Legendary bettor Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale drove to Louisiana this week to place a $4.53 million bet on the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl. It is the largest mobile sports bet placed in US history, according to Caesars Sportsbook. The Houston-based business owner stands to earn a $7.71 million profit if the Bengals upset the Los Angeles Rams at Super Bowl LVI on February 13.
Mattress Mack shot to national fame by wagering heavily on the Houston Astros to win the World Series in 2019. The Texan tycoon had promised customers of his furniture store a refund if the Astros won the series, and his liability stood at $20 million. He hedged by betting on Houston, but the Astros lost Game 7, meaning the customers did not receive a refund and the sportsbooks profited.
McIngvale was back in the spotlight last year after wagering $3.46 million on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to cover a +3.5-point spread against the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl 55. He said that “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,” and his prediction proved to be correct, as the Bucs secured a blowout win. Now Mattress Mack thinks the Bengals have what it takes to beat the Rams in their backyard.
Mattress Mack Placed Record Wager at a Gas Station
McIngvale went to Mississippi’s retail sportsbooks to place most of his bets on the Astros and the Bucs. Yet he does not have to travel so far now, as neighboring Louisiana legalized sports betting last week. You can reach the Louisiana border in around 90 minutes in a car from Houston, so Mattress Mack was able to venture into the state and use the Caesars Sportsbook app at a gas station.
Caesars said it was “the largest wager on the app in its brief one-week history here in the state, but it also is the single-largest legal mobile sports wager of all time.” It is also the second-largest bet on the Super Bowl only trailing a $4.9 million bet at -900 odds during the 2002 Super Bowl, according to Caesars.
“At Caesars Sportsbook we love taking epic wagers on massive events like the Super Bowl,” said Ken Fuchs, head of sportsbook at Caesars. “The Joe Burrow magic is pulling fans in, especially in Louisiana with his college roots. With this $4.5 million bet on Joe and the Bengals, Mack will make history again. And with the millions of Caesars Rewards credits he’ll earn – win or lose – he can enjoy time spent on our mattresses at Caesars anytime he wants to stop by.”
All Caesars Sportsbook customers receive rewards points for placing wagers, and the points can be used for free hotel stays at Caesars Palace, Harrah’s and Horseshoe Casino resorts, so Mattress Mack will have racked up many nights’ accommodation with that wager. He will need a big performance from Burrow, the Bengals’ quarterback, who won the Heisman Trophy and led LSU to victory in the National Championship game just two years ago. Burrow has already inspired his team to surprise wins against the Titans and the Chiefs, and he will now bid to outduel Matthew Stafford at SoFi Stadium on February 13. The Bengals are +165 moneyline underdogs, but they have continually defied the odds throughout the playoffs thus far.
Louisiana Sports Betting Makes a Strong Start
Caesars was one of six online sportsbooks to go live in Louisiana last week, along with FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, BetRivers and Barstool. Retail sports betting began towards the end of 2021 after 55 of the state’s 64 parishes voted to permit sports wagers in a ballot. Geolocation technology is required to prove that bettors are in one of those 55 parishes when using an online sportsbook app.
GeoComply, the company that provides this service, revealed that there were 3.4 million geolocation transactions during the opening weekend, from January 28-30. It added that within the first 36 hours, 3.6% of Louisiana’s adult population had used an online sportsbook. It left Louisiana as the eighth largest state for transaction volumes ahead of Indiana, Tennessee, Colorado and Connecticut.
Caesars Unveils Prop Betting Menu for Super Bowl LVI
Caesars Sportsbook is now live in 21 states and the District of Columbia. It offers online sports wagering in 16 of them, and retail sports betting in the others. That makes it one of the most widely available online sportsbooks in the country ahead of the Super Bowl, along with DraftKings and FanDuel. It has now released a long list of quirky props on Super Bowl 56, with hundreds to choose from. They are all pretty sensible, based on game props and player props as opposed to the color Gatorade that will be dumped on the winning coach or the outfit that Dr. Dre will wear.
“The Super Bowl is all about super-serving fans and sports bettors of all types,” said Fuchs. “In addition to taking the biggest bets on the biggest markets, Caesars has been a trendsetter in creating props that resonate and generate a lot of fun for bettors. There’s a little something for everybody, including live props during the game, and we look forward to seeing a great matchup play out.”
Bettors are expected to wager around $1 billion on Super Bowl 55. The Rams are the 4.5-point favorites to win the game. They opened as 4-point favorites, but the line has moved after many bettors backed the Rams to cover. The NBA and NHL seasons are still in full swing, and the Winter Olympics – which officially gets underway with today’s opening ceremony in Beijing – is expected to be a major betting event too, so sportsbooks in Louisiana and elsewhere should be able to maintain the impressive momentum they have gained over the past six months.