The NCAA Basketball Tournament is here! March Madness is one of the most exciting times of the year for sports fans, and creating a bracket is often the highlight of the season, even for casual basketball fans. If you’re thinking of creating a tournament bracket, either at your office or with a group of friends, it’s worthwhile to look at what daily fantasy sports sites are offering.

Fanduel is a Top Daily Fantasy Site

Who Should You Start in the FanDuel Bracket Pickem for the 2018 NCAA Tournament?

FanDuel is one of the leaders when it comes to fantasy sports, and they have a unique way for you to create a bracket in a fantasy sports setting. Their premise is pretty simple—you pick just five teams that you think will be successful. The seeds of those teams must add up to a total of at least 20.

Scoring for FanDuel’s contest is pretty simple. Each rung on the bracket carries a certain number of points with it. If your team wins in the first round, there are a total of 10 points times the seed number of that team added to your score. If they win the second round, 25 times the seed number is added to your score. In the third round, 50 points times the seed number are added. For the fourth round, that number increases to 100 points times the seed number. The sixth round gives you 250 points times the seed number, and if you select the National Champion, you get 500 points times the seed number.

There’s a certain element of strategy here. You want teams that will be likely to go as deep into the tournament as possible, but because you also are rewarded with a larger multiplier for lower seeded teams, you also want to select teams that have the potential to upset other teams. Selecting the overall winner gives you the best chances of success, however, even if that team is a number one seed. Not only do you get the 500 x 1 points for selecting the winner, you get all of the other points that the team accumulates on their way toward the championship trophy.

Although it seems like a very straightforward and simple contest, the vast number of teams that are playing in the NCAA tournament make this a very complex contest. In fact, scoring well in an NCAA bracket is so tough that in the past, some sites have offered huge cash rewards to anyone who can select a perfect bracket.

There are cash prizes for those that hit certain milestones. The first thing that you want to strive for is 400 or more points. If you can hit this goal, then you will have a free play credited to your FanDuel account. If you can get up over 2,500 points, then you will get a share of the $20,000 cash pool for this contest. The overall winner will get a prize of $5,000 deposited into their account. You can withdraw this right away if you wish, or you can parlay it into other daily fantasy sports contests. Not too shabby.

Because of the stipulations placed on which seeds you can pick, you can’t just pick the top five teams. 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 only adds up to 6, which puts you well below the 20 minimum that you must achieve. This adds an extra element of strategy that the traditional bracket structure does not have. Although this point difference might seem like a small gap, it is large enough that it adds a large amount of variety when it comes to the combinations of teams that people will pick.

The best part of all of this? This contest is completely free to enter. FanDuel’s NCAA Tournament promises to be a big one, and the site does have several promotions going at this time. The contest is being held in conjunction with SeatGeek, and they will give you a promo code to save $10 off your next purchase of tickets with a value of $50 or more. Be sure to check this offer out if you are thinking of grabbing tickets to one of the NCAA games, or any other event coming up in the near future.

Do you have what it takes to pick a strong bracket? Enter FanDuel’s contest today and test those skills against thousands of other fantasy basketball fans around the country.