gamblersWORLD Announces Winners of 3rd Annual NCAA Bracket Challenge

The NCAA Tournament was getting more predictable every year as the landscape of college sports is changing with NIL deals and conference realignments. With the #1 seeds all conquering their regions and 14 straight favorites winning heading into last weekend the leaderboard was pretty much set heading into the Final Four.

The 3rd year for the gamblersWORLD NCAA Bracket Challenge featured a $10K perfect bracket prize, a $1600 prize pool  and Sweet 16 prizes from our handicapping site, GamblersWORLD.net. We are happy to announce “Chicos” as the winner of the 2025 gamblersWORLD NCAA Bracket Challenge! Chicos had Florida winning the Championship game and the entire Final Four. His total of 172 points won the contest by just a single point to cash for the top cash prize of $1000!

In any tourney bracket contest, they key to winning is simply having the team that hoists the trophy and cuts down the nets. This year we changed the scoring to ensure that the contest winner must have the NCAA Champion, as this year the winner was worth a whopping 32 points. Ultimately, every round was worth 32 total points, providing the opportunity for a perfect score of 192 points. Unfortunately, there was a software glitch in the new scoring that was corrected after the contest had ended. So players did see scores jump, but in the end, the final leaderboard was barely affected. The run by Florida sealed the deal for everyone who cashed for a prize. Florida backers dashed to the front of the leaderboard, as all of the top 19 finishers had the Gators to win it all.

The new scoring did achieve one result, no ties at the top of the leaderboard this year! “Cactus” was near the top of the leaderboard throughout much of the tourney, firing 51 correct picks and amassing a massive 171 points! His 2nd place finish is good for a $300 prize.

“Dawk20” used Florida to vault into third place when the scoring glitch was corrected, Dawk20’s 170 points gave him a $200 prize! And “CD” wound up in fourth place with 167 points to cash for the final prize of $100.

Now 3 years into it, we enjoy hosting an NCAA Tournament bracket contest and giving away cash and picks prizes. Watching the leaderboard adds a little excitement around gamblersWORLD for the three weeks of college hoops Madness.

Congratulations to everyone who played and to those who cashed in! Head to the gamblersWORLD NCAA Bracket Challenge leaderboard to check the standings and see how you fared versus other players. Make sure to check back in the Fall for our annual Progressive Pick ‘Em, with a huge surprise for players, when NFL football returns in the fall.