Constantly, I am telling friends that if you have money; you can make money. Now, enter Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale out of Houston. Indeed, he’s the guy you’ve been hearing about with the large wager on the Houston Astros to win the 2019 World Series.
This was first reported by ESPN and detailed by Darren Rovell.
Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, owner of a furniture store in Houston, placed a $3.5M bet on the Astros to win the World Series.
It's one of the largest bets ever taken by a U.S. bookmaker 💰 https://t.co/KkstYGNMxH
— ESPN (@espn) October 2, 2019
While the general public has been talking about this initial $3.5 million dollar bet placed by Mack, something else happened. Recently, Mack decided to place a second large bet on the Astros to bring home the title in the amount of $1.5 million dollars. In fact, by the time you read this post; Mack could be holding $5 million dollars worth of tickets on the sports’ final series outcome.
Seriously, say that back to yourself a time or two. A man has $5 million dollars on the Astros to win the World Series. Surely, the Astros are a good team to the tune of 107 regular season wins. Still, many who follow baseball consider this part of the year to be a major crapshoot. Which makes Mack’s wager one for not the faint of heart.
.@MattressMack ain’t done 🚨🚨🚨
He's betting another $1.5 million on the Astros to win the World Series tomorrow. Will bring him to a total of $5 million on Houston winning it all.
(via @darrenrovell) pic.twitter.com/wdWsKwxlHB
— br_betting (@br_betting) October 2, 2019
However – there’s always a little more to the story – isn’t there? Without a doubt, this story is no different. This snippet is from the Bleacher Report story:
McIngvale was running a promotion at his stores that would refund purchases of mattresses costing $3,000 or more if the Astros won the 2019 World Series.
Now, that doesn’t make betting the Astros to win it all any less scary. Simply, the guy has confidence in his team and the money to cover such a risk. Evidently, Mack says he’s not necessarily done with what he has at stake thus far.
“My liability is a little bit north of $15 million,” Mattress Mack told Rovell. “So I still have other bets to place. The World Series is a month from now so we’ll look at numbers after we know the Astros’ next opponent.”
This guy is either crazy, brilliant; or a little sprinkle of both. With that being said, I like his style. As the Astros run through the playoffs – and they should win a few games – this is going to become a topic of conversation amongst even casual fans around the country.
For most, he will just be ‘some guy who bet millions’; to us he is Mattress Mack. A true pioneer in sports gambling. Seriously, this is the largest wager of it’s type in American sports betting history. Either way, this isn’t the last time words will be written about the topic.
The Houston Astros begin their playoffs on Friday.
