Canadian rapper Drake has placed another high-profile sports wager, betting $300,000 on world No. 1 Jannik Sinner to win the US Open. The Instagram post from the Grammy Award winner showed a betting slip with a potential payout of more than $500,000 if the Italian star wins at Flushing Meadows.
Key Takeaways
- Drake’s $300,000 bet could return more than half a million dollars
- The rapper’s betting history has fueled a theory that his support dooms athletes and teams
- Drake previously lost a six-figure wager on Taylor Fritz
The so-called “Drake Curse” has become a recurring storyline in sports betting circles.
Critics point to several of Drake’s high-stakes losses, including a $1 million wager on the Toronto Maple Leafs during last year’s Stanley Cup run. He also lost when backing Taylor Fritz in last year’s US Open final against Sinner.
A website, thedrakecurse.com, even tracks his betting history, estimating that he is down more than $115,000 on tennis alone. Whether Sinner can deliver a win and prove the curse wrong again will be revealed in Queens this week.
Drake loses $800K on Thunder Game 6 bet
Drake’s high-stakes betting streak hit another setback after the Toronto rapper lost $800,000 on Game 6 of the NBA Finals. He placed the wager on the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the championship in that round, but the Indiana Pacers forced a Game 7 with a 108-91 victory.
The rapper, who frequently shares his bets through his partnership with cryptocurrency-based casino Stake, confessed to a tough month overall.
Drake revealed he lost more than $8.2 million in June after placing $124 million in bets. “Gotta share the other side of gambling… Losses are so fried right now,” he wrote on Instagram.
Fans were quick to revive chatter about the so-called “Drake Curse,” a running joke that teams he supports tend to lose. Drake has laughed off the superstition in the past, citing the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 NBA championship as proof the curse isn’t real.
L.A. City Attorney sues Stake.us and Evolution
Meanwhile, Los Angeles City Attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, has filed a civil enforcement lawsuit against Stake.us, its owners, Kick Streaming, and several gaming suppliers, including Evolution, for their alleged operations of an illegal gambling enterprise in California, though the company has denied wrongdoing.
The complaint also names Stake co-founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, Stake’s parent company Easygo Holdings, and subsidiaries of Evolution such as Hacksaw Gaming.
Soto is working with Susman Godfrey, the firm leading a separate class action against VGW, operator of Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots. The case could set a precedent for enforcement as California lawmakers debate AB 831, a bill to ban sweepstakes casinos.
In response to the lawsuit, Evolution has since pulled its games from Stake.us, while other suppliers, like Pragmatic Play, confirmed that they had also ceased supplying sweepstakes casinos with their games in the U.S.
