Mattress Mack Loses $13M on World Series Bet and He’d Do It Again
Mattress Mack ended up losing $13 million in bets when the Houston Astros lost the World Series, but he wouldn't hesitate to do it all again. | Credit: Erik Williams/USA Today Sports
- Mattress Mack, a Houston-area furniture salesman, had around $13 million in bets on the Houston Astros. The winnings would have covered his losses in a furniture promotion he ran in conjunction with the team’s World Series aspirations.
- He spent much of the last month flying around the country to various sportsbooks, placing bets.
- But will losing all of that money keep him from doing it again?
For weeks, baseball fans have been hearing about a furniture salesman in Houston. He goes by ‘Mattress Mack,’ but his given name is Jim McIngvale. Before the postseason began and throughout the playoffs, Mattress Mack went a little crazy, placing bets on his local team, the Houston Astros, to win the World Series.
He initially set out to bet around $10 million but at one point said he had lost track of how much money he had riding on the Series. In the end, he had over $13 million wagered.
So, when Yuli Gurriel put the team ahead with a solo home run in the bottom of the second, he was happy:
But when his team was down four heading into the bottom of the ninth, not so much:
It wasn’t because he was about to lose over $13 million, though. No, he wasn’t worried too much about that. The bets were placed with the hopes they would cover his losses from his furniture promotion. Had the Astros won, he would have been on the hook for $20+ million in refunds.
But he would have won about $25 million from his wagers.
“I wish the Astros had won because all the happy customers would tell their friends for the next 20 years about the mattress they got,” he said, via Texas Sports Nation . “It’s all about the customers.”
But Would Mattress Mack Do It Again?
Since Game Seven, he has talked with several members of the media about how he felt during the game. Everyone wanted to know if he would do it all over again:
According to McIngvale, his wife usually doesn’t get in on the betting fun when he runs these kinds of promotions. But this time she did. He told a local media outlet that after the Astros lost Game Six, she was not happy and told him:
“I’ve got $2 million. Let’s bet it on the Astros,’ and I said, ‘Now you’re getting with the program.’ “
With the potential the city’s NFL team, the Houston Texans have, or maybe its NBA team, the Rockets, his next promotion might be coming sooner rather than later.
