5 Best Free March Madness Bracket Contests For 2024

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Written By Matt Burke | Last Updated
Free Bracket Contest

The 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, or March Madness, will soon be underway and will begin in earnest on March 21 with the 64-team playoff. Along with March Madness come myriad contests, as bracket-mania sweeps the nation.

Which March Madness bracket contests should you enter in order to win big prizes? We at the TheLines will circle the best free bracket contests once they are announced ahead of the 2024 Big Dance.

Before filling out your bracket, be sure to find expert analysis with Pool Genius. Click below to get started.

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TheLines’ March Madness Contest

The Big Hoops Staking Challenge is now live at TheLines. In this bracket contest, you will have pick the correct moneyline, spread and total for select games.

Entering the contest is totally free. The prize pool for this contest is $500. Here is the prize table.

  • First place: $250 Amazon gift card
  • Second place: $150 Amazon gift card
  • Third place: $100 Amazon gift card

Come back to this page for more information on NCAA Tournament contests from TheLines.

Free Bet365 Bracket Challenge

Bet365 is once again getting in on the free bracket challenge fun this year. Contestants can win up to $10 million plus more cash prizes. The Bet365 Bracket Challenge game is available to new and eligible users. You must be 21 to enter the contest and only one entry is allowed per person.

The aforementioned $10,000,000 jackpot prize is for users that correctly pick the perfect bracket, shared between multiple winners. The top 5,000 players on the leaderboard will also see prizes based on points earned for correct picks. Here are the payouts for the Bet365 free bracket challenge in 2024.

  • First place: $100,000
  • Second place: $25,000
  • Third place: $10,000
  • Fourth place: $5,000
  • Fifth place: $1,000

Further prizes will be available up to the 5,000th position.

DraftKings Free Bracket Challenge

DraftKings has several free bracket challenge contests to play in 2024. One of the top options is the DraftKings March Hoops Bracket Challenge presented by Corona.

The DraftKings free bracket challenge is a pretty standard bracket picking contest. The scoring doubles for each round as follows:

  • First Round: 10 points
  • Second Round: 20 points
  • Sweet 16: 40 points
  • Elite 8: 80 points
  • Final Four: 160 points
  • National Championship: 320 points

Sign up and enter the bracket battle at DraftKings here.

Contestants can only make one entry. Be aware that individuals in jurisdictions that bar betting on in-state college teams won’t be able to pick such teams in the game.

DraftKings has flattened out this year’s payouts to the following format:

  • 1st: $5,000
  • 2nd-3rd: $1,000
  • 4th-5th: $500
  • 6th-15th: $100
  • 16th-115th: $50
  • 116th-755th: $25

Even those who finish 2756th – 7755th will receive something: a crisp George Washington in their account.

Million Dollar Bracket Challenge

DraftKings has a Million Dollar Bracket Challenge this year, titled the “Main Event Men’s College Basketball Bracket.” It will have over $1 million in prizes. This contest is NOT free, however. To enter you must pay a $100 entry fee.

Bold Flavor Bracket Challenge

The Bold Flavor Bracket Challenge fueled by Wingstop is run by DraftKings Sportsbook. The contest allows users to pick the results of each NCAA men’s college basketball tournament game for a chance at winning cash prizes.

This is a free entry pool contest that features up to $50,000 in prizes. Each correct pick will give a user points. Here is the point breakdown for DraftKings’ Bold Flavor Bracket Challenge.

  • Round of 64: 10 points per correct pick
  • Round of 32: 20 points per correct pick
  • Round of 16: 40 points per correct pick
  • Round of 8: 80 points per correct pick
  • Last 4: 160 points per correct pick
  • Championship: 320 points per correct pick

FanDuel Bracket Challenge

FanDuel has a free pool for March Madness in 2024 called Tourney Shuffle ‘Em. There is a $50,000 prize pool for this contest. Play the FanDuel Bracket Challenge here.

Random NCAA Tournament teams will be chosen for you. If you don’t like what you get initially, you can use your shuffles to switch up your picks. Shuffles cannot be undone, so use them wisely. You get 20 shuffles in total. If all of your teams make it to the Final Four, you will win a share of the jackpot prize.

Honorable mentions

ESPN Bracket Challenge: Win your share of a $125,000 prize pool. Twenty randomly drawn winners will take home the $5,000 grand prize. Twenty-five randomly drawn winners will go home with $1,000. View this contest here.

Capital One/NCAA.com Bracket Challenge: Fill out up to 10 unique brackets, picking winners of every game. Capital One, the NCAA’s official partner, will also run a game called “Starting Lineup” allowing players to “pick teams and trade them throughout the tournament as their values change every round.” Check these games out here.

Yahoo Fantasy $25K Tourney Pick ‘Em: The Yahoo Fantasy $25K Tourney Pick ‘Em is also one of the top annual offers for the Big Dance. Pick the winners of each NCAA tournament game once the brackets are set.

Players will be awarded points by correctly picking game winners. Yahoo uses a standard doubling system for their scoring.

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