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Return of ‘Mattress Mack’: Famed Sports Bettor Lumps $3.46m on Tampa Bay in Super Bowl LV

  • McIngvale placed the $3.46m bet through DraftKings' mobile sportsbook in Colorado Wednesday
  • The wager is part of a promotion for Mattress Mack's furniture store, offering mattress refunds
  • In 2019, McIngvale lost $11.6m betting on the Houston Astros in the World Series
  • Super Bowl fever has seen other substantial wagers, including a $2.3m bet with BetMGM
Thomas Stead

Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs helmets on a pitch
Prolific sports bettor Jim ‘Mattress Mack’ McIngvale has placed a $3.46m wager on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in this year’s Super Bowl as part of a promotion for his furniture store. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Update: Mattress Mack earned $3.16m on February 8, following a $3.46m bet he placed on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning Super Bowl LV on Sunday. The game ended with the Bucs defeating the Chiefs 31-9. The Houston businessman’s wager is reputedly among the largest Super Bowl bets, and the largest-ever on the game.

Backing the Buccaneers

With the 55th edition of the Super Bowl fast approaching, famed sports gambler Jim ‘Mattress Mack’ McIngvale has his money on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

McIngvale placed a $3.46m bet on Tom Brady’s Buccaneers, who are getting 3.5 points in Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Houston-based furniture store owner traveled to Colorado to place the bet Wednesday, locking in his wager on DraftKings’ mobile sportsbook.

DraftKings posted a short video on its Twitter page showing Mattress Mack’s journey to Colorado:

Speaking with Fox 26 this week, McIngvale said the multimillion-dollar wager forms part of a promotion for his furniture store, Gallery Furniture. He is offering to refund any mattress purchase over $3,000 if his bet wins.

The prolific sports gambler stands to earn more than $2.7m on the wager. Explaining how he picked the bet, he described Tampa Bay as a team “loaded with talent.” He also labeled Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady as “the greatest football player of all time.”

Brave bets and big losses

McIngvale achieved notoriety for his multimillion-dollar sports bets, but these haven’t proven particularly successful. He first became well-known in 2019 after losing $11.6m betting on the Houston Astros to win the World Series. Again, the bet formed part of a Gallery Furniture promotion offering free $3,000 mattresses.

Mattress Mack placed the Houston Astros wager with four different sportsbooks spanning across New Jersey, Nevada, and Mississippi. He stood to win a total of $19m in profit, but the Astros lost four games to three to the Washington Nationals that year.

In January 2020, McIngvale continued his multimillion-dollar losing streak, this time wagering on the NFL. He lost $2m betting against the Kansas City Chiefs in a two-week period. The first $1m wager saw him back his hometown team, the Houston Texans, before betting another $1m on the Tennessee Titans a week later.

Super Bowl LV fever

According to research posted by the American Gaming Association on Tuesday, 23.2 million Americans plan to bet a total of $4.3bn on this year’s Super Bowl LV. Of those bettors, 7.6 million intend to wager online – an increase of 63% from 2019 levels. Respondents favored the Kansas City Chiefs, with 56% siding with the Missouri-based team.

As a result of the Super Bowl’s popularity, a number of US operators have seen some large bets this year. Barstool Sports took to Twitter on Friday to announce a $150,000 wager placed through its sportsbook in Detroit, Michigan:

And on January 30, a mystery bettor reportedly placed a $2.3m wager on Tampa Bay through BetMGM’s mobile sportsbook.

This year, sportsbook operators are also offering Sunday odds on poetry. Activist and Biden inauguration day poet Amanda Gorman will read a new poem during the Super Bowl’s pre-show. The piece will pay tribute to three Americans whose work during the pandemic has been inspiring. Sportsbooks are offering prop bets on a number of aspects to her performance. These include the first word said, the length of the poem, and the person she mentions first.

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