Drake, NBA FINALS
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Rapper Drake attends a game between the Rockets and Cavaliers at Toyota Center on March 16, 2024
Rapper Drake found out what other naysayers have discovered throughout the 2025 NBA Finals: Don’t bet against the Indiana Pacers.
The Rick Carlisle-led team entered Game 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder as a 6.5-point underdog, only to come away with a 108-91 victory to force a decider. Drake placed two bets amounting to $800,000 on the Thunder to beat the Pacers and clinch the series in six games. He lost both bets, and with it a large sum of money.
Drake revealed via Instagram that he placed two bets on the Thunder — $600,000 for them to win the game, and another $200,000 for them to win by 6-10 points. If he won both bets, the rapper stood to win up to $1.7 million. The hip-hop icon tagged Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a fellow Canadian, with the message, “Check that box.”
br_betting
DRAKE DROPPED $800K ON OKC IN GAME 6 🔥
– $600K on Thunder ML
– $200K on Thunder by 6-10
🗣️ ‘Check that box Shai’
(via @Drake)
The ‘Drake Curse’ Strikes Again
This wasn’t the first time Drake lost a bet in a major sporting event. In 2024, he lost over $500,000 betting on the Dallas Mavericks to beat the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. He also lost $565,000 betting Tyson Fury to defeat Oleksandr Usyk in the high-profile boxing bout.
He was, however, successful in predicting the Denver Nuggets to beat the Miami Heat in the 2023 NBA Finals, netting $830,000 after Nikola Jokic and Co. prevailed.
On June 18, the 38-year-old rapper revealed via Instagram that he lost nearly $8 million in bets just over the previous month, betting on various sporting events.
“Gotta share the other side of gambling,” he wrote on IG with a screenshot detailing his losses. “Losses are so fried right now I hope I can post a big win for you all soon cause I’m the only one that has never seen a max these guys max once a week.”
XXL Magazine
Drake reveals he’s lost over $8 million gambling over the past month
RapTV
Drake revealed he’s down $8M in gambling losses just this past month‼️😧
OKC Heavy Favorites to Win NBA Finals
Drake will likely place another bet ahead of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals on June 22.
As of this writing, the Thunder are 8.5-point underdogs to beat the Pacers and capture the franchise’s first championship since moving to Oklahoma City. The franchise’s lone championship came during their stint as the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979.
Again, it would be premature to count out the Pacers, who have won 10 games as underdogs in the 2025 playoffs, the most by any team in NBA history.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton has cautioned his teammates against celebrating too much after their emphatic Game 6 statement.
“The narratives are going to be almost poison,” he said after Game 6, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “To talk about what this would mean to our city and our organization and legacy talk, and we played so well and now the pressure is on [the Thunder] … there’s going to be narratives that we can’t really pay attention to.
“We’ve got to control what we can. So much of these games has come down to who is going to start the fight from a physicality standpoint, take care of the ball better and rebound the ball better. Those are the important things that we need to focus on. I don’t even want to say, celebrate this one tonight and move on. It’s done with. We did our job to take care of home court, and we have to be ready to compete in Game 7.”
BetMGM Canada
Nothing better than a Game 7 🏆
Who will win it all?