Image courtesy of Robbie Lynch.
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is a businessman from Texas who owns and operates the Gallery Furniture retail chain. Mattress Mack has become sort of an internet sensation for the exceptionally large wagers he places on sporting contests, most recently with his record-setting total $9.5 million dollar bet on the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI.
Not only is Mack notoriously famous for gambling gigantic sums on sports contests in his personal life, but he uses a similar approach in his business. Mack offered Gallery Furniture customers a full “reimbursement to those who spent $3,000 or more” on furniture from popular brands like Sealy, and Tempur-Pedic if the Bengals were to win. He also has run this same promotion for the Astros in the past. Unfortunately, Mack lost his massive bet when the Bengals lost Super Bowl LVI, but as a result did not have to reimburse customers.
Mack played football himself in college for the University of North Texas. Coming out of college, Mack and his wife moved to Houston to run the furniture store that started “as a small business” and eventually grew to the $200 million annual business it is today. At the start of their business venture, Mack and his wife used to sleep in the store, and Mack, as a last resort when initially struggling financially, invested his last $10,000 to air a TV commercial. The commercial became a huge success when Mack spoke at a rapid-fire pace to get his whole message to fit in the 25 seconds allotted. At the very end of the Gallery Furniture advertisement, Mack exclaimed, “We will save you money!” The slogan “save you money!” stuck to this day and so did McIngvale’s nickname, Mattress Mack.
Living by the slogan, “living is giving,” Mack is ultra generous with his money, opening up a free, on-site Gallery Furniture preschool, high school, and trade school, which essentially trains people in the necessary skills they need to earn a living, build confidence in themselves, and break cycles of poverty in Texas. Additionally, Mack offers all employees free breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
When Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas in 2017, Mack opened up his store to house people in crisis and made donations to help victims get back on their feet. And unlike what one would expect of such a celebrity, Mack, now aged 71, still works ten hours a day, seven days a week, manning the front desk of his store, greeting customers, and assisting salesmen. When I called the original North Freeway, Houston, Gallery Furniture location to try to reach the legend himself and see if the rumors were true, a worker picked up the phone and said, “Mack is walking the store, if you call back in 30 minutes he’ll probably pick up the phone.”
All this, and Mack has become most well known for the gargantuan sums he wagers on sporting contests, highlighted by his record gamble on this year’s Super Bowl. As a local icon, most of Mack’s bets are typically in support of Houston teams, such as the Texans of the National Football League and the Astros of Major League Baseball.
Just to get a glimpse of his recent habit, Mack was 0-2 in the 2020 NFL playoffs when betting against the Kansas City Chiefs. He bet in favor of the Texans to win the AFC championship 2020 against the Mahomes led squad, and then followed that up with a $1 million bet on the 49ers in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs that same year. Mack got his revenge the next year, however, when his $3.4 million bet on Tom Brady led the Buccaneers to take down the Chiefs hit.
Mack has bet millions on the Astros as well, and once even paid for a nun to attend the Astros ALCS game against the Red Sox, which proved effective as a good luck charm when the Houston team won.
I called again later and this time Mack picked up the phone.
