Photo credit: Drake
Canadian rap superstar Drake had more than national pride riding on Canada’s Round of 32 clash against South Africa at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Before the match kicked off, Drake revealed on Instagram that he had placed a $770,000 bet through his longtime betting partner Stake on Canada to defeat Bafana Bafana. The wager carried a total payout of $1,001,000 if Canada advanced, and with Canada securing a 1-0 victory, Drake walked away with just over a million dollars, pocketing an estimated profit of $231,000 after accounting for his original stake.
A South African DJ sparked the bet
Drake added an entertaining backstory to the wager, crediting South African DJ Black Coffee as the motivation behind the high-stakes gamble. In the caption accompanying his betting slip screenshot on Instagram, Drake revealed that Black Coffee had been taunting him in direct messages ahead of the match, and that the provocations pushed him to put serious money where his loyalties lay. The playful exchange between the two artists gave the bet an added layer of personality that resonated widely across social media.
The Drake Curse failed to strike this time
Drake’s bet immediately reignited conversation around one of the internet’s most enduring sports superstitions. The so-called Drake Curse refers to the widely shared theory that athletes and teams publicly backed by the rapper tend to lose, a pattern that has been observed with enough frequency over the years to take on a life of its own online. South African fans were quick to invoke the curse ahead of the match, suggesting that Drake’s support for Canada would backfire.
This time, however, the superstition did not deliver. Canada held firm and edged past Bafana Bafana to claim their place in the Round of 16, giving Drake both a winning result and a significant financial return in the process.
Betting on sport has become part of Drake’s public brand
This latest wager is consistent with a pattern Drake has cultivated over several years through his partnership with Stake. The Grammy-winning artist has become one of the most high-profile celebrity bettors in the world, regularly placing and publicly sharing large wagers on major sporting events across a range of disciplines including NBA games, UFC fights, boxing bouts and football tournaments. He shares both his wins and his losses with his millions of followers, making his betting activity a genuine ongoing storyline within his public persona.
Canada’s victory over South Africa, and the million-dollar payout that came with it, adds another memorable chapter to that narrative, and one that coincidentally aligns with his home country’s historic run at its first-ever World Cup knockout stage appearance.
Source: Bmetro/Chronicle via Heraldonline
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