Hathaway workers in Lucky Berkshire have finally won the $1 million grand prize where Warren Buffett is hanging to win the company's annual March Madness Bracket Challenge.
An unconfirmed employee working for Berkshire's subsidiary FlightSafety International selected 31 of the 32 winners in the first round.
In fact, there were 11 other people who managed to get only one game wrong in the opening round, but the successive wins were used as tiebreakers.
Each of the 11 runner-ups wins an impressive $100,000 consolation award.
Buffett has been running the Bracket Challenge since 2016, but despite his generous prize, no one ever claimed the grand prize.
Surprisingly, the winner's luck didn't stop in the first round.
He continued his prediction of victory – picking exactly 13 straight two round matchups.
Overall, employees correctly identified 44 of their first 45 games.
Statistically speaking, Berkshire Hathaway pointed out that the likelihood of achieving such accuracy merely potential is about one in 780 billion people, assuming that each game has equal odds.
“It feels good that we've hit the sweet spot with this.” Buffett told the Wall Street Journal.
He had mentioned a decision he made several years ago to adjust the rules of the contest. We made that a little easier by not requiring absolute perfection from our employees in the opening round.
Buffett, 94, has long expressed his desire to hand over a significant amount of prizes through the contest, particularly while actively involved with Berkshire Hathaway.
“I'm old,” Buffett told the Journal previously. “I want to give someone a million dollars while I'm still serving as chairman.”
The financial giant added that he expects a substantial reward to spark excitement “here and here.”
Interestingly, Buffett has not yet learned the identities of the winners as the employee chose to remain anonymous.
FlightSafety International, a relatively small subsidiary within the Berkshire Empire, employs less than 5,000 individuals.
This groundbreaking victory is in stark contrast to previous Berkshire contests, particularly the Public Challenge launched in 2014, with the conglomerate insured a billion dollar award for those who could correctly predict all 63 NCAA tournament games.
After that ambitious challenge turned out to be impossible, Buffett simplified the requirements for correctly predicting the first 48 games, but the grand prize winners have remained elusive up until now.
Representatives from both Berkshire Hathaway and FlightSafety International were unable to comment.
