A Texas furniture tycoon known for his generosity and love of gambling set a record for the largest mobile sports bet made in history, according to media reports.
Jim McIngvale, better known as the business magnate “Mattress Mack,” bet $4.53 million on the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl.
Louisiana just launched mobile sports betting on Jan. 28, and McIngvale drove 100 miles from Houston to a convenience store just across the Louisiana border. He used the Caesars Sportsbook app and had to keep upping his bet because the app wouldn’t let him bet that much at one time.
Who is ‘Mattress Mack’?
McIngvale earned his nickname from his Gallery Furniture commercials where he wore a mattress and screamed he would “Save you money!”
One of his Christmas traditions is donating rooms of furniture to families in need, and he opened up his Gallery Furniture stores as as shelter in Houston during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He also organized volunteers and trucks tor rescue Texans during that historic storm and flew first responses and military veterans to that year’s Astros-Dodgers World Series in Los Angeles.
In 2005, he also provided shelter for 200 evacuees who fled New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But Mattress Mack’s promise to save consumers money doesn’t seem to apply to his betting.
His $4.53 million bet on the Cincinnati Bengals isn’t his first big sports bet — it’s not even his first bet on this year’s Super Bowl.
In November, he put $2 million on the New England Patriots to win it all, at 23-1 odds. The bet was a promotion for his customers. If New England won, his customers would get their money back on purchases. He missed out on about $11.9 million in bets on a similar promotion during the 2019 World Series when he went all-in on the Houston Astros.
He also placed more than $2 million on a horse in last year’s Kentucky Derby. The horse, Essential Quality, ended up finishing fourth.
