is unleashing a windfall for banks’ equities traders.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is on track to boost revenue from equities trading by more than 30% this quarter from a year earlier, according to people with knowledge of the matter. If the trajectory holds, the firm would surpass its $3.3 billion record set four years ago.

Such a trend could spell even bigger bounties at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, which typically vie for the industry’s stock-trading crown. While JPMorgan’s increase is particularly steep, Goldman’s equities unit is also running ahead of its pace last year, when it reaped $3.3 billion in the first three months, the people said, asking not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Market swoons set off by President Donald Trump’s abrupt policy announcements are — for banks, at least — creating a rare bright spot amid signs of economic trouble. But the gyrations have tripped up hedge funds, stalled dealmakers’ talks on prospective mergers and shaken consumer confidence.

The resilience of equities desks is a nod to their evolution since the 2008 financial crisis. Their earnings hinge less on taking risks with their balance sheets and more on facilitating surges in client trading in response to price swings. Individual stock moves have unleashed bursts of derivatives trading, driving up banks’ gains.

Representatives for JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The boon for banks contrasts with the impact on multistrategy hedge funds — the big, all-weather investing platforms geared toward eking out gains irrespective of market conditions. The two largest, Ken Griffin’s Citadel and Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, posted rare losses in February and slumped further in early March.

There’s pain in other corners of investment banks. Some dealmakers are ruing predictions that Trump’s return to the White House would unleash a wave of activity. Instead, they’re grousing about the uncertainty created by sudden tariff proclamations. The volume of new transactions announced globally this year is lower than at the start of 2024.  

Morgan Stanley Co-President Dan Simkowitz said as much on Tuesday. Merger and acquisition announcements and new equity issuance are “certainly on pause” as clients assess Trump’s policies, he said at a conference hosted by his bank.

Before 2008, big US banks made proprietary bets on stocks to reap billions of dollars a year, rather than confining themselves to just passively fielding client orders. But as new regulations reined in risk-taking, banks leaned on other aspects of their businesses, such as providing financing to clients interested in levering up bets to juice returns.

Three banks have dominated the stock-trading business over the past decade. Morgan Stanley held the top spot for seven years starting in 2014 before ceding it to Goldman. 

Along with JPMorgan, the trio raked in almost $36 billion from their equities businesses last year, pulling further ahead of competitors.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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How to watch the First Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament for free—and without cable

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  • The First Four games of the NCAA Tournament are being held Tuesday and Wednesday, March 18 and 19. They’re an appetizer, of sorts, for the first round of March Madness, one of the most anticipated basketball tournaments of the year.

Selection Sunday is behind us. Now it’s time for March Madness to get underway. (Sorry, HR directors!)

The NCAA Tournament is one of the highlights of spring and while the Round of 64 will get underway later this week, fans will get an appetizer starting tonight with the First Four games.

This matchup sees the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams face off in an attempt to make it to the official tournament. It’s where Cinderella stories are born and where longshot bets can pay off (though rarely do).

Here’s a look at who’s playing in the First Four—and some options to watch them.

What is the schedule for the NCAA Tournament’s First Four games?

Here’s who’s playing in the First Four.

Tuesday, March 19

St. Francis vs. Alabama State, 6:40 p.m. ET on TruTV

UNC vs. San Diego State, 9:10 p.m. ET on TruTV

Wednesday, March 20

Mt. St. Mary’s vs. American, 6:40 p.m. ET on TruTV

Xavier vs. Texas, 9:10 p.m. ET on TruTV

How can I watch the First Four games for free?

Ok, here’s the bad news. None of the First Four games will be broadcast over the air, meaning you’ll need either a cable subscription or a streaming service to watch. Many streaming services have done away with free trials, but a few remain. See below for details.

Can I watch the 2025 First Four games online?

Yep! Here are a few other options.

Max

The one-time HBO Max doesn’t have a free trial, unfortunately. Subscriptions start at $9.99 per month.

Disney+

Disney’s bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ no longer has a free trial, so you’ll have to pay $17 per month for all three combined (or $30 per month for no ads on Hulu).

Including Live TV in the bundle bumps the price to $77 per month ($90 with no ads).

Hulu with Live TV

The free trial on this service lasts three days. Afterward, it will cost you $77 per month.

YouTubeTV

After a free trial, you can expect monthly charges of $73.

Sling TV

Dish Network’s Sling lower-tiered “Orange” plan will run you $40 per month. Adding the more comprehensive “Blue” plan bumps the cost to $55 per month. The seven-day free trial has disappeared, unfortunately.

DirecTV Stream

Formerly known as DirecTV Now, AT&T TVNow and AT&T TV, this oft-renamed streaming service will run you $80 per month and up after the free trial option.

Fubo TV

This sports-focused cord-cutting service carries broadcast networks in most markets. There’s a seven-day free trial, followed by monthly charges of $80 and up, depending on the channels you choose.

Can I watch any March Madness games on Amazon Prime Video?

No. March Madness do not stream on Amazon, unless you purchase a subscription to a streaming service.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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