For anyone thats spent anytime near Houston will have heard of "Mattress Mack" - he owns a very popular furniture outlet in Houston. (Its claim to fame is same day delivery and pickup of old furniture, which winds up being a killer sales point when you are shopping for a new couch and also need to figure out what to do with old one - everything is sorted today!).

Anyway, Mack has made a very innovative use of sports betting as part of his business model. Its basically a form of proxy-sports betting. It goes like this.

Suppose the Astros are in the run to get in World Series, Mack will launch a promotion that says: If the Astros get into World Series any purchase you make between date X and Y will be refunded 100% (up to $5000).

Mack then goes and places a $10M counter-bet in Vegas to hedge his risk.

So if you were thinking about buying a new living room set anyway, its best just to wait until Mack runs one of his promotions, then you have a chance of getting it 100% for free.

I'm surprised this concept hasn't caught on more in the age of prediction markets as it could really apply to lots of different businesses....