Duke is the prohibitive favorite to win the NCAA tournament and likely the team most users are picking in their brackets. Other popular picks are North Carolina, Gonzaga, and Kentucky. But what happens if Duke or any pick falters?
Duke is the prohibitive favorite to win the NCAA tournament and likely the team most users are picking in their brackets. Other popular picks are North Carolina, Gonzaga, and Kentucky.
What happens if Duke or any other high-profile pick falters?
Six years ago, Tom McAuley was similar many of the other roughly 40 million who participate in the ritual of filling out NCAA tournament brackets who found out what happened when a pick falters.
Frustrated with the concept of busted brackets, McAuley developed a new concept to improve engagement with the ability to change picks if the original pick, known as “Realtime Brackets.”
A prototype was developed in 2014 when seventh-seeded Connecticut beat eighth-seeded Kentucky for the National Championship and again in 2015 when Duke beat Wisconsin, which had knocked off undefeated Kentucky in the national semifinals.
By 2016 as daily fantasy sports began their rise, the concept rolled out with Frank Garland leading the way as the CEO of Realtime Brackets and setting the goal of developing a more social bracket experience.
As time went on, so did word throughout the internet. According to Garland, 40,000 registered users participated in 2017 and 2018 and this year, the company expects approximately 100,000 people to participate.
So how does the concept work?
Like any other bracket, users make their picks before the tournament tips off. Once games begin, picks can be switched and points are earned if dropping a team is correct.
The points for making a correct drop can be earned after each television timeout and the last chance at making a switch is with four minutes left when the last television timeout takes place. Users get more points if a switch to the correct winner is made earlier in the game as opposed to waiting until the last opportunity to change.
Among notable games in recent years when a significant number of changes likely took place would have been when it was apparent Virginia was going to be first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16-seed when UMBC pulled off a 20-point stunner. At halftime the game was tied at 21 apiece, at the 16-minute mark, UMBC led 35-24 and by the four-minute mark, UMBC led 56-44.
In the case of a high seed getting upset early, a user can select a new team and have both the traditional and Realtime brackets score. Thus, it results in a traditional and Realtime winner.
According to Garland, this method creates a more social experience with NCAA tournament fans as opposed to legalized sports gambling, which following last year’s Supreme Court ruling is legal in several states.
“At the heart of it, we see ourselves as a sports social media company,” Garland said in an email interview. We know that groups get together and some agree to put up money to be awarded to the person who scores the most points, but no one is getting rich off of this and we do not condone or support gambling. It’s just a way to keep score. The real benefit is the connections to friends, family, and colleagues through a shared experience.”
Besides attracting new users, equally important is user retention and Garland said data shows a majority of users returned to the bracket.
