Who did Mattress Mack bet on for March Madness 2024? Updated NCAA tournament odds explored

Famous bettor Mattress Mack is backing the Houston Cougars to come out on top of March Madness 2024. He put $1 million towards the Cougars to win the NCAA tournament. Currently, the Big 12 school has odds of +750 to win the NCAA tournament and is ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Mattress Mack, whose actual name is Jim McIngvale, would earn $7.5 million if the bet paid off. He is a Houston local and is the most well-known bettor in the United States. Last year, he also bet $1 million on the Cougars winning the NCAA tournament, and in 2022 he put $5 million in favor of the Cincinnati Bengals winning the Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams. He lost both bets.

Despite this unfortunate outcome, he won $75 million in a $10 million bet on the Houston Astros winning the World Series in 2022. ESPN reported this being the largest betting win in the history of American sports. McIngvale uses the betting market as a way to mitigate risk from giveaway promotions in his mattress stores.

After winning the famous Astros bet, he spoke with ESPN saying:

"We figured we had enough betting insurance to go through Game 1 or 2 of the World Series, But on the Sunday after they beat the Yankees and clinched, we had the biggest day [in sales] ever, by about 20%, so we had to cut the promotion off then. We've been fast and furious giving people this money back the last couple months. Thank God, I had enough guts or stupidity to get those bets at 10-1 way back in June."

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Who are the current favorites to win March Madness?

The UConn Huskies remain the March Madness favorites, with odds of +500. They are followed by the Houston Cougars at +700, and the Purdue Boilermakers are slightly behind at +750. The next contender, Arizona, has a bigger gap in odds at +1300.

Fox's college basketball analyst John Fanta is impressed by the Huskies and Cougars:

"If you take one play, one sequence in a game off, this team (UConn) will make you pay 99 percent of the time... Houston's reputation should be even stronger than it is, not only is this team as tough as any team in college basketball, but they've got an impressive track record to prove it. Over the last four years, this program has 117 wins — to just 17 losses."

Who do you have winning this year's March Madness?