Betting heavy on the heavy underdog
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is back at it. With the College Football Playoff National Championship coming up next Monday, McIngvale has placed over $3 million in bets on his home state TCU Horned Frogs to down the defending champion Georgia Bulldogs.
According to Action Network’s Darren Rovell, Mattress Mack made a series of bets to get to his final total. His moneyline bets are: $500,000 at Caesars at +400, $1.5 million at DraftKings at +370, and $130,000 at WynnBet at +380 odds. Should TCU win the game, McIngvale will turn that $2.13 million into around $8 million.
As one can see, TCU is a sizeable underdog. McIngvale also put $1 million on the Horned Frogs at +13 with a -110 vig.
“I woke up and saw Georgia beat Ohio State and then saw the TCU moneyline was like +450 and thought that was crazy,” Mack told Action Network. He added that he will happily bet more should the sportsbooks “knock down the door.”
A fun marketing scheme
Now, $3 million is an insane amount of money to risk, but McIngvale is really in a no-lose situation. He frequently makes massive bets, pairing them with a promotion at his Houston-based Gallery Furniture store. This time, anyone who makes a “qualifying Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Stearns and Foster mattress set $3,000 or more when you buy and take immediate delivery” before the championship game will get twice their money back if TCU wins.
So, McIngvale will win millions if TCU wins, but will potentially lose millions on the mattress promo. If TCU loses, he loses $3 million, but makes money on the business he drummed up. He’s always says he doesn’t mind losing money on the promo either way, as he looks at it as a marketing expense.
Last year, Mattress Mack wagered a total of $6.2 million on the Alabama Crimson Tide to beat Georgia in the title game, but lost.
Mack has made headlines for years with his outrageous bets, but he topped them all this past fall when he won a record-breaking $75 million after his hometown Houston Astros won the World Series. During the course of the season, he placed a total of $10 million in bets at an average of +750 on the Astros. Houston had a relatively easy go of it in the playoffs, sweeping their first two series and then winning the World Series in six games.
In other recent bets, McIngvale won $10.4 million when the Kansas Jayhawks won last year’s men’s college basketball championship, but lost $4.5 million when the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl.
