The Best Free March Madness Bracket Contests & More

Filling out a March Madness bracket is a favorite annual tradition amongst American sports fans.

It’s common to compete with your friends and coworkers for bragging rights, but did you know several top US sportsbooks and media companies run free March Madness contests offering upwards of $1 million in cash prizes?

If you have a knack for picking winners, try these free-to-play NCAA tournament contests for a chance to win big with no risk whatsoever.

Here are the best free March Madness contests for 2023.

#1: BetMGM $10 Million Bracket Challenge

BetMGM’s free-to-play Bracket Challenge has a guaranteed top prize of $100,000, but if you create the perfect bracket, you’ll be taking home a cool $10,000,000.

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK

Sign Up for BetMGM's Bracket Challenge & Win Up to $10,000,000!

LOCK IN PROMO

BRACKET CHALLENGE

WIN UP TO
$10,000,000!

CLAIM OFFER

Creating a perfect March Madness bracket is nearly impossible, which is why we love that this contest has a solid consolation prize for the participant(s) that predicts the most correct outcomes throughout the tournament. Plus, unlike most other bracket contests, BetMGM assigns equal weight to all wins, regardless of the round in which they occur. This means you’ll still have a fighting chance even if the team you picked to win the title is knocked out early.

To enter, sign up for a BetMGM account and fill out your bracket by 11:59 am Eastern on March 15, 2023. Note that you do not need to live in a state with legal sports betting to participate.

#2: Bet365 $10 Million Perfect Bracket Challenge

Another operators offering up $10 million for a perfect March Madness bracket is Bet365. Like we mentioned above, creating a flawless March Madness bracket is nearly impossible, and Bet365 is willing to award anyone who pulls it off with a $10 million grand prize.

BET365
SPORTSBOOK

Offer

T&Cs

Sign Up for Bet365's Bracket Challenge & Win Up to $10,000,000!

Available in CO, NJ, OH & VA

LOCK IN PROMO

MARCH MADNESS

WIN UP TO
$10,000,000!

CLAIM OFFER

Please note this contest is only available in Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio, and Virginia. Use our exclusive links to and put your bracket together for a shot at $10 million.

#3: DraftKings March Mania Survivor Pool

NOTE: This contest is currently unavailable. We’re keeping this page updated with the latest details in case it returns for March Madness 2023.

DraftKings Sportsbook encourages you to “stay alive” during March Madness with its free March Mania Survivor Pool presented by KFC.

If you’re good at spotting upsets, you definitely want to enter this contest with a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. You’ll get a chance to win $10,000 for each March Madness upset you pick. But you’ll want to be confident when choosing underdogs as you’ll be knocked out from the Survivor Pool if you pick a team that loses. Just like the basketball teams, if you get eliminated, there’s no way back in.

You must be a DraftKings accountholder to participate, but you don’t have to be in a legal sports betting market to enter the contest. Here’s how to join:

1. Log in or sign up for a DraftKings Sportsbook account.
2. Find the March Mania Survivor Pool within the “Pools” page and click on it to get started.
3. Pick one team to win each day during the NCAA tournament. During the Elite 8, you only need to pick one team across the four Monday and Tuesday games.
4. If your pick wins, you advance to the next day!

Prizes will be distributed amongst the longest surviving participants. The contest starts on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.

#4: Yahoo Tourney Pick’Em

NOTE: This contest is currently unavailable. We’re keeping this page updated with the latest details in case it returns for March Madness 2023.

Yahoo! Fantasy is giving away $50,000 in cash prizes to over 10,000 users with their free Tourney Pick’Em contest.

The rules are straightforward:

• Sign up here and fill out a complete March Madness bracket once the tournament seedings are confirmed on Selection Sunday
• Don’t forget to make a final score prediction for the title game – this serves as a tiebreaker
• Sit back and watch the games

The one lucky participant with the highest-scoring bracket will win the grand prize of $10,000 and a getaway to MGM Resort in Las Vegas. More than 10,000 participants will be eligible to win smaller cash prizes of the following amounts:

• 2^nd place: $3,000
• 3^rd place: $1,500
• 4^th place: $1,000
• 5^th place: $500
• 6^th to 7^th place: $250
• 8^th to 10^th place: $200
• 11^th to 30^th place: $150
• 31^st to 50^th place: $100
• 51^st to 100^th place: $50
• 101^st to 200^th place: $25
• 201^st to 500^th place: $15
• 501^st to 1,000^th place: $10
• 1,001^st to 2,000^th place: $5
• 2,001^st to 10,400^th place: $1

The Yahoo Tourney Pick’Em contest opens on March 14, 2023, and brackets will be available to fill out until the start of the tournament.

#5: ESPN Tournament Challenge

NOTE: This contest is currently unavailable. We’re keeping this page updated with the latest details in case it returns for March Madness 2023.

The ESPN Tournament Challenge is the OG of free March Madness contests. The official broadcast partner of The Big Dance runs separate contests for the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, so you have multiple chances to win a $10,000 Amazon gift card.

To enter, select the teams you think will win each game from the first round all the way through the championships. You’ll get points for each winner you pick correctly, with the points increasing throughout each round.

The Men’s Tournament Challenge opens at 8 pm Eastern on March 14, 2023, following Selection Sunday, while Women’s Tournament Challenge brackets will be available shortly after.

You must make all of your picks for each tournament before the first round tips off. To win one of the two $10,000 Amazon gift cards, you’ll need to finish in the top 1 percent of all brackets submitted for the men’s and women’s tournament, respectively. From there, a random winner will be selected for each.

Want more chances to win? ESPN will allow you to create up to 25 different brackets for each tournament, so you can mix it up when making your selections. Pro tip: far fewer women’s brackets get filled out each year, so you have a much better shot at the grand prize in the women’s Tournament Challenge.

Check Back for More Free March Madness Contests

You can’t win if you don’t play, so we recommend signing up for as many free March Madness bracket contests as you can find. It’s sure to add some extra excitement to following the tournament.

We’ll keep our eye out for additional March Madness contests you can enter. Our team will update this list as more information becomes available.

In the meantime, head over to SBD Play to practice your betting skills ahead of The Big Dance. In our weekly free-play betting competition, you can bet real odds with no real risk. Best of all, the top finisher each week takes home $500 in cash.

Be sure to check out our tips for creating your March Madness bracket to help improve your chances of winning one of these contests. Or, if you prefer, keep browsing our interesting articles on sports and betting.

Have fun and enjoy the action!