The Best Free March Madness Bracket Contests & More

Updated: March 18, 2025 at 12:59 pm EDT

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 $10 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 2025.

#1: 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.

Use our exclusive links to sign up with Bet365 and put your bracket together for a shot at $10 million. Even if your bracket isn’t perfect, there are still 5000 prizes to be won, including a $100,000 prize for the best bracket. 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.

#2: BetMGM $250,000 March Matchups Pick ‘Em

This free-to-play contest at BetMGM gives you the chance to win a share of $250,000 in bonus bets by answering daily college basketball questions. Pick the winners of games on each active day, and you’ll be awarded points based on their seed, or 5 points for every correct over/under answer. There will be 10 different “active rounds” with each carrying a $25,000 bonus bet prize pool.

To enter, you’ll need a BetMGM Sportsbook account, and you can register by clicking here and using our bonus code SBD1500. Then visit the promotions page and click on March Matchups to get started.

#3: DraftKings Free $50K College Basketball Tournament Bracket Challenge Pools

Compete with other DraftKings users by filling out a Men’s and/or Women’s NCAA Tournament Bracket, and win your share of $50,000 in DK Dollars.

These are the two most lucrative free-to-play pools at DraftKings, with the men’s tournament named Jimmy John’s & All the Smoke Bracket Challenge. The women’s pool is simply named Free $50K Women’s College Basketball Tournament Bracket.

For each, you enter and fill out your bracket, with the top 7,755 finishers earning at least $1 in DK Dollars, with first place getting $5,000 DK Dollars.

#4: FanDuel $100K Tourney Shuffle ‘Em

FanDuel Fantasy is giving fans a shot at $100,000 in total prizes for the 2025 March Madness tournament with their $100,000 Tourney Shuffle ‘Em free contest.

The rules for this March Madness free contest are simple. If you can guess the Final Four teams that make it through to the semi-finals of the Tournament, you’ll win a share of $100,000 in prizes. Just enter the contest on FanDuel Sportsbook and check out your card that has Final Four teams randomly shuffled. If you don’t like the combinations presented to you, you can reshuffle the team combinations up to 20 times. Any contestants with a correct Final Four card will split the $100,000 in prizes evenly.

Aside from the FanDuel free contest, make sure you register with FanDuel Sportsbook if you haven’t already for their Bet $5, Get $200 in Bonus Bets If You Win welcome offer.

#5: ESPN Tournament Challenge

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 share of $135,000 in total prizes.

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.

You must make all of your picks for each tournament before the first round tips off. 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.

#6: Yahoo Tourney Pick’Em

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

The rules are straightforward:

Sign up 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

Screenshot of Yahoo Tourney Pick'Em contest

Yahoo is awarding grand prizes of $25,000 to the winners in each tournament with the best bracket.

The Yahoo Tourney Pick’Em contest is now open, and brackets will be available to fill out until the official start of the tournament.

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.

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!

Mitchell South

Content Marketing Specialist

A sports fanatic and strategic wordsmith, Mitchell has been writing gaming content for over seven years. As sports betting emerges in markets across the globe, he’s ready to journey alongside those who haven’t wagered before with informative articles and comprehensive how-to guides.

MMA Sportsbooks Gambling Horse Racing