All oddsmaking eyes have been on California this week, where titans of gaming have battled for months over two ballot propositions that held the potential of opening the state to legalized sports betting.
With corporate- and tribal-gaming combatants pouring in approximately $450 million to sway the voting public’s opinion, it’s hard to imagine the stakes being higher. (That phenomenal figure is a record for propositions in the state.) It’s a fight for dominance in what is estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar sports-betting market.
Both sides bombarded the airwaves with scare tactics and big promises about the tax benefits of legalizing a form of gambling that has been going on in the shadows for generations. With 30 states already in the legal ledger and more on the way, the destinies of Propositions 26 and 27 represent one of the few times in recent memories that California hasn’t been ahead of national political trends.
The shorthand: Prop 26 would have legalized sports betting on tribal lands; Prop 27 would have allowed licensed gaming companies and tribal casinos to offer mobile and online sports betting.
Polls leading up to Election Day showed that each side’s efforts to impugn the other appeared to be working. For months neither proposition has been predicted to pass, and as I write this, those polls might be some of the few to prove spot-on in the 2022 election cycle.
In early October, the Los Angeles Times reported poll numbers that pointed to the failure of both propositions. As Election Day approached, the issue grew more competitive.
In a night full of neck-and-neck races across the nation, 26 and 27 weren’t even close to being close. By 11 p.m. Tuesday with 41 percent of the vote recorded, The Associated Press had called both proposition questions. It had to be the easiest calls of the night for the news agency.
There will be plenty of time for a political post-mortem as Californians once again turn to their local sports-bar bookmaker or the handicapping palaces of Las Vegas to place their bets on ballgames in their own backyards. I’ll be happy to use my rusty scalpel to dissect the issue another time.
Until then, let me celebrate my sports-betting story of the year. No, not the Dusty Baker-managed Houston Astros winning the World Series. It’s Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale absolutely crushing a $75 million play on the Astros and hitting the shot heard ‘round the sportsbook world.
At 71, McIngvale is a popular character known around Texas for selling furniture and mattresses at bargain prices. He’s known around the sports-betting industry for making enormous wagers that pay off often enough to qualify him as a household name.
So when the Houston guy bets housefuls of furniture on the Houston team and wins, it’s such a big deal that corporate sportsbook directors – perhaps after throwing back stiff shots of bourbon – clear their throats and congratulate him for his jaw-dropping win. They also invite him back to try his luck again.
One of my favorite comments came from Ken Fuchs, COO at Caesars Digital, who played the bad beat just right. “What can we say? We just wrote the biggest check in sports-betting history to Mattress Mack for $30,000,000. Would we do it all again? You bet.”
McIngvale spread $10 million across several wagers, including $3 million at 10-to-1 odds with Caesars in May. The win sent more than a ripple through the Caesars and Penn Entertainment corporate structures, according to CNBC.
The size of McIngvale’s win will likely reverberate around the industry for years as legalized sports betting continues to expand in more states and various forms. But what makes it one that’s really worth celebrating is how he hedged millions in wagers against the millions in profits from his furniture sales.
He turned his big win into an even bigger win for his loyal customers, who will be receiving refunds on their purchases. As Mattress Mack told CNBC, “Winning the bet is very important, but more important, winning the bets allows us to give money back to all of our customers who bought about $75 million worth of furniture.”
That’s a lot of mattresses, Mack.
And if he receives at least $75 million worth of publicity for his win and generous gesture? It figures to be money well spent.
That makes this a genuine feel-good story in an industry in an end of the gaming industry that can always use one.
Don’t worry about Californians and sports betting. They’ll find plenty of ways to get down on ballgames. In retrospect, perhaps Las Vegas sportsbook operators should be relieved that so many of their good customers from the coast will keep on making the trip to the original home of the legal sports wager.
From this peanut-crunching sport’s fans place in the grandstands of the gaming industry, Mattress Mack is already headed for the Gaming Hall of Fame.
