One of Mattress Mack’s biggest gambling losses since the one that made him famous occurred when he wagered $6.2 million on Alabama Crimson Tide to beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
It wasn’t an easy one to call, although most bookies leaned slightly towards Georgia, but nevertheless, it was expected to be a fairly even game.
Things started out ok, with Alabama leading 3-0 after the first quarter, but only managing an even 6-6 in the second, after which the Bulldogs got hold of the game and never really let go.
They won the 3rd quarter 0-7 making it 9-13 going into the final quarter, and that was when the points really started to land with a little bit of leap frogging before the Bulldogs ran away with it.
The final quarter ended 9-20 to Georgia leaving the total score 18-33 firmly in their favour.
Mack’s bet was dead and buried, along with his $6.2 million dollars.
As usual though, he will have offset some of the loss by running connected promotions in his stores.
The Bet
We are talking about it as one bet for ease, but in reality, Mack placed four different bets to make up the $6.2 million overall wager.
He often has to spread his bets out like this since they are so big no single bookmaker wants all of the action.
Those bets were:
- $1.2 million at +125 via Caesars Sportsbook
- $449,550 at +130 via ScoreBet
- $1.5 million at +115 via Caesars again
- $1 million at +120 via WynnBet
- $1 million at +123 via Barstool Sportsbook
- $1 million at +110 via Barstool again
Had Alabama managed to win the game, Mack would have won about $10 million to top up his fortune.