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Drake is lucky as a rapper. That much is undeniable. The guy has had at least 13 number-one hits. Vogue magazine called him “the world’s biggest pop star.” And I’d happily partner with him in a rap feud.
The rapper, who, like millions of others, has helped feed the gambling gold rush in the US, is said to embody the “Drake curse.”
He made headlines this week after betting $450,000 on Israel Adesanya to beat Dricus du Plessis in UFC 305 this past weekend.
Adesanya was submitted in the fourth round of the match. Du Plessis won the flight. Drake lost his bet, and you can argue that Adesanya was collateral damage.
Before this gets out of control, I will say that I do not believe in jinxes. Not in casino betting, not in sports betting, not in life, I think jinxes are as fictional as Frankenstein.
That said, some people do run incredibly bad. When I was on a card counting team, there was a woman among our ranks who played like a dream and hardly ever won. What the hell was that about?
One time, when I was interviewing the poker legend Phil Ivey, I walked up on him playing baccarat for $75,000 per hand. He lost two in a row after I appeared.
Ivey stopped just short of calling me a jinx. His right-hand man warned me not to let Phil view me as a black cat. “He thinks his uncle is a black cat,” said the right-hand guy. “Now, Unk can’t be around Phil when he plays poker or gambles.”
I was reporting a story on the man. That would have been a problem for me.
Returning to Drake, he does seem to have a rotten touch when it comes to sports betting.
According to the Daily Mail, it stretches back to 2014. That was when he lost bets on the Miami Heat, the Toronto Raptors (the rapper’s hometown squad) and the Kentucky Wildcats college hoops team.
One year later, maybe gambling or maybe not gambling, he became a courtside fixture at the matches of tennis superstar Serena Williams.
Then she got upset bigtime by the unseeded Roberta Vinci. Drake, who might have been romantically involved with Williams at the time, took the blame among internet wags.
But that was then. This year has been particularly brutal. As per Forbes, he dropped nearly $2.5 million between March and July of 2024. I’m guessing that the sum is now past $3 million.
Apparently, all in, he’s blown something in the range of $7 million. Online sportsbooks must love the guy’s action more than they love his music. And why not?
In June, he dropped $500,000 on the Edmonton Oilers and another 500K on a wager that required the Dallas Mavericks to win the NBA finals.
The Celtics took it down. I was rooting for Boston, and even betting on them, as my wife had a future-bet that the Celtics would win the championship.
She couldn’t have known that she’d be going opposite Drake – which would have made it a surer thing (he’s not jinxed, but he seems incapable of winning sports bets, at least for now).
As for me, at the moment, I’m waiting on things to turn around for Drizzy. Nobody loses forever. He’s got the dough to keep gambling and he clearly loves having big bucks at stake. I’m waiting for the winds to shift and the betting slips that Drake posts online to turn gold – just like his albums.
Anyone game for an over/under on when the sportsbook spewing will cease?
