March Madness is a few days away and the annual college basketball tournament has an effect on fans that goes beyond what takes place on the court.
An estimated 50 million people took part in office pools last year, which means an inevitable dip in worker productivity. Experts estimate that companies will lose $1.2 billion for every unproductive work hour during the first week of the NCAA tournament, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
So if every employee takes an hour to fill out their brackets, companies can say goodbye to $1.2 billion. Workers also spend time updating those brackets and checking on scores. Internet speeds will slow down as workers stream the games online. The good news is, the impact to the bottom line is minimal and the event helps to boost office morale, the report said.
Check out four more bizarre effects of the NCAA tourney:
A spike for snips
The Cleveland Clinic reports it performs 40 or 50 more vasectomies a month before and during the tournament, CNN reported. Men who plan on watching the games at home are taking advantage of the couch time to recover from the procedure.
Illegal gambling
The pot of money that goes to the office worker with the best predictions on their brackets appears to violate the penal code on gambling for many states, NBC News reported. There are also at least three federal statutes against NCAA tournament pools done online.
Vegas madness
A combination of sports events including the basketball tournament made March the busiest month of 2013 for Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal. An estimated 3.54 million people visited Sin City this time last year for NASCAR, MLB, boxing and NCAA events.
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Billion dollar bets
Warren Buffett teamed up with Quicken Loans to give one lucky person a billion dollars for the perfect bracket. The odds of winning the cool billion is 9.2 quintillion-to-1, according to The Washington Post. The odds go up to one in 128 billion for fans who are knowledgeable about college basketball, the Post said.
