Comparing The Free 2015 NCAA Basketball Tournament Contests: Only Yahoo Guarantees A Prize To The Best Bracket

With the NCAA selection committee expected to soon announce its 2015 tournament brackets, college basketball fans have already begun to scour the web for free NCAA Tournament contests to join.  Once again this year, each of the 'big three' fantasy sports websites ( Yahoo ,  ESPN  and  CBS ) is offering a free-to-enter March Madness challenge.  However, only the Yahoo contest guarantees a prize to the contest's first-place finisher.

Yahoo, which last year sponsored the  Quicken Loans  Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge, returns to the NCAA tournament hosting market this March with the smaller, self-branded 'Best Bracket" contest, which promises a prize of $50,000 to the contestant who picks the best bracket.  The winner of the Yahoo "Best Bracket" contest will be determined by a mathematical formula included on its website, which attributes different point values to making correct picks in each of the various rounds.  Entry is available only to those based in the United States.  The minimum age for entry is the legal age of consent, as defined by each state (18 in most states, 19 in Alabama and Nebraska).

ESPN similarly is hosting its annual free NCAA Tournament pool in conjunction with this year's title sponsors,  Allstate  and Best Buy.  However, unlike the Yahoo NCAA Tournament bracket contest, the ESPN contest does not offer a guaranteed prize to the best overall bracket.  Instead, the ESPN/Allstate/Best Buy contest offers a prize package valued at just under $30,000 to "a randomly-selected Entrant who is among the top one percent (1%) of eligible point scorers in the Promotion."   Entry is available to those based in the United States who are age 18 or older.

Finally, CBS, once again, is hosting its annual Free Bracket Challenge, which, like last year, is sponsored by Infinity -- a company listed on the CBS website as as "an official corporate sponsor of NCAA basketball."   Like the ESPN contest, the CBS contest does not guarantee a prize for the perfect bracket.  Instead, it does offer one "grand prize" of four 2016 Final Four tickets and $6,000 cash to help cover the cost of attendance to a "randomly-selected Participant who is among the top ten percent (10%) of eligible point scorers."  Thus, the CBS "grand prize" winner does not even need to be exceptionally good in making tournament picks.  The CBS contest is open to not only those based in the United States, but also those located in Puerto Rico and Canada (excluding Quebec).

In addition to the 'big three,' there are also many other contests and sweepstakes already available on the web involving the NCAA Tournament -- a few of which even seem to charge entry fees in violation of federal and state law.  At the same time, many of the "daily fantasy sports" websites will be offering contests involving the selection of players (rather than teams) during March Madness.  The legality of these contests seem to depend upon their states of operation, as well as specific game formats.

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Marc Edelman is an Associate Professor of Law at the City University of New York’s Baruch College, Zicklin School of Business, where he published “A Short Treatise on Fantasy Sports and the Law.” He also is a fantasy sports attorney and business consultant for a wide range of companies in the marketplace. Nothing contained in this article should be construed as legal advice.

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