Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale is hoping the Kansas Jayhawks' 2022 March Madness run can help him break a streak of bad betting luck.
The Houston furniture store owner, who has garnered attention with his big bets on major sporting events, bet $3.3 million on the Jayhawks to win in Monday's NCAA tournament national championship game against the North Carolina Tar Heels.
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The bet was placed through Caesars Sportsbook's app. McIngvale got the Jayhawks at +190, meaning a win would earn McIngvale $6.27 million.
In the first game of the Final Four, No. 1-seeded Kansas defeated the No. 2 seed Villanova Wildcats 81-65 in New Orleans.
For McIngvale, 2022 has not been kind. He started the year losing $6.15 million on the Alabama Crimson Tide to win the College Football Playoff National Championship game. A bet on the Cincinnati Bengals against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI cost McIngvale $9.5 million.
At the same time, as he does with all his bets, he ran a promotion that offered customers who spent at least $3,000 on mattresses and furniture at his store their money back if he won the bet.
"The Bengals lost, and it broke my heart because I wanted to see the customers get their money back, but it didn't work out that way," McIngvale told ESPN's David Purdum after the Super Bowl. "But you know what, we live to play another day. ..."
The Kansas bet was not Mattress Mack's first NCAA tournament wager. The Las Vegas Journal-Review reported that McIngvale bet $1 million to win $2.16 million on a team from the East Region of the tournament to take the national title. That region had the Texas Longhorns and the Baylor Bears, the reigning national champs. That bet also came with a promotion at McIngvale's store, but customers would only get their money back if a team from Texas won it all.
All the Texas teams have been eliminated. Kansas, by the way, won the Midwest Region to reach the Final Four. UNC, which defeated Duke in the other national semifinal, won the East Region.