Super Bowl LVIII is likely to bring some massive bets at top-rated sportsbooks with a great game expected between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
Just in Nevada alone, sportsbooks reportedly took in $179.8 million in wagers on last year’s Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Eagles, a 38-35 final where the underdog Chiefs were victorious.
You can expect that number to be in the several billions for the whole country when it comes to betting on this Super Bowl.
Super Bowl prop bets for 2024 include Taylor Swift and Usher’s shoes https://t.co/G9ggS3CGPR
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) January 31, 2024
Surely, it is hard to bet against Patrick Mahomes as an underdog given he is 10-1-1 ATS and 9-3 SU with the Chiefs. But you know someone is going to do it and likely with a 9-figure bet.
In fact, a Michigan bettor has reportedly already placed the game’s first $1 million bet on the 49ers to win at -120 odds. There will be bigger bets to come than that.
We are looking back at some of the largest bets in Super Bowl history. You are going to want to view this as a warning for responsible gambling rather than anything aspirational.
Mattress Mack Loses $9.5 Million on the 2021 Bengals
If you are unfamiliar with Mattress Mack, he is a famous sports gambler who runs a furniture store chain in Houston, Texans. His real name is James Franklin McIngvale, and he will celebrate his 73rd birthday on Super Bowl Sunday this year.
So, you just know he is going to go big again most likely on the big game. For Super Bowl LVI a couple of years ago, McIngvale made history when he placed a $4.5 million bet on the Bengals (+170) to beat the Rams, the largest mobile bet ever placed. He doubled up and put another $5 million down on the Bengals. His bets would win over $16 million.
Mattress Mack moving $10M in cash might be the biggest flex I ever seen.pic.twitter.com/pGqsaNTvbN
— Overtime (@overtime) November 11, 2022
However, the Rams came back and won the game, so McIngvale lost the huge bets. He has lost his share of recent big bets as he also went against Georgia in back-to-back championship games in college football.
An unnamed bettor ended up winning $1.2 million after betting $2.1 million on the Rams to win (-175) that Super Bowl. That was the biggest bet on that Super Bowl outside of McIngvale.
But McIngvale did win $75 million, the largest sports betting payout ever, when the Houston Astros won the World Series in 2022. He had $17 million in total bets invested on that one.
He also hedges his bets with his furniture store, offering customers a promotion where if they buy his expensive furniture and the team he bets on wins, the customer gets their money back.
This way, if the team wins, he wins his bet and has the money to pay the customers. If the team loses, he loses his bet, but he gets all that money from the customers as he expected to move about $20 million in furniture sales during that promotion.
Back in 2014 when the Seahawks beat Denver in the Super Bowl, Mattress Mack was out about $7 million after 1,000 customers took advantage of his promotion involving free furniture if the Seahawks beat Denver.
However, the catch was they had to buy at least $6,000 in furniture. You can say he’s experienced at doing this and has only received more attention since sports betting has become legal in so many states.
Is Mattress Mack kind of annoying? Yes. But his bets are by no means something you should tail, as he often goes with the Texas team or has an agenda out for certain teams. He reportedly has bet against the Chiefs in Super Bowls LIV (he lost) and LV (he won after betting $3.46 on Tampa Bay to cover), so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with for his birthday bet on Super Bowl LVIII.
Drake Bets Nearly a Million on Chiefs in Super Bowl 57
The largest bet on Super Bowl 57 was reportedly a New York bettor who put $2.2 million on the Eagles -1.5 to win $2 million. Welp, they lost that.
Another bettor fared better by putting $1.68 million on an alternate line of Chiefs +3.5, which won a million.
However, the name we all know who made big bets last year on the Super Bowl was rapper Drake, who spent almost $1 million on the game between the Chiefs and Eagles. While Drake nailed the Chiefs for a $700,000 bet at even odds, his prop picks all bombed, so he only netted a little over $400,000. Still, that’s not a bad night, but his prop picks were shockingly bad.
Drake bet $25,000 on Travis Kelce to win Super Bowl MVP at +1200 odds. No tight end has ever won Super Bowl MVP, but Kelce is arguably the best to ever do it, so maybe that pick wasn’t too bad given he was on the right side with the Chiefs winning.
But then Drake bet another $60,000 on any tight end to win Super Bowl MVP at +900 odds. Uh, did he think Noah Gray was going to get it for the Chiefs as Kelce’s backup? If he believed so strongly in the Chiefs and a tight end winning Super Bowl MVP, why not go $85,000 on Kelce at +1200?
He could have hedged and done $60,000 on Kelce and $25,000 on Philadelphia tight end Dallas Goedert, who likely had way worse odds at +3000 or higher.
Sorry, just had to rant about an illogical set of prop picks from a guy who sleeps on a bed that costs $400,000. Drake’s clearly in a position to bet differently than the rest of us.
@zanelowe Drake smashed it at a Super Bowl Party last night ending with an iconic moment #drake #whitneyhouston #music #superbowl #fyp ♬ I Have Nothing – Whitney Houston
Deep Cut: 50 Cent Could Have Taken Birdman for $5 Million Over Giants-Patriots Rematch
What is it about rappers and epic Super Bowl bets? This one is going back over a decade, but it is a good story.
Rapper and producer Brian “Birdman” Williams once won a $1 million bet that the Packers would beat the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, which they did.
A year later, Birdman was ready to go all in with $5 million that the Patriots would get their revenge against the 2011 Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. He wasn’t even a Patriots super fan, though reportedly running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis was his nephew, so he had some connection to the team.
However, no one was going to take up Birdman on the huge offer, which would have been a bad bet as the Giants did in fact beat New England again by a 21-17 final.
Nonetheless, New York rapper 50 Cent was willing to go in at $1 million on the Giants to win.
There was also an erroneous story reported that he would post a nude picture of himself on Twitter in addition to paying up the $1 million if the Giants did not deliver. But 50 Cent cleared that up that someone on Twitter just said it and he wasn’t actually going to do that nude photo.
You had to love the 2012 era of Twitter.
Yo don’t give that punk no attention. if I get shot ill only get up again.just watched a 500,000 dollar foot ball game get on my level.Chump
— 50cent (@50cent) January 23, 2012
It is unclear if the bet ever actually went down between Birdman and 50 Cent, but the Giants were big money-makers for a lot of people against the Patriots.
Twice.
