Who is Matress Mack? Infamous Texas bizman makes HUGE $4.5m bet on Bengals to win Super Bowl
Right now, most people seem to agree that the Los Angels Rams are the heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl LVI, but one Texas salesman has firmly decided to bet the other way. 'Mattress Mack', the famous Texas businessman known for his large bets has made his biggest one yet - on the Cincinnati Bengals to deliver a shocking upset. The salesman has bet $4.5 million on the Bengals and could net $7.7 million if he is right.
The news comes just days after Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard was massively trolled for saying the team wanted to win the Super Bowl for Harambe, the gorilla killed in 2016. It also comes on the back of one of the NFL's most controversial seasons, which saw Aaron Rodgers firmly refuse to get vaxxed, a move that has possibly forced him to call time on his career. It's unclear if Rodgers will really retire, but the season saw another great - Tom Brady - confirm he was hanging up his boots.
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Numerous NFL stars have also been arrested, and we've seen several fights break out inside stadiums. But all that appears to be firmly in the past, with eyes now on the SoFi Stadium in California. Fox Sports lists the odds for the Bengals to win at +160, figures echoed in most other places, but something that Mattress Mack has chosen to firmly overlook.
Who is Mattress Mack?
Jim McIngvale is a Houston furniture salesman who is known for more than being a betting legend. The owner of the Gallery Furniture chain of stories is a well-known businessman, philanthropist, and humanitarian. The 71-year-old has been described as a "force of nature" who runs five miles a day, every day. McIngvale began by selling furniture out of a tent on the side of a freeway, before building Gallery Furniture into a massive chain raking in over $200 million annually.
His nickname 'Mattress Mack', comes from TV advertisements back in the 80s, which he credited with saving his business. Before that though, he was a member of the University of Texas football teams that won the national titles in1969 and 1970. In 1981, he was freshly married to Linda when he moved to Houston to begin his dreams of being an entrepreneur. It quickly boomed, before nearly going bust.
"We were just about to go out of business, and I took the last money I had and bet the entire company on television advertising," McIngvale told the Review Journal. Putting the last $10,000 in advertising proved to be his best bet yet, and it quickly saw the business revive, and thrive. But for McIngvale, there's more to life than just his business. He describes himself as "half capitalist and half social worker," which might be extremely generous.
Over the past three decades, McIngvale furnished the homes of 30 underprivileged families for Christmas, feeds thousands of people on Thanksgiving, and treats kids with cancer with tickets to World Series games. "It’s not about me. It’s about helping make the community a better place. That’s what I’m trying to do: to establish a legacy of my wife and I that maybe we made the community a little better," he says about those efforts.
Betting big
To those outside Houston though, McIngvale is known more for his ridiculously large bets than his philanthropy or business. In 2017, he lost over $13 million betting on the Astros to win the World Series. Undaunted, he bet on them again in 2021 for a tune of $3.25 million. He ties those bets to his business, in what he cheekily calls a "promotional problem." In February 2021, he bet $3.46 million on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl LV and managed to make $3.16 million from that bet.
When it comes to the Super Bowl LVI, McIngvale is clearly backing the Bengals against all odds. He placed $4.5 million in bets via Caesars Sportsbook, the second-largest bet the company has ever taken for a Super Bowl. "I had to make like twenty $200,000 bets to make it work. But I want to thank Caesars for taking it," he told ESPN. Should the Bengals win, not only will McIngvale net around $7.7 million, but anyone who makes a purchase over $3,000 at his store will be refunded in full. So it looks like it won't be just Bengals fans who are hoping he's right this time aound.
