5 Best Free March Madness Bracket Contests For 2025
Written By Tim Heaney | Published at March 11, 2025
The 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, or March Madness, is underway with the 64-team playoff. Along with March Madness come myriad contests, as bracket-mania sweeps the nation.
Even with the tourney underway -- and many brackets likely broken -- CBB fans still might have games that they can join to keep the fun rolling into the late rounds. Which March Madness bracket contests should you enter in order to win big prizes? We at TheLines will circle the best free bracket contests once they are announced for the 2025 Big Dance.
TheLines' March Madness Contest
The Perfect 16 March Hoops game at TheLines is locked for this year. In this bracket contest, you were required to correctly pick the final 16 NCAA Tournament teams.
The prize pool was $1,000 for anyone who goes 16-for-16 predicting the teams who survive the first two rounds. (If no one aces the contest, a consolation prize will go to the highest scorer.)
Despite Perfect 16 entries being closed, you can still enter the Big Hoops Weekend Leaderboard contest: All players who get the same or more points as our host Eli will be entered in a drawing for a $50 Amazon Gift Card! Click the link to read more details and rules to play along with the NCAA Tournament action.
Free Bet365 Bracket Challenge
Bet365 once again ran its own free bracket challenge this year. This is where contestants can win up to $10 million plus more cash prizes. The
The aforementioned $10,000,000 jackpot prize would be 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 2025 Bet365 free bracket challenge.
- First place: $100,000
- Second place: $25,000
- Third place: $10,000
- Fourth place: $5,000
- Fifth place: $1,000
- Sixth-20th place: $500
Further prizes will be available up to the 5,000th position.
With signup for this event now in the rearview mirror, bet365 customers in Illinois and Tennessee can also now sign up for CBB betting. Get their welcome offers now: bet365 IL welcome promo | bet365 TN welcome promo.
THELINES
DraftKings Free SECOND CHANCE Bracket Challenge
DraftKings typically runs a second-chance bracket challenge, and this year, Evan Williams sponsors a sportsbook pool with a free entry and a $30,000 prize pool.
Sign up now and reserve your spot until selections are available March 24.
Sign up
Traditional DK Bracket Challenge
DraftKings had several free bracket challenge contests to play in 2025. One of the top options is the DraftKings Jimmy John's & All the Smoke Bracket Challenge. Users who reserved a spot need to come back to fill out bracket before the first game tips.
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
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
- 756th-1755th: $10
- 1756th-2755th: $5
Even those who finish 2756th - 7755th will receive something: a crisp George Washington in their account.
Million Dollar Bracket Challenge
DraftKings has a
Bold Flavor Bracket Challenge
Time will tell if the
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 what the point breakdown for DraftKings' Bold Flavor Bracket Challenge previously looked like.
- 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
Based on previous March Madness bracket contests, FanDuel is once again offering a free pool in 2025 called Tourney Shuffle ‘Em. Expect it to have a $50,000 prize pool for this contest. Play the
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.
X/Twitter Mars Madness Bracket Challenge: In the off-chance we see a historic 63-game perfecto, the prize in this contest will be a ride to Mars on Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship. The winner of the most correct bracket picks will win $100,000 even if no one does the impossible. (This puts a unique, intergalactic spin on Warren Buffett's Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.)
BEST MARCH MADNESS PROMOS FOR BETTING ON YOUR BRACKET PICKS
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