Betting giant Betfred has paid out on its biggest ever sports bet win after Houston furniture store owner Jim ‘Mattress Mack’ McIngvale’s punt on his hometown Astros to win the 2022 World Series.
The Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Saturday’s Game 6 of the Fall Classic at Minute Maid Park to complete a 4-2 series victory. And the team’s success means McIngvale collects a massive $5m from the UK-based Betfred as part of a total $72.6m success on bets laid with six different companies.
‘Mattress Mack’ placed his bet with Betfred in July, taking up the 5/1 offered at a time when the New York Yankees were seemingly streaking towards a record-breaking season in the American League. But the Astros capitalised on a second-half slump from the Yankees to beat them in a four-game sweep in the AL Championship Series and then came from 1-0 and 2-1 down to the National League champion Phillies with a stunning string of victories in the World Series.
The Betfred bet was one of six McIngvale made in total between May and July, and he must be the second-happiest man in Houston this morning after Astros manager Dusty Baker.
Baker was the manager with the most regular-season wins in baseball never to have won a World Series title, with defeats in the Fall Classic with the San Francisco Giants in 2002 and the Astros in 2021 among his 11 postseason near-misses as a skipper. But with this success he finally clinches a championship that few will begrudge one of the most beloved characters in the game. At 73, he also becomes the oldest manager ever to win a title in any US professional sport.
We have to put our money where our mouth is and congratulate the #Astros & @MattressMack on hitting a record-breaking payout đź‘Źđź’°
Thinking of making any #SuperBowl bets Mack? đź‘€
#GamblingTwitter
Yordan Alvarez struck the vital home run which turned Game 6 around for the Astros. Down 1-0 from Kyle Schwarber’s sole homer in the top of the sixth inning, the home team rallied in the bottom of the frame to put two men on for Alvarez. The Cuban then launched a huge shot over the centre-field wall off Phillies reliever Jose Alvarado to give the ‘Stros a 3-1 lead, and Christian Vazquez scored Alex Bregman on a single to left field later in the same inning.
It was typical of the Astros successes this postseason, putting together another huge offensive inning and backing it up with tremendous pitching, and while the validity of their tainted 2017 World Series win has been questioned by many baseball fans thanks to the sign-stealing scandal which followed, there can be no doubting that they deserve this one.
And for ‘Mattress Mack’, this is a victory which will help to cover losses he is set to make from a furniture promotion. The businessman offered customers who spent more than $3,000 in his store their money back if the Astros won the World Series, with his collection of bets being a way of reducing his financial risk.
It’s fair to say that McIngvale, his customers and baseball fans in Houston all have a special reason to celebrate the Astros’ second World Series title.
