Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, a Houston furniture store owner who is known for making giant sports bets, has placed the largest wager on Super Bowl LV so far — $3.46 million on the underdog Tampa Bay Buccaneers at +3.5.
McIngvale flew into Colorado Springs on Wednesday, logged on to the DraftKings mobile betting app from the airport and placed one of the largest bets ever on the Super Bowl. After paying a little extra in juice (-127) to get the Bucs at +3.5, McIngvale would win $2.72 million if Tampa Bay covers the spread.
“Tampa Bay is loaded with talent on both sides of the ball and led by the greatest football player of all time in Tom Brady, so I’m betting big on the Bucs who have overcome tough matchups throughout this postseason,” McIngvale said in a release from DraftKings.
McIngvale routinely uses the betting market to mitigate risk on sales promotions at his furniture store. He had more than $11 million in play on the 2019 World Series between the between the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals, including a $3.5 million futures bet on the Astros that he placed with DraftKings in Biloxi, Mississippi.
The Astros came up short, losing to the Nationals in seven games.
“Mack has been a great customer and is someone we have history with after taking his sizeable wager on the World Series a couple seasons ago,” Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ sportsbook director, said in the release.
This year, customers at McIngvale’s store who spend $3,000 or more on a new mattress will get their money back if the Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
The two largest reported bets on the Super Bowl so far have both been on the Bucs. In addition to McIngvale’s $3.46 million wager, a bettor with BetMGM in Nevada placed a $2.3 million wager on Tampa Bay last week.
The largest reported Super Bowl bet ever, in terms of amount risk, is believed to be a $4.8 million money-line wager on the Rams to beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI that was placed with MGM in Las Vegas in 2002. The Patriots upset the Rams 20-17.
Despite the two multimillion-dollar bets on the Bucs in this year’s Super Bowl, the bulk of the action has been on the favored Chiefs. As of Wednesday at William Hill U.S. sportsbooks, 82% of the money that had been bet on the Super Bowl point spread was on Kansas City.