Mattress Mack lays $516K hammer on the Astros to win $13 million at Kalshi
Mattress Mack is back — throwing around cash and beds to boot.
The famous sports bettor and furniture salesman is all in on his beloved and native Astros to win the World Series now that they have officially made the playoffs.
After marketing for roughly two months an Astros to win the World Series promotion where customers who spend $4,000 or more at his Gallery Furniture store get their purchases refunded if the team wins the Fall Classic, Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has officially put his money on Houston with a new operator.
Mack tells The Post he has laid $516,000 on the Astros to win the World Series, with a potential payout of $13 million if they do – and he’s gone to prediction market Kalshi to facilitate.
“Well, we’ve been running the promotion for a while, so we have some built-up liability already,” Mack tells The Post. “Baseball is a very random game, and the Astros have more home runs than anybody”
The furniture salesman added that he already has a big liability here despite Houston wallowing for much of the season.
“We already have $4 million in liability on the promotion,” Mack revealed. “We’re projected around $12 million in liability if they keep going and get on a roll; they’ve done it before, we’re happy to jump on the ride and bring our customers with them.”
Mack is a big sports gambler; he previously won the biggest payout in sports betting history in 2022 when he won $75 million on the Astros when they went all the way, though these winnings were not all his and he never actually loses when he makes these bets.
“It’s very popular with our customers, so we want to have our bases covered. We’ve been marketing for the last two months,” he said. “But it was iffy because we weren’t sure if they were going to do it or not.”
Mack constantly backs the Houston teams, including the Houston Cougars in college basketball, among others, but has had the most success with the Astros.
Picking Kalshi is interesting for multiple reasons.
Kalshi, which operates in Texas, where sports betting is not legal, gives him the flexibility to manage the position as he sees fit, but he should also be getting interest, sometimes as high as five percent, on the money that’s in the account as well. A no-brainer for longer-term execution futures.
“I’ve been aware of Kalshi and made a few wagers on them before. I had a price in mind for the hedge, and the sportsbooks were about 18/1 after they clinched, and I wanted to get higher than that,” Mack added. “I talked to Kalshi, and they connected me with these market maker guys, and they got me the price of 24/1.”
“The last time the Astros won, we gave back $74 million,” Mack added. “Some people got refunded $70,000 back. We pay them back mostly by check or credit card.”

Those credit card fees are massive hits; on $13 million in sales via credit card, Mack can expect to pay between $300,000 and $500,000 in fees, which he says he eats.
“Most of the time it’s a hedge, but we might come back $500,000 or a million ahead, but we might get killed by the credit card fees,” Mack said. “As you know, when a local team is involved, that’s what it’s all about mentally, in a challenging retail environment.”
When asked about the convenience of not having to hop on a plane to a casino to wager his money on the Astros to win the World Series, Mack said it was a phenomenal experience.
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Sportsbooks have been trying to get into Texas for nearly a decade, but have been restricted by Senator Dan Patrick, who would need a constitutional amendment, not a bill, to legalize.
When asked about the ongoing fight between sportsbooks and prediction markets, Mack added: “I can whine about my competition, or I can put on my big boy britches and go out there and beat ‘em.”
The Astros have an opportunity to beat ‘em when they host the White Sox on Tuesday for Game 1 of their Wild Card series.
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Erich Richter is a brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt but he has a black belt in MMA betting. During the football season he’s showcased massive profits at The Post in the player prop market the last two seasons. While constantly betting long shots, his return on investment is 30.15 percent since 2022.