Is Gardner White’s Lions Super Sale taking a page out of Mattress Mack’s gambling playbook?
If the Detroit Lions win the next Super Bowl, Gardner White will refund customers for furniture they purchase between July 15-31.
The promotion seems very similar to ones Jim McIngvale has run at his Gallery Furniture chain in Houston offering rebates on high-end mattresses if local sports teams win major championships.
PlayMichigan reached out to two people in Gardner White’s PR team to ask if their promotion was inspired by similar ones “Mattress Mack” McIngvale has run.
Considering such promotions could end up costing the retailers millions of dollars, we were also curious if Gardner White was planning to do what McIngvale does: hedge the cost of the promotion with a massive sports bet on the team in question.
Is Gardner White planning to place a huge futures wager via a Michigan online sportsbook on the Lions to win the Super Bowl to try to cover the cost of its rebates if the team wins?
We’re still waiting to hear back from Gardner White, but will update this story if we do.
How Gardner White’s Lions promotion works
Gardner White has been a family-owned Michigan institution in the furniture business for over 110 years.
Recently, Gardner White CEO Rachel Stewart — a fourth-generation family member running the chain — announced that the retailer has become an official sponsor of the Detroit Lions.
The furniture store also launched what it is calling the “largest sale in its history giving customers the opportunity to score tens of millions in free furniture.”
If the Lions win the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Michigan residents that make a “qualifying purchase” can apply for a rebate for the “purchase costs of their furniture. This excludes taxes, gift cards, furniture and mattress protections, delivery charges, items sold or marked ‘as-is,’ and additional warranties.” Those qualifying purchases must have been made between July 15, 2024 at 9 p.m. (ET) and July 31, 2024 at 9 p.m.
The terms do not state that there is a maximum amount for a rebate and that’s why things could get super pricey for Gardner White if the Lions do, in fact, win their first Super Bowl.
Currently, the team is among the favorites on PlayMichigan’s Detroit Lions Betting page.
How Mattress Mack hedges his promotions with sports bets
In 2022, Gallery Furniture ran a promotion offering to rebate the cost of specific mattresses priced at $3,000 or more if the Houston Astros won the World Series. The Astros did, in fact, win the title and McIngvale refunded qualifying customers.
He paid for the rebates by placing $10 million in bets on the Astros to win the Series, earning an estimated $75 million payout. It is believed to be the largest payout in sports betting history.
A year later, McIngvale lost at least $7.9 million betting on the Astros to win the 2023 World Series. Had Houston won, McIngvale would have won almost $51 million on the bets. But, he made up some — or perhaps all — of his nearly $8 million in lost bets by selling a boatload of mattresses.
Mattress Mack has done similar promotions numerous other times.
Win or lose, he’s not out much, if any, money, due to hedging his promotions with sports bets. And, it’s pretty smart marketing since he gets a lot of free promotion for all this while bonding with local sports fans over a shared passion.
Is Mattress Mack a hypocrite?
But, McIngvale has also been labelled a hypocrite.
On a Legal Sports Report podcast in February of 2023, Dustin Gouker said:
“Mattress Mack, Jim McIngvale, of the fame of betting large amounts on lots of things all around the country. He came out, he talked both on his own site and with the Houston Chronicle about what is going on in Texas and legalization of sports betting in Texas. And he has now come out not in favor of legalizing sports betting. He’s made several comments, but the biggest one was he says he doesn’t want to feel the impulse to go bet if it’s legal in Texas. That he’s okay with, ‘Driving to Louisiana across the border to go bet.’ I’m here to tell you, this is all very ridiculous because Mack’s whole shtick is generating free PR from gambling.
“Him sitting here telling us we shouldn’t legalize sports betting in Texas because I don’t want the temptation of it — absolute garbage. If, again, he wants to become a responsible gambling advocate and say, ‘I’m done with gambling. If it’s here, it’s too much for me.’ That would be a fine message. But that’s not what he wants to do.”
No matter how Gardner White is funding this, it’s a great promotion
Gardner White opened its first store in Michigan in 1912. It has long had serious game in the promotion department. But it has never done a promotion quite like this Lions one.
We have no idea if sports betting will be part of its Lions promotion. It’s also possible Gardiner White will take out some kind of insurance policy — or both. But there’s no question the furniture retailer will need to have some hedge against the promotion.
In the meantime, they are getting free publicity from PlayMichigan and many others talking about the promotion.
And, they are tapping into Detroit Lions fever, which is at an all-time high in Michigan. The team was mere minutes from going to last year’s Super Bowl.
How big a bet would Gardner White need to place on the Lions to cover promotion?
In terms of Super Bowl Betting on the Lions to win the 2025 championship, they are currently ranked fourth behind the Chiefs, 49ers and Ravens.
FanDuel MI sportsbook, BetMGM sportsbook, BetRivers Michigan sportsbook and DraftKings sportsbook Michigan all have the Lions at +1200 to win the Super Bowl.
Again, we don’t know that Gardner White plans to hedge its promotion with a major wager. But, just for fun, let’s say they are.
Garner White mentioned “tens of millions of dollars” were at risk in its promotion.
So, let’s say Gardner White sells $25 million worth of furniture during its Lions promotion. It would have to bet $2.1 million on the Lions to win the Super Bowl to cover that $25 million.
If the Lions win, the bets cover the rebates. If the Lions lose, Gardner White is out the $2.1 million it bet on the team. But, it more than made up for it with $25 million in sales.
And that’s not counting the value of the free publicity.
