Furniture mogul loses again
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has lost $2m betting against the Kansas City Chiefs in the last two weeks.
The owner of the Gallery Furniture store in Houston initially lost $1m backing the Houston Texans in a moneyline bet a week ago. McIngvale’s hometown team, the Houstan Texans, lost 51-31 to the Chiefs.
On Sunday, the Chiefs once again came out victorious after beating the Tennessee Titans 35-24. McIngvale lost another $1m betting the Titans moneyline, making it two $1m losses in just two weeks.
A game of two halves
Speaking about losing his bets against the Chiefs, McIngvale said:
I thought I had a good moneyline price on both.”
The 68-year-old did note that the two teams he was pulling for both had good starts in their respective games against the Chiefs before fizzling out.
The Texans had built up a 24-0 lead against the Chiefs before Kansas City scored 41 points without reply during the divisional playoff round.
The Titans had been leading 10-0 initially and then 17-10 before the Chiefs scored 28 points without reply. This AFC title game ended in a 35-24 win for the team led by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. McIngvale says he was duped into thinking the Titans running back Derrick Henry was invincible.
Known for placing big bets
McIngvale became a news sensation during the MLB playoffs. He lost $11.6m betting on the Houston Astros to win the World Series.
He has admitted to placing these bets to hedge an in-store promotion that was offering. This promotion promised refunds to those who had bought beds worth more than $3,000 from his furniture store.
If the Astros had won the World Series, he would have been on the hook for about $20m as a result of that promotion. McIngvale benefited from a huge amount of publicity, drumming up great business for his furniture store.