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The March Madness 2025 college basketball tournament is underway and at least one sports fan is betting $1 million on AI. Alan Levy, creator of 4C Predictions, believes his AI programmers can use AI to create a March Madness bracket that bests the bracket of professional gambler Sean Perry. The winner will be $1 million richer in a few short weeks.
Both 4C Predictions and Perry have publicly declared their brackets for March Madness 2025. They’re awarded points for their correct picks and whomever has the most points at the end of the tournament will be declared the winner.
Two sides squaring off
Programmers with 4C Predictions know how to train an AI model for sports betting. Five top AI programmers collaborated to develop a single AI mega-model specifically for March Madness 2025, and it’s based on the AI agents and tools that they already use on a daily basis. These models currently have a 78% accuracy rate. Note that 4C Predictions is not a virtual sportsbook; it’s an online marketplace where AI developers can market their AI creations.
Perry, on the other hand, is an established sports bettor. He’s won eight figures from sports betting to date, including nearly $2 million from Super Bowls in 2022 and 2023. He picked Duke to win, while the AI model chose Houston.
AI for the win?
Based on their success using various types of AI models to predict sporting events in the past, the team at 4C Predictions is confident in their platform. Others, however, aren’t so certain.
“With upsets, momentum shifts, and basketball’s inherent unpredictability, consistently creating a perfect bracket may still come down to luck,” OpenAI representative Leah Anise told AP.
There are more than 60 college teams participating in March Madness, including competitors in men’s and women’s leagues. Analysts with the NCAA say the odds of predicting a perfect bracket are about 120.2 billion for those who regularly follow college basketball. For those who guess, odds are approximately 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. But neither of the participants in the wager need to create a perfect bracket – they just need to pick more winning teams than their opponent.