Any sports betting strategy guide will tell you, never let emotions take over. That’s difficult under normal circumstances, but losing over $11 million would be enough to make most people pull their hair out. Perhaps not Mattress Mack, though. That’s how much he lost over the past 10 weeks betting on sports, but it isn’t likely to turn him away.
Mattress Mack Hits a Slump
Jim McIngvale’s hopes of starting 2022 with an explosion went sour last week, after losing $11.4m in just ten weeks. The Action Network tweeted on Sunday about Mattress Mack’s run of bad luck. Also known as Jim McIngvale, he saw his latest loss a little more than a week ago when the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide in the NCAA championship.
That cost him $6.1 million. McIngvale then lost $2 million when the New England Patriots, who he had backed to win the Super Bowl, were defeated by the Buffalo Bills in a Wild Card match. That ended their chances of making it all the way.
With just those two bets, the Houston businessman lost $8.1 million over seven days. His ten-week losses surpassed $10 million. The $3.3-million wager he lost in November after the MLB’s Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros in the World Series launched the losing streak.
Sportsbooks Not Disappointed
McIngvale’s $11.4 million was a windfall for the sportsbooks that accepted his bets. However, Mattress Mack will still get the money from his Gallery Furniture store promotions. McIngvale often places huge wagers to offset the cost of the promotions.
McIngvale will usually win if customers spend more than $3,000 on a mattress. What has never been revealed, though, is how much business he does as a result of the promotions.
Some sportsbooks might have suffered a big loss if McIngvale had placed winning bets. He would have received $3.2 million if he had won the Crimson Tide bet, on top of his initial wagers via WynnBET and Caesars Sportsbook. His Astros wager would have netted him $35.6 million, $20 million from Caesars alone. This would have been the biggest single win in US betting history.
If McIngvale’s wager on the Pats winning the Super Bowl this year had been successful, McIngvale would have made $84.8 million. At the same time, it would have made Barstool Sports and theScore Bet $46 million poorer.
McIngvale wasn’t the only one to fail in a highly competitive year for the NFL. Bookmakers in the US cited November as the worst month for bettors, with many underdogs winning.