March Madness Bracket Challenge: Run Your Office Pool (2026)
How to run a March Madness bracket challenge with a leaderboard — scoring rules, office pool setup, and keeping everyone engaged across 63 games.
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March Madness is three weeks of chaos. Upsets happen, favorites collapse, and everyone in the office suddenly has strong opinions about mid-major schools they'd never heard of in January. That's what makes bracket challenges so sticky — they turn passive viewers into invested participants.
This guide covers how to set up a bracket challenge and track it with a live leaderboard, whether you're running an office pool, a friend group, or a casual competition with colleagues.
Setting Up the Bracket Challenge
Before you create a leaderboard, agree on the rules. This prevents disputes later, especially when someone claims their bracket was "basically right" after a Cinderella run knocks out their Final Four.
Decide on a scoring system. The simplest: one point per correct pick in the first round, doubling each subsequent round (2, 4, 8, 16, 32). This rewards participants who survive deep into the bracket, not just those who nail early-round picks. Alternatively, flat scoring (one point per correct pick regardless of round) keeps the competition closer and friendlier.
Set a hard deadline for bracket submission before the first tip-off. Once the tournament starts, no changes.
Collect everyone's picks — printed brackets or an online bracket maker like Rise both work fine. Then move to the leaderboard.
Tracking Scores with a Leaderboard
A leaderboard solves the part that actually kills office pools: nobody wants to manually email score updates to 20 people. With a shared leaderboard link, everyone can check standings whenever they want.
Create a leaderboard on Leaderboarded.com, add each participant, and update scores as rounds complete. Everyone with the link sees live standings — no login required, works on phones. You can customize it with a basketball theme to match the tournament vibe.
As the tournament progresses, update each participant's score after each round or each day of games. Keeping it current is what maintains the competitive tension.
Making It More Engaging
The bracket itself provides structure, but a few extras can keep energy high across all three weeks.
Add side categories. Award bonus points for calling a specific upset, predicting the Final Four correctly, or naming the tournament's breakout player. These give participants something to root for even after their bracket busts.
Update after each round, not each game. Daily or round-by-round updates create anticipation. Participants check the leaderboard when they know scores have changed, not constantly throughout the day hoping something shifted.
Run a viewing party for the Final Four or Championship. The last weekend is when bracket results become clear. Gathering participants — even on a video call — turns the tournament conclusion into an event.
The March Madness bracket format is one of the better workplace competition formats precisely because it runs over time, not in a single session. A leaderboard that stays current gives that slow burn the visibility it needs.
Streaming March Madness games? Learn how to add a professional basketball scoreboard overlay to OBS for your live broadcasts.
Written by Caspar von Wrede
Founder of Leaderboarded. Building tools that help teams track progress and stay motivated.
