Publication date: February 4, 2022, 02:35 hours.
Last updated on: February 4, 2022, 03:17 hours.
Mattress Mack has made some big bets before. But his biggest game yet came Thursday night in the upcoming Super Bowl.
Furniture showroom owner Jim McKingville, a Houston businessman known by his nickname Mattress Mac, placed a $4.5 million bet with Caesars Sportsbook on the Cincinnati Bengals to win the NFL Championship on February 13. Being a +170 nominee, a Bengals Super Bowl win means McIngvale wins $7.7 million and takes back his original bet as well.
According to a release by Caesars, Mack’s bet is the largest ever online, and the second largest ever made in a legal sportsbook. The biggest bet of $4.9 million was in Super Bowl XXXVI with odds of -900.
As of Friday, the Bengals are still the underdogs of the Los Angeles Rams. But the Bengals money line odds are now +165.
“Joe Borough’s charm attracts fans, especially in Louisiana, with his college roots,” Ken Fox, president of sports at Caesars Sportsbook, said in a statement.
Bets made in Louisiana
McIngvale made the bets Thursday night from a gas station in Louisiana. This is according to an interview he did ESPN Shortly after placing the bet. Sports betting is illegal in Texas, and Louisiana just launched mobile sports betting last weekend.
Houston is located 100 miles west of the Louisiana state line.
I had to make bets of up to twenty thousand dollars to be able to succeed.” He said.
Mac made another bet on this year’s Super Bowl in November. At the time, he put $2 million on the New England Patriots through Penn National Gaming’s Barstool Sportsbook and theScore Bet. Both books had Patriots at +2300.
The Buffalo Bills put an end to Mattress Mack’s potential earnings of $46 million in the first round of the Asian playoffs.
Last year, he bet $3.5 million on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to cover them as a 3.5-point underdog in last year’s Super Bowl. This bet brought him a profit of $2.7 million.
Why Mattress Mack’s bets?
As with nearly all of Mack’s bets, betting on Bengals is a hedge to promote in his retail chain. Customers who spend $3,000 or more on select mattress sets or living room furniture will get a free Big Ticket purchase if the Bengals win Super Bowl LVIII.
Mac first gained national attention for his betting when he started using sports betting as an insurance policy of some sort for his store sales. It started with his hometown Houston Astros and the uproar they made getting to the World Championships a few years ago.
By having big bets on the Astros, they’ll cover any losses Gallery Furniture might incur from having to refund clients for mattress sets.
When he loses his bets — as he did in Houston at the World Championships this year — he still keeps the big furniture sales profits he makes. Mattress Mack and the sportsbooks who take action on him also get free publicity out of order.
This time around, McIngvale may also take advantage of perks from his Caesars Rewards customer loyalty account.
“With the millions of Caesars Rewards credits he will earn – win or lose – he can enjoy the time he spends on our Caesars mattresses anytime he wants to stop by,” Fox said.