Mattress Mack's $4.15 million bet on Houston to win the men’s NCAA tournament goes sour in the Sweet 16
Oh, Mattress Mack. Sometimes your epic bets hit. Sometimes they really, really do not.
Friday was certainly a case of the latter for the Houston area furniture salesman. The famed bettor had thrown down $4.05 million on the Houston Cougars to win the men’s NCAA tournament and had been hyping up his massive wager for months now.
That’s all gone kaput with the No. 1 Cougars getting dominated by No. 5 Miami, 89-75, in Kansas City.
Even worse: Mack — whose real name is Jim McIngvale — put another $100,000 down on a Houston-Texas parlay Friday night before the games started, which upped his stake to $4.15 million.
Had he won, Mack would’ve been looking at a payout of more than $35 million. A large chunk of that would’ve been used to payout a promotion at his Texas furniture stores, but it would’ve been a wild win nonetheless.
Now it doesn’t matter how crumpled up his ticket was. It’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.
.@MattressMack wagered $500K to win $5M on Houston +1000 to win the NCAA Tournament at @BetMGM.
Big game tonight for Mack and the Cougars. pic.twitter.com/7qHMBossX3
— John Ewing (@johnewing) March 24, 2023
It’s unclear if Mack was even able to watch the game on Friday night as he was at an event in Las Vegas for Horseshoe and Caesar’s Sportsbook on The Strip.
Videos show him on a speaking panel right around the time his Houston lost — though it would be shocking if there weren’t some televisions around showing the game in a Vegas sportsbook.
Mattress Mack put in a $100K parlay on Texas & Houston ML
(@gallerysports) pic.twitter.com/YBQKyZXwtl
— br_betting (@br_betting) March 25, 2023
Mattress Mack is attending a casino grand opening while sweating over $35M on Houston
(@gallerysports @HorseshoeVegas) pic.twitter.com/IzIK8Cz7aG
— br_betting (@br_betting) March 25, 2023
.@MattressMack doesn’t know he just lost $4.1M on Houston as he sits on panel with Doyle Brunson and Jack Binion at official grand opening of @HorseshoeVegas pic.twitter.com/DzQJ0z4ElQ
— Todd Dewey (@tdewey33) March 25, 2023
Mattress Mack found out his bet lost by checking his phone pic.twitter.com/qhHEaHjEGG
— br_betting (@br_betting) March 25, 2023
Either way, it’s safe to say Mack didn’t expect a Houston team that had consistently been among the best in college basketball to exit the NCAA tournament with just two wins.
At least he won $75 million on the World Series last October. Those memories should help ease the pain from the Sweet 16.