‘Drake curse’ continues as rapper loses big money on Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight

The so-called ‘Drake curse’ struck again this weekend when the rapper lost a huge bet on the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight.

• READ MORE: Is the ‘Drake curse’ real? Five times Drake’s support has been a pox on sport

On Friday (November 15), the high-profile bout between the 27-year-old YouTuber and the 58-year-old boxing legend took place in Arlington, Texas and was live streamed on Netflix. Paul won the match via unanimous decision.

Ahead of the opening bell, the Canadian rapper posted a screenshot of a betting slip showing that he had placed a hefty $355,000 (£280,000) on Tyson to win. “I’m late but I’m here money on the liiiiiiiine for today and tmrw @stake I need some dubs,” he wrote.

Had Tyson had been victorious, Drake would have been in line to cash in for $1,011,750 (£801,000). However, he managed to make up for his loss on Saturday (November 16), when Jon Jones successfully defended his UFC Heavyweight Championship against Stipe Miocic, for which Drake picked up a juicy $954,000 (£756,000) tab.

Drake has a notoriously bad record at placing money on sporting events, dating back at least as far as 2019.

This summer, he bet on Canada to beat Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the Copa America semi-final, costing him a potential win of $2.88million, causing the Argentine FA to post an image of them celebrating with a caption of ‘Not Like Us’, in reference to Kendrick Lamar’s diss track of the same name.

That came just months after he lost $500,000 (£393,000) after betting that Tyson Fury would win his boxing match against Oleksandr Usyk. If Fury had won, Drake would have had a payout of just over $1million (£786,600) from the bet.

Last summer, the rapper lost $250k (£195,198) after betting on UFC legend Nate Diaz during a boxing match between him and Jake Paul. Just months earlier, he shared that he wagered nearly $1million (£829,500) in “psychotic” bets for the 2023 Super Bowl.

Back in 2022, the ‘Hotline Bling’ artist seemingly lost $1million on a World Cup bet after Argentina beat France. If he had made the right call for the match, he would have won roughly $2.75m (£2.26m).

That same year, it was reported that FC Barcelona fell victim to the notorious “Drake curse” after the rapper bet on them to win their game against Real Madrid.

Drake wasn’t the only disappointed onlooker on Friday, after the Paul-Tyson fight left many fans frustrated with tech issues as Netflix struggled with the demand on its live combat sports debut.