Patrick Everson
FOX Sports Betting Analyst
On New Year’s Eve, Jim “Mattress Mac” McKinvale went to bed while the Ohio State vs. Georgia game was still on. So he didn’t know the final result until he woke up on New Year’s Day.
But he was familiar with the first college football playoff semi-final between TCU and Michigan. Horned Frogs scored a 51-45 upset in a very entertaining game.
When McIngvale saw Georgia’s 42-41 win in the second CFP semi-final, he next thought about checking the odds for the CFP Championship Game. At that moment he knew he had to act.
I caught up with McIngvale to talk about his big bet on the title game.
“Just a shock”
Despite Georgia’s struggle to beat Ohio State, the Bulldogs opened as the big favorite with 13.5 points on the FOX Bet in their national title match against TCU. And the money line betting on which team would win the game was even more appealing to Houston’s furniture store mogul.
“I was just shocked when I saw the money line at TCU +430 or something,” McIngvale said Wednesday. “At that point, it made sense to do the promotion.”
Oh, yes. As you can see, McIngvale usually ties big stakes to promotions at his furniture stores. A bet is a hedge against a promotion. Also, promotions usually include bedding sets. Hence his nickname for Mattress Mack.
In this example, a customer who spent between $3,000 and $10,000 on a mattress could get a double refund if TCU wins the championship game Monday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. I can do it. And to cover his potential loss, McIngvale placed his $1.5 million bet on his TCU moneyline +370 on his DraftKings.
But wait, there’s more
Additionally, Mattress Mack placed a $1 million point spread bet on Caesars Sports’ TCU +13, winning around $900,000. Caesars also confirmed that on TCU Moneyline +400 he will bet $500,000 from McIngvale. This means that if Horned Frogs pulls off a big upset, there’s still a potential $2 million in prize money to be won.
And WynnBet has confirmed that TCU +380 needs about $131,500 mattress muck bet to win $500,000. In total, McIngvale expects to take home approximately $9 million, which will be returned to customers who took advantage of the promotion before kickoff Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The potential payout isn’t the record $75 million McKingvale earned and then distributed to customers in a similar promotion to win the World Series last season with the Houston Astros. For a basically one week promotion, this is important. And Mattress Mac is a self-confidence product.
“It should be a fun promotion. I think TCU has a real opportunity,” McIngvale said, adding that since TCU is based in Fort Worth, the bet is usually on a Houston-based team. A far cry from his typical bet, he admitted. “Many of his TCU fans live in Houston, not far from Dallas and Fort Worth. I like it.”
Patrick Everson is a Sports Betting Analyst for FOX Sports and Senior Reporter for VegasInsider.com. He is a prominent journalist in the domestic sports betting industry. Based in Las Vegas, he enjoys playing golf in 110-degree heat. Follow him on Twitter: @PatrickE_Vegas
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