Rapper Drake loses £533k Arsenal and Barcelona bet as ‘curse’ continues to haunt him
Drake fluttered away a chunk of his vast riches as Barcelona let down his two-fold bet despite Arsenal holding up their end of the bargain.
Ahead of Real Madrid versus Barca and the Gunners’ trip to Leeds United on Sunday afternoon, the rapper placed an enormous CA$833,333 (£533,000) on both away teams to win. In the Premier League fixture, Arsenal did just that, emerging 1-0 victors at Elland Road thanks to another first-half Bukayo Saka winner.
Mikel Arteta’s side needed a slice of luck, with Patrick Bamford dragging his 64th-minute penalty wide to let a glorious chance to equalise go begging. Arsenal held on to claim all three points and bring home the first leg of Drake’s bet and referenced his 2013 hit ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ by tweeting “Now we’re going home” – but he was not so fortunate in El Clasico.
Los Blancos surged to a 2-0 lead by half-time thanks to an opener from Karim Benzema and a stunning strike from Federico Valverde. Ferran Torres halved the deficit late on but Rodrygo scored an added-time penalty for the hosts to inflict a first La Liga defeat on Xavi’s side and reclaim top spot in the table.
This spelled bad news for Drake, who stood to win a whopping CA$3,900,002 (£2.5million) had Barcelona won. The Canadian superstar has had mixed fortunes with regards to his betting in recent months.
He pocketed a cool £3million after Brits Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann won their fights at UFC London in July, but lost £368,000 after Leon Edwards knocked out Kamaru Usman the following month.
Drake’s losing bet on Barcelona and Arsenal will add fuel to the fire that he inadvertently ‘curses’ teams. The term ‘Drake curse’ has been popularised on social media in recent years after many sports teams and athletes have gone on to lose shortly after posing with him.
Barca lined up for El Clasico wearing a special-edition shirt bearing Drake’s iconic owl logo as part of their agreement with Spotify after he became the first artist to surpass 50billion streams on the music streaming platform.
Spotify vice-president of partnerships Marc Hazan said: “We were really excited to celebrate one of the biggest games of the year and mark Drake’s milestone as the first artist to reach 50billion streams. We’ve always said that we want this partnership to be a celebration of fans, players and artists on a global stage – and there’s no bigger stage than El Clasico.”
While Drake will be disappointed to have lost over half a million pounds on his latest bet, it is unlikely to faze him too much, as his net worth is estimated to be an eye-watering sum in the region of £225million.
