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HOUSTON — Top 100 retailer Gallery Furniture’s latest sports promotion can be summed up in two words: Roll Tide.
The Houston-based retailer is offering customers who buy a $3,000 mattress set between now and the college football national championship game on Monday night their money back if the Alabama Crimson Tide defeat the Georgia Bulldogs.
Gallery owner Jim McIngvale said Alabama is one of the more recognizable names in sports, so it made sense to back the Tide in this contest. So far, customer response has been on par with expectations. “Alabama has a very high name recognition with customers. It’s been a good promotion so far,” he said.
To offset the promotion, McIngvale put a $1.2 million bet on Alabama to win the championship through Caesars Sportsbook, according to a report on ESPN.com. Should the Tide win, McIngvale will pick up $1.5 million, as Alabama is a three-point underdog in the contest.
McIngvale also picked Alabama because earlier in the season, in the Southeastern Conference championship game, the two teams squared off and the Tide defeated the previously undefeated Bulldogs 42-24.
“I thought they should have been the favorite because they won a month ago,” McIngvale said.
Sports promotions are nothing new for Gallery, as it has done similar promotions for major sporting events, including the Super Bowl, March Madness and the World Series among others. Most recently, Gallery Furniture and McIngvale held a similar promotion involving the hometown Houston Astros in the World Series. The Astros lost to the Atlanta Braves, but had they won, Gallery would have refunded more than $20 million in qualifying mattress purchases.
McIngvale said the sports promotions have become some of Gallery’s most popular events.
“Customers like it. It gets the customers excited about buying mattresses and it stirs the place up, that’s for sure,” he said.
