Free March Madness Bracket Contests

Every year, online sportsbooks and sports media outlets launch free March Madness bracket contests with cash payouts open to fans in all states, and BettingUSA has all the details below. The bes March Madness bracket contests cost nothing to enter but offer significant real-money prizes to the fans with the most accurate predictions.

One of the big differences between March Madness brackets and other sportsbook promotions is that fans do not need to live in states with legal sports betting to participate. Fans 21 or older can try their luck for free in (almost) all of the following March Madness brackets.

Free March Madness Bracket Contests

March Madness betting season is officially underway, with Selection Sunday establishing the bracket and seeding every college basketball team.

In most March Madness bracket promos, fans must submit their picks before Round One’s first game tips off. After tip-off, all brackets lock and thus begins the great elimination as teams across the country compete for a place in college basketball history.

Did you miss the tip-off and your chance to compete in March Madness bracket contests this year?
See BettingUSA’s state sports betting guides for a comprehensive list of the legal March Madness betting options where you live.

Fans can view the official March Madness bracket with live updates at the NCAA website.

Here’s a summary of the best March Madness brackets. Continue below for the key details, entry requirements, scoring rules, and where to enter each contest.

BetMGM March Madness Bracket Contest

BettingUSA will update this page when BetMGM relaunches its NCAA tournament bracket.

https://sports.betmgm.com/en/blog/ncaab/betmgm-march-matchups-pick-em-win-500000-bonus-bets-bm03

• Entry fee: $0
• Top Prize: $10 million for a perfect bracket; $100,000 guaranteed for highest-scoring bracket
• Eligibility: 21 or older, legal US resident, verified BetMGM account (users may register in any state to participate), no purchase necessary

BetMGM Sportsbook is hosting the best free March Madness bracket contest this year. The BetMGM bracket contest has $10,000,000 on offer for anyone who builds the perfect bracket and $100,000 reserved for the participant who submits the highest-scoring bracket.

Getting started is easy and free:

• Visit BetMGM.com from any state to register or log in
• Use the BetMGM March Madness bonus code BUSABONUS
• Visit the promotions tab to enter the $10 Million Perfect Bracket Challenge
• Follow the on-screen prompts to make your picks for each round
• Submit your bracket and enjoy the show

If anyone creates a perfect March Madness bracket, BetMGM will pay them the $10 million grand prize.

If no one submits a perfect bracket, BetMGM will pay $100,000 to whoever builds the highest-scoring bracket.

Kalshi Billion Dollar Perfect Bracket Contest

Kalshi made headlines by taking a line from Warren Buffet and offering a payout of $1 billion for a perfect bracket entry. If a perfect bracket is not entered, a $1 million top prize for the highest scoring bracket will be awarded instead.

https://kalshi.com/billion-dollar-bracket

DraftKings March Madness Bracket Contests

DraftKings has multiple March Madness pick’em brackets open to fans in all fifty states. All of DraftKings’ no-entry bracket challenges are:

• Free to enter
• Stocked with guaranteed real-money prizes
• Available nationwide

Fans can reserve their places in each contest early, even before the brackets begin accepting picks.

Here’s how:

Additionally, DraftKings Sportsbook has a paid March Madness bracket challenge with a $1 million prize pool and a guaranteed first place payout of at least $250,000. Although DraftKings’ $1 million bracket contest isn’t free, it’s worth noting because it boasts the biggest prize pool of all March Madness bracket promotions .

Free $5,000 March Madness Brackets

In addition to the March Madness bracket promotions detailed above, DraftKings is hosting multiple free-to-enter contests with $5,000 guaranteed. Each contest has tens of thousands of entrants, and prizes are relatively small, but they’re all free to play.

Fans can see the full list of DraftKings March Madness contests by visiting the Pools tab and using the filter to show college basketball pools only. There, readers will see the complete lineup of free bracket challenges, their prize pools, and payout rules. Click or tap any contest to view the bracket and make your selections.

$1 Million DraftKings March Madness Bracket Challenge

DraftKings Sportsbook is hosting the year’s biggest paid entry March Madness bracket contest, with $1,000,000 guaranteed. However, the final prize pool will likely exceed $1 million by a significant margin as the number of entries grows.

The entry fee is a rather stiff $100, but it provides guaranteed payouts for 1,750 entrants. Whereas free March Madness bracket contests only offer prizes for a single user, and some only pay if someone builds a perfect bracket, the DraftKings College Basketball Millionaire Bracket guarantees prizes for nearly 2,000 fans.

Fans in legal sports betting states can log in to DraftKings and visit the Pools tab to enter the contest. Entrants make their selections like they would in any other March Madness bracket and receive points for every win they predict.

In summary, the DraftKings bracket contest guarantees:

• At least $1,000,000 in prizes
• At least $250,000 to the entrant who finishes with the most points
• At least $200 the top 1,750 entrants.

DraftKings Zero Right Bracket Challenge

DraftKings Daily Fantasy offers a unique “zero right bracket challenge”.

https://www.draftkings.com/zerorightbracket

CBS Sports Bracket Challenge

• Entry fee: $0
• Top prizes: Four tickets to the March Madness Final Four games and $6,000 cash; four tickets to the March Madness Women’s Final Four games and $6,000 cash; Nissan Armada with premium upgrades
• Eligibility: Legal US and Puerto Rican residents 21 or older with a valid driver’s license

CBS Sports and Nissan have partnered on a potentially lucrative March Madness contest with some fun and valuable prizes on offer.

Fans can participate for free at CBSSports.com for a chance to win a new Nissan ARIYA and travel packages to attend the men’s and women’s Final Four games.

There are three different prize categories fans can aim for in CBS Sports’ March Madness contests:

1. First, fans can enter the Men’s Basketball Challenge for a chance to win tickets and $6,000 in travel accommodations to watch next year’s Final Four games (including the Championship) in person.
2. Second, fans can enter the Women’s Basketball Bracket Challenge to win an equivalent prize of tickets and travel to next year’s women’s Final Four.
3. And finally, CBS Sports will randomly award the biggest prize of all to one fan who submits brackets for the men’s and women’s games. The grand prize consists of a Nissan Armada Hero Pro4x with premium upgrades.

One of the more interesting aspects of CBS Sports’ March Madness challenge is how it awards prizes. Entrants do not need the perfect bracket or even “the best” bracket.

Instead, CBS Sports awards the men’s and women’s prizes randomly to a participant among the top 10% of point scorers in each contest. In addition, CBS Sports will award the Nissan Armada to a random participant regardless of their bracket’s performance.

Visit CBS Sports to participate: CBS Sports Bracket Challenge

Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem

• Entry fee: $0
• Top prize: $25,000 cash for the best men’s bracket; $25,000 for the best women’s bracket
• Eligibility: legal US residents in all 50 states, 18 or older

Yahoo Fantasy is hosting a pair of March Madness bracket contests open to fans nationwide, with $50,000 worth of prizes reserved for the fans who pick the best men’s and women’s brackets.

https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/signup

Capital One Bracket Challenge

https://www.ncaa.com/march-madness-live/bcg

ESPN Tournament Challenge

https://fantasy.espn.com/games/tournament-challenge-bracket-2026