Drake Gambling Losses: Is Drake Gambling Too Much?

Canadian rapper Drake’s gambling antics have become a matter of regular news updates, wild speculation, and the occasional punchline. Drake’s gambling habits have been even brought up in his latest feud with fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar who has called Drake a gambling addict and a problem gambler.

Whether all of this is true is beyond the point. What matters is that Drake has indeed raked up some serious numbers in gambling losses. He has similarly been teased by athletes whom he bet against and the Internet as a whole.

Today, we take a look at Drake’s gambling losses, summing up all there is to know about the rapper’s biggest and most gutting gambling faux pas, and whether Drake’s gambling curse is a little more than a catchy phrase that has nothing to do with the rapper’s actual betting knowledge.

Drake’s $565,000 on Fury to Beat Usyk

Drake has been known to gamble big numbers, and he has not sought to hide any of his gambling at all. His $565,000 wager on the fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was shared on the rapper’s Instagram account, with Drake betting the eye-watering sum at 1.77 odds for Fury to win.

Now, had he succeeded, his bet would have fetched him over $1 million payday, but Usyk took out Fury by points in the end. A rematch between the two is now slated for December 2024, and although Drake has not confirmed that he is betting on this one, he has been known to wager on virtually every big event in sports.

To Drake’s credit, his bet on Fury was not exactly an outlandish one, as he came pretty close to winning it. By the judges’ estimate, Fury had lost by a single point.

Lamar has been taking potshots at Drake over their feud, saying that Drake was keen on losing money by the looks of it and that it “really is a fucking curse,” but we think differently.

$700,000 on Sean Strickland to beat Dricus Du Plessis to beat

One of the rapper’s rather prominent bets which generated a fair bit of social chatter at the time, is the $700,000 wager he placed on Sean Strickland to defeat Dricus Du Plessis in UFC 297.

The fight was not a surprise upset of any sort, with both fighters keeping up the pressure until the very end. However, it came down to the judges to decide which of the two men had claimed victory, with the victory going to Du Plessis with a split decision.

However, the fight was incredibly close, with judges Derek Cleary and Eric Colon scoring 48-47 in favor of Du Plessis, and the third judge voting in favor of Strickland. Regardless the outcome was clear, with Du Plessis securing a narrow win costing Drake his $700,000 wager.

Interestingly, Du Plessis had been keeping track of the wager placed against him, and he took to social media to rib Drake about the wager. He thanked the rapper for betting against him, soaking up some of that Drake juice curse that everyone had been talking about.

Given how narrow his win was, Du Plessis might have to chalk it up to superstition that he won indeed.

Another $550,000 on Israel Adesanya vs Strickland Goes Bust  

Another prominent wager that Drake placed to no avail is the one he put on Israel Adesanya. The wager was placed against Strickland, the fighter he was backing in another big UFC bet.

It wasn’t really out of any ill will against Strickland. Drake had been talking to Adesanya and he liked the man (he probably still does as Drake doesn’t keep beef over gambling losses). If there is one thing about Drake that immediately stands out is that he can strike up a conversation in any situation.

The rapper comes as down-to-earth, and it’s under similar circumstances that he placed his bet on Adesanya. He called up the fighter with whom he has been keeping in touch and told him straight up that he had placed a “light mil” on him, and that the “return on investment was lock.”

His reasoning was not exactly silly. He had won on Adesanya with a $136,000 wager, which brought him $897,000 after the fighter defeated Alex Pereira.

Adesanya lost the fight by decision, and although it hardly has to do with Drake’s curse, the fact that the rapper had called him up beforehand might have had an impact on the fighter’s performance, although we would never know.

It stands to reason, though. Drake’s curse may be nothing more than some athlete getting miffed at the rapper and his supposed track record of backing losing selections.

Drake F1 Tries His Hand at F1 and Misses

Drake has similarly tried to have a shot at the F1. This comes at a time when Stake.com is sponsoring an F1 team, although Drake himself is not betting on the bookmaker’s team (not least because it was formed much later than his first F1 wager).

Rather, he wagered $230,000 on Charles Leclerc “to win it all” in 2022, and as you can suspect – he didn’t win. The bet was for the Grand Prix held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, but Leclerc had bad luck and suffered power failure 27 laps in, giving Max Verstappen the win.

Now, Drake has not been sharing more about his F1 bets, which means that his attention may be more firmly focused on the bigger sports events, and admittedly the ones she likes, such as the UFC, NBA, NFL, and NHL instead.

Drake’s $890K Miss on Logan Paul vs Dillon Danis

Drake had a very good chance to win on Logan Paul. Much like the case with Adesanya, the rapper had a personal relationship with the fighter, and was sympathetic to him, not to mention that they have worked on projects together and been on good terms in general.

Right, so Drake did his thing and he bet on the fighter emotionally, which elicited a strong response from Dillin Danis, the fighter who was fighting Paul. He felt insulted by the cheek Drake had shown betting such a large amount on his head and huffed and puffed in the build-up.

He arrived so mad at the press conference before the fight, that he nearly was disqualified after he cravenly hit Paul with a microphone to the face. Danis’ somewhat unhinged behavior would define the fight’s outcome – much to Drake’s disappointment.

Drake’s bet failed on Paul because he had wagered that the fighter would win with a KO, but he won by points, and after Danis caused a huge brawl after the final bell that prompted the judges to disqualify him – a rather shocking outcome given that most boxing referees and judges have immense stores of patience to address the boisterous and often disrespectful environment in which they operate.

More UFC Gambling Losses by Drake

Now, Drake has been a fixture in the gambling community, and he has not been betting on just one or two fighters, either. Drake’s involvement with the UFC has been quite pronounced and as you may suspect – his losses have raked up on some pretty big fights in the past.

So, what are some of the rapper’s other big-time UFC losses outside the ones we have just mentioned? Well, there are quite a few, although to be fair, none are as large as the ones we have covered separately. Here are some of the other wagers that Drake placed on the UFC and lost.

He backed Justin Gaethje to defeat Charles Oliveira, putting down $430,000, and expecting a $1 million payday. Well, the win never came to pass, and Oliveira defeated Gaethje much to Drake’s disappointment and the general choir of mirth coming from the Internet over Drake’s curse – it was the time that the superstition was starting to build momentum.

Drake placed another $275,000 on Jorge Masvidal beating Colby Covington, but as you can imagine, this wager too went up in thin air.

Stanley Cup and NBA Finals

Drake has been similarly an avid hockey and basketball fan, often seen at the NBA’s front seats, shouting to players and amusingly giving backrubs to coaches so absorbed by the game that they didn’t realize Drake was giving them a massage during a live game.

This aside, Drake’s relationship with the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association has been one that involves gambling – a lot of it. His most recent brush with these sports events, however, has reportedly left the rapper short of $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

He placed two individuals $500,000 bets on the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA Finals in 2024, but the team was outclassed in four out of the five games by the Boston Celtics, leaving the rapper with a net loss.

Drake similarly backed the Edmonton Oilers to win against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2024, but his bet came a game short. The Oilers and Panthers played a very contested game, and it’s easy to see why the rapper wagered another $500,000 on them.

All told this year’s NBA and Stanley Cup Finals have left $1 million short worth of Bitcoin, giving yet another opportunity to the Internet community to call into question Drake’s skills at gauging betting outcomes.

Is there a Drake’s curse?

No, there is no Drake curse as such. The reason why Drake grabs headlines is because he is a high roller, with a huge social media following, who occasionally posts about his gambling exploits, but who is also committed to streaming gambling sessions, notably with the website Stake.com.

To circle back to the question about Drake’s gambling curse, we have been hard-pressed to find evidence to support this. Drake has won more than he has lost, and surprising as this may seem, the rapper is in the black. Kendrick Lamar’s jab at the rapper may be meant to be hurtful, but it doesn’t change the fact that in aggregate, Drake has documented more wins than he has lost.

Since he tends to mostly gamble on camera, and also posts his biggest wagers, it’s fairly safe to assume that the rapper is doing okay. In fact, by one estimate, at the beginning of 2024, Drake had won $80 in gambling, compared to less than half of that amount in losses.

A Drake’s curse? Although it makes for a convenient anecdote, Drake is much smarter about his gambling than most of us suspect.

What Is Drake’s Biggest Win to Date?

Drake has been winning a fair bit himself. The most notable win he has clocked has to do with a roulette wager that fetched him $17.9 million back in May 2022. At the time, the rapper attributed his win to his lucky charm, Lil Baby, his brother, who was in the studio with him, although busy cooking, when the win occurred.

Drake won while playing live on stream at Stake.com, the global gambling behemoth, that has forged a close partnership with the prolific rapper, especially in matters of gambling.

The rapper has been playing rapaciously on the website and has even given rise to speculation about whether he was using his money, or whether he was part of a clever marketing plan designed by Stake.com to amp up the hype.

Yet, this is not the only sizeable win by Drake. The rapper wagered $1.15 million on the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the San Francisco 49ers during Super Bowl LIV  and won a $2.34 million payday, exceeding the wagered amount two-fold. Not bad for a person who is usually said to be fumbling his wagers.

Drake’s Bitcoin and Crypto Gambling

Drake has been an excessive gambler by most standards, or high rollers if you want to coach his behavior in calmer terms. Regardless, Drake is believed to have wagered more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, mostly through his live roulette play shown via streaming.

Drake’s Stake.com account, DeepPockets6, was created in December 2021. He has been an avid user of the platform ever since and is particularly excited about roulette. He has mostly streamed his action on Kick.com and has hosted a series of headline-grabbing events snappily known as Drake vs Stake.com.

There have been several such events so far, during which Drake will play at Stake.com, stream his experience, and also extend overly generous bonuses to viewers. These bonuses usually range in size and value but have been substantial for the most part.

In one such event, which was streamed on Twitch.tv before the platform’s U-turn on gambling content, the rapper ran a 5-hour streaming marathon during which he offered $1,000,000 in player giveaways, making it one of the biggest promotional events ever hosted by a casino operator.

Drake Gambling: Is the Rapper Going to Stop?

Unlikely. Drake has been a phenomenal gambler, and although he has taken a fair degree of criticism and somewhat unfair treatment, including mockery from athletes he had bet against, the rapper is still avid about his gambling habits.

He has a net worth of $250 million, and this has not been impacted by his often risky and sizable bets. Drake will continue to grab headlines with his daring-do wagers that tend to catch the public eye and elicit strong responses from fans, bettors, and Internet denizens, but mostly go unnoticed by the rapper who is having a lot of fun.

Surely his losses are not small, but as things stand, he still seems to be getting the better end of the deal. Should you try gambling like Drake at home? We do not think so.