Mattress Mack, bettor who called Astros over Phils both get huge wins
Mattress Mack isn't the everyman bettor. Not many people use the sportsbooks to make seven-figure bets on their hometown team, and can hedge it all through their furniture company.
But turning $50 into $125,000 on a huge World Series prop you bet in April? That's the dream.
Both of those bettors cashed on Saturday night when the Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies to take the World Series title.
Jim McIngvale, known as "Mattress Mack," cashed in tickets worth $75 million on Astros futures. It's the largest known sports betting win in history.
There are asterisks all over it because the owner of the Gallery Furniture chain was offering customers who spent $3,000 on some sleep sets or power motion furniture at his store their money back if the Astros won the World Series. Before the Astros won the ALCS, he was offering customers double their money back. So the $75 million isn't profit — the winnings will "mostly be paid out to customers through our promotion" McIngvale told FOX 26's Matthew Seedorff after the game — it was marketing and a hedge on the furniture deal (or, the furniture deal was a hedge on the bet, whichever you prefer).
"I feel great, because a lot of our customers are going to get free mattresses," McIngvale told FOX 26.
Either way, sportsbooks including BetMGM were giving him a ton of money.
"They'll wire it to me," McIngvale told FOX 26. "That's too much money to carry."
“Congratulations to Mattress Mack and everyone who tailed his bets. It was an exciting World Series and an amazing win for the @Astros, a great partner of @BetMGM.”- Jason Scott, VP of Trading, BetMGM pic.twitter.com/w4gvpBS9eS
— Elisa Richardson (@ElisaRichardson) November 6, 2022
The more conventional sports betting story happened with a bettor in Colorado who took an exact outcome prop on BetMGM on April 13. It was the Astros over the Phillies at +250000 odds. That $50 bet was worth a $125,000 win.
This could cash tonight ???? pic.twitter.com/O9lex92S6m
— BetMGM ???? (@BetMGM) November 6, 2022
That bettor, who remained anonymous, didn't hedge according to BetMGM. He let it ride and that seemed risky when the Phillies won Games 1 and 3. But the Astros won the final three games of the series to take the championship.
There were parties in Houston to celebrate another World Series title. A couple of bettors had a pretty good reason to live it up, too.