Warren Buffett has told Yahoo Finance he would “bet a lot of money” that no company offers a better employee March Madness contest than Berkshire Hathaway. “I can’t prove it, because you could have some private company,” he says. “But I don’t think there’s anything like this. It’s like we have our Christmas party at a different time of year.” Buffett began offering the contest in 2016.

Indeed, it is unlikely there is any other company that gives employees the chance to win $1 million every year for life—but that’s if someone perfectly predicts the Sweet Sixteen. Short of that happening, Berkshire’s contest ends when the last remaining perfect bracket goes bust.

This year, that moment came after the first 23 games of the tournament, on Friday afternoon of the first round, when 12-seed Oregon beat 5-seed Wisconsin. (The 2017 contest winner was perfect through 29 games.) Two Berkshire employees lasted until the same game, so they will split the $100,000 prize. The irony: One of the winners, 36-year-old Adam Allie of BNSF Railroad, says he is an Oregon Ducks fan. Betting against the team busted his bracket.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Allie says he “probably spent two minutes” filling out his $50,000 bracket. He only entered the contest because a friend urged him to do it during their morning van ride to work. “I looked over it fast, picked off the top of my head,” Allie says. (The other winner, from the Berkshire-owned R.V. company Forest River, declined to be interviewed.)

Berkshire’s contest administrator sends out detailed comedic (think pun-filled) updates to the entire contest after every single game, announcing exactly how many perfect brackets remain. Many of the people in the contest follow the updates religiously.

Allie says he didn’t read a single update and never checked his bracket, until a coworker called him to say congratulations on winning.

“I had no idea what he was talking about and thought he was just messing with me,” Allie says. “And then I started getting calls from other people I work with. My wife didn't believe it either, she thought I was messing with her. But she's super happy about it. Very grateful.”

Allie lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., with his wife and four sons. He has worked for BNSF since 2014 on track maintenance, replacing railroad ties. And he says the prize money is going straight to paying off bills and fixing up his basement, which flooded over the summer. Whatever is left, he says, “I’ll put away for winter. This gives us a little nest egg for the wintertime.”

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Daniel Roberts is the sports business writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

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