Canadian rapper Drake has placed a massive $1.5 million bet on Argentina to defeat Spain in the 2026 FIFA World Cup final.
The 39-year-old artist, whose full name is Aubrey Drake Graham, shared a screenshot of the wager on Instagram ahead of Sunday’s final at the New York New Jersey Stadium.
Drake placed the bet through online gambling platform Stake, backing defending champions Argentina to overcome Spain and win a second consecutive World Cup title.
Should Argentina win the match, the rapper is expected to receive a payout of more than $5.1 million, giving him a potential profit of approximately $3.6 million.
Sharing the betting slip with his followers, Drake wrote: “What’s that saying??? Better luck next time…” His message appeared to express confidence that Argentina would defeat Spain in the highly anticipated final.
The enormous wager has quickly attracted attention because of Drake’s long and controversial history of betting on major sporting events.
The Grammy-winning rapper has regularly posted screenshots of multimillion-dollar bets involving football, basketball, boxing, mixed martial arts and other sports. However, many of the teams and athletes he has publicly supported have gone on to lose.
This pattern has created what sports fans jokingly describe as the “Drake curse” — the belief that athletes or teams photographed with the rapper, endorsed by him or backed through one of his highly publicised bets are likely to suffer defeat.
The superstition has become so popular that a website called TheDrakeCurse.com was created to document the rapper’s sports betting record and the outcomes of teams and athletes he has supported.
Drake’s latest wager comes after he reportedly lost $1 million after backing Irish fighter Conor McGregor to win a UFC bout against Max Holloway.