March Madness® is here! And the Bing team has been cooking up something special for all you bracket builders out there. For the first time ever, Bing has partnered with the NCAA® to gain unprecedented access to over 10 seasons worth of Division I basketball data – and we’re putting that knowledge to work for you. Combined with the industry-leading predictions of our Bing Predicts team, we’re giving bracket builders the ultimate March Madness® experience.

No matter where you fall on the spectrum, whether you’re a casual observer or a foaming-at-the-mouth fan, we’ve got something for you. Here is how Bing gets you in the game:

Bing Bracket Builder: Want to come out on top with your bracket? We’re here to help. We know that as much as we all love basketball, we don’t have time to follow all 68 teams. In fact, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Bing, most of us only follow 1-2 teams in the regular season. That means we can’t all be experts and nearly 40 percent of us simply guess when filling out a bracket. Don’t worry, Bing is here to level the playing field for the average fan and make you look like that smart sports analyst.

Beginning today, on Selections Sunday™, we are launching the Bing Bracket at www.bing.com/bracketbuilder with a slew of features to help you build the best bracket, including:

• Intelligent Predictions: We’ve built Bing predictions right into our bracket builder. So as you hover over a team, we give you all the data you need to make an informed decision on a matchup. Of all the features of our bracket, few are more exciting than our predictions. Once the bracket is announced, our servers need a couple hours to run through all possible 9.2 quintillion outcomes of the bracket, stay tuned to @Bing for updates on when the NCAA bracket builder goes live after 3pm PT! To learn more about how Bing Predicts works, click here.
• Auto-Fill: Only 1 in 5 people follow more than five teams, so how do you fill out an entire bracket with 68 teams when you really only care about whether your team makes the Final Four? Use the auto-fill function and Bing will help you fill out the rest using smart predictive capabilities and accounting for your favorite teams.
• Search within your bracket: If you don’t want to take Bing’s predictions for granted, we give you the next layer of team stats to help you make the most informed decision on the possibility of an upset. If you’re one of the 44 percent of us that do research online as we fill out our brackets – the Bing Bracket is for you!
• Interactive Highlights: With the Bing Bracket you can follow along during the tournament and watch highlights, research teams and players, check scores and engage with your picks directly. Miss a game in your matchup? Visit your bracket and see key highlights post game.
• Detailed game matchups: Kentucky v Duke? Gonzaga v UNC? Get detailed matchup stats, pulling in historical data and even Bing’s predictions on who’s favored to win and why. Want to know what it will take for the underdog to pull off an upset? You’ll find it here.
• Export: Four out of 10 March Madness fans will fill out more than one bracket. With Bing we’ll make it easy for you to export directly to the Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge and compete against Bing.
• Print, save, share: Bing makes it easy to share your success with friends. Easily share on Facebook and Twitter with Bing – and let the games begin!
• March Madness hub: With 68 teams playing throughout the tournament, that’s a lot of games to keep track of. Bing has you covered. Keep your pulse on the games with a complete tournament schedule, links to watch the live games, matchup predictions, tournament stats, and the latest news from across the web – all within the bracket experience.

Here’s a closer look at what to expect!

The average college basketball fan follows fewer than five teams, so if you’re not sure who will win a particular matchup, Bing is here to assist you. Hovering over any team brings up details about the matchup, who’s predicted to win, their chances of winning the whole tournament, and some of the most relevant stats related to picking a winner.

As you fill in the bracket, fill in as many teams as you feel confident, then let Bing autofill the rest using your selections and the most likely outcomes for each remaining matchup!

Once you’ve got your bracket how you like it, click export to take your bracket to the next level and compete in Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge on NCAA.com!

You can also choose to save your bracket and come back to modify it later. Of course, no proper bracket would be complete without the opportunity to smack talk your friends on social media, click Share to send your bracket off to Facebook, Twitter, or even go old-school and print it out. From there, your friends can check out your choices by clicking your shared link. Here, your friends can copy your bracket, use it to build their own, or just marvel at how awesome you are. We’re tracking the most shared brackets in a leaderboard – will you have the most popular bracket on Bing?

As the tournament gets started, you’re going to want to bookmark the Bing Bracket, because starting Thursday 3/19 we’ll help you keep your attention on the court with a complete tournament schedule, links to watch the live games, matchup predictions, tournament stats, and real-time news from across the web.

March Madness kicks off today, so make sure to tune into CBS’s Selection Sunday broadcast to experience the excitement and then go build your NCAA bracket on Bing!

– The Bing team