Drake Bets $1M on Mavs to Beat Celtics, Oilers to Beat Panthers in NBA, NHL Finals

Drake will be hoping his bets on the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final go better for him than his recent feud with Kendrick Lamar did.

Per TMZ Sports, the rap superstar placed $500,000 each on the Dallas Mavericks to beat the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals and Edmonton Oilers to defeat the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.

If both bets hit, Drake will win $2.4 million. A Mavs win would pay him $1.375 million. The Oilers winning would pay out $1.025 million.

Drake had a rough start to 2024 as far as his gambling habits go. He put $700,000 on Sean Strickland to retain the middleweight title against Dricus du Plessis at UFC 297 on Jan. 20.

Du Plessis won a very close fight via split decision, prompting the new champ to thank Drake for helping him.

The Drake curse was broken in February when he won $2.3 million on the Kansas City Chiefs' victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 58.

Drake had more good luck when he dropped $675,000 on Alex Pereira to defeat Jamahal Hill in the UFC 300 main event on April 13.

Pereira won via knockout in the first round to retain the UFC light heavyweight championship.

In between the Super Bowl and UFC 300, the five-time Grammy winner lost $615,000 in a bet on Francis Ngannou to defeat Anthony Joshua. He recently lost $565,000 betting on Tyson Fury to beat Oleksandr Usyk.

TMZ noted Drake explained his bet for the Mavs on Instagram by writing "cause I'm a Texan" even though he's famously from Canada, though he did recently buy a ranch in Texas. His bet against the Oilers is described as "self explanatory" because they aren't the Toronto Maple Leafs.

FanDuel has the Mavs as a +188 underdog (bet $100 to win $188) entering the NBA Finals. They are seeking their second championship in franchise history.

The Panthers are in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. They lost in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights last year.