‘Mattress Mack’ has $2.8M in bets riding on Bengals-Titans game
Mattress Mack is back and has $2.8 million in bets riding on the Bengals-Titans NFL divisional-round playoff game Saturday in Tennessee.
Houston furniture store owner Jim McIngvale, aka “Mattress Mack,” wagered a total of $1.7 million in futures bets to win $14.4 million on the Titans to win the Super Bowl: $1 million at Barstool Sportsbook and $700,000 at Caesars Sportsbook. Both wagers were made at +850 odds.
Mack also made a $1.1 million straight bet to win $1 million at Caesars on Cincinnati +3½ over Tennessee in Saturday’s game.
“The rationale is a couple guys I know that are pretty good at football are saying this is going to be a close game. I think Tennessee is going to win, so the rationale is if they win by one, two or three, I can win that bet and win the other one,” Mack said Saturday shortly after the game kicked off. “The other rationale is if Cincinnati wins, it cuts my losses on the Super Bowl bet.
“The big thing I like about the Titans is they’re a good team, and they have home-field advantage the next two weeks. I think that’s pretty huge.”
Mack has made a bevy of multimillion-dollar hedge bets in recent years to offset potential losses on furniture promotions that offer customers refunds of purchases of $3,000 or more if a certain team wins it all.
He recently lost $4.7 million in a six-day span on bets on Alabama ($2.7 million) and the New England Patriots ($2 million).
He plans to run another promotion if the Titans beat the Bengals.
“I’m looking for a 1-, 2- or 3-point Titans win, and I’ll be happy,” he said.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.