The curse of Drake strikes again, and this one was a real howler because he scuppered himself.
The famous rapper bet large on Argentina to beat France in the 2022 World Cup Final, and although the Argentinians did indeed end up lifting the trophy, the terms of the bet Drake made meant that he actually lost his wager.
Why?
Simple; Drake bet on Argentina to win the match, not to lift the trophy. The key difference here, as most of you will hopefully already know, is that match winner bets only apply to the regular match time of 90 minutes plus injury time.
A competition game that can go into extra time and even penalties (as this particular game did), is classed as a draw at full time, so bets on any other result are settled as losers.
He had odds of 2.75 which would have landed him a $2.75 million payout if Argentina could have ended the game after 90 minutes, but they didn’t. The odds would have been a little lower to bet on them to lift the trophy sure, but at least he would have actually, like… won.
As for whether Drake understood this at the time, we don’t know, but it’s funny to think of him celebrating as Gonzalo Montiel slotted that final penalty home, only to realise his bet had already lost half an hour earlier.
How the Match Panned Out
It was one of the more dramatic World Cup finals, and even saw a World Record matched by the end.
Argentina were dominating in the first half, with a penalty taken by Lionel Messi opening the scoring after 23 minutes, and Angel Di Maria adding another 13 minutes later after some wonderful passing left the French defence behind.
Trailing 2-0, France were really struggling to get through the Argentine defence, failing to land a single shot on target right up until the 80th minute, when a penalty was award in their favour which was converted by Kylian Mbappé – just.
With just ten minutes left it was all to play for and France were fighting hard to stay in the game, and it took them just 2 minutes to find an equalizer after a counter attack that ended with Thuram producing a difficult pass to Mbappé who expertly volleyed in France’s second.
This was the moment Drake’s bet was lost.
It was now certain to go to extra time, and although the first half of this was uneventful, the second half was anything but.
Argentina’s 3rd came in the 117th minute, with their forward players storming the goal and forcing a great save from France’s number 1, only for Messi to pick up the rebound and nudge the ball messily over the line. It was a close call though, as the ball looked to have been cleared off the line by a defender, but replays showed the ball had indeed crossed the line and the goal was awarded.
France were handed a lifeline in the 125th minute though, when a shot from Mbappé hit the arm of Gonzalo Montiel (the man who would soon end the competition in Argentina’s favour) and another penalty was awarded. Mbappé scored much more confidently this time, making him only the second man in history to score a hattrick in a World Cup final.
Two of them were penalties mind you, so Geoff Hurst still towers above him if you ask us!
Extra time ended 3-3 so it went to penalties, and after a miss and a save dampened France’s spirits, Montial made it 4-1 to end the game and win the cup for Argentina.
Sadly for Drake though, his $1 million was already gone.