Drake x Stake: All You Need to Know 2026

The Drake-Stake collaboration is by far the casino’s biggest promotional partnership. From millions of dollars in payment to record-breaking wagers and life-changing giveaways, nothing compares to it. The sole purpose is to get the word out to players globally.

The magnitude of the deal and how it turned out have made many crypto gambling enthusiasts curious. We researched all there is to know, and in this article, we’ll spill the beans. Read on to know if the rapper owns Stake.com, how much he’s paid, his biggest bets, why his streams were a hit, and more. Let’s dig in!

Drake-Stake origins: tracing the steps till now

A simple search online for Drake or Stake.com will most likely bring up mentions of one or the other. All this is because the collaboration between the Canadian rapper and the online casino is one of the biggest crossovers between the music and gambling industries. Anyone who’s been following Drake for a long time knows his undying love for sports and his commitment to the grind.

Looking to capitalize on some of the biggest games in the NFL, NBA, and even European football, he’s been placing wagers and sharing his betting slips on his social media.  But in 2021, fans started noticing that he was using the Stake.com platform to wage his bets. That led to speculation about a collaboration with the online casino. Well, where there’s smoke, you betcha there’s fire. It happened eventually. Stake.com co-founder Ed Craven announced in 2022 that the operator had partnered with the multiple Grammy Award-winning artist to promote the platform.

Eddie cited a shared love for sports, gambling, and crypto as the reason why Drake was the perfect fit for the ambassador role. And with that, the Stake-Drake era officially began.

Drake vs Stake: live betting streams and promoting Stake.com

Drake and Stake.com working together couldn’t have happened at a better time. The streaming age was in full gear, and communities like Stake.com Telegram and Discord were highly sought after by online gamers and punters alike. The Drake-Stake relationship took center stage with what came to be known as Drake vs. Stake. In these sessions, the rapper and business mogul streamed live on Kick, where millions of his fans and Stake.com customers joined in.

He would then play his favorite roulette and slot games, wagering hundreds of thousands (and in some cases millions) of dollars. Huge payouts on good days and magnanimous losses on the bad ones became a norm. The numbers were staggering, leading people to wonder how much does Stake.com pay Drake? As we’ll see a little later, it was life-changing sums. Being the showbiz man he is, the “6 God” made each stream a must-watch. He was often joined by other celebs like Lil Baby, French Montana, streamer Adin Ross, rapper Sexy Red, and others.

Together, they would do the Drake Stake giveaway on Stake.com Discord that awarded fans in the stream crypto packages of between $20,000 and up to $75,000 to use when playing on the Stake.com website. Although official numbers are not available, you can guess with some certainty that Stake.com’s user base grew each time these streams were live.

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Addressing the elephant in the room: does Drake own Stake.com?

Before Drake and Stake.com officially announced their partnership, people didn’t read much into his bet slip screenshots. For the most part, he was just a rich guy who loved betting and had the money to do it big. However, that changed with the official announcement. Players paid more attention to the bet amounts the rapper was making, how aggressively he promoted the brand on his social media, and the amounts he won while playing live. The internet started asking, “Is Drake the owner of Stake.com?”

No official documentation exists to show that he is. Like we wrote in our Stake.com review, the platform was launched by Ed Craven (an Australian) and his co-founder Bijan Tehrani (an American). Even after the Drake-Stake collaboration announcement, the Curacao-registered casino and sportsbook did not amend its ownership structure. What we know is that Drake inked a $100 million a year deal to promote the brand. And promote it he did, to the extent that he was thought of as the owner.

Drake’s bets that broke the internet and gave rise to the “Drake curse”

Everything Aubrey Graham does, he does it big. From taking the world of hip-hop by storm to turning the gambling industry upside down with Drake-Stake bets, you can’t shrink the man. Drake has shown time and again that he is not afraid to throw his money behind a team or player he trusts. In 2022, he bet $2.2 million on Molly MacCann to defeat her opponent, Hannah Goldy. In the same parlay bet, he also predicted a win for Paddy Pimblett in his contest against Jordan Leavitt. Both fighters won their UFC matches, and Drake won $3.7 million.

He also bet $1.1 million on an NFL game in 2023, predicting the Chiefs to defeat the Bengals in the AFC. He was right and turned his original wager into a $2 million payout. Super Bowl LVII was too hard to resist, and he ended up wagering $700,000 on the Kansas City Chiefs to bag the day, which they did. These are just some of the ridiculous bet amounts that the rapper placed and won on Stake.com. Mind you, there was no mention of any Stake.com VIP calculator in his bets.

But it’s not all rosy when it comes to Drake’s bets and his preferences. The OVO founder is also notorious for losing big, birthing the myth of the Drake Curse. You’ve probably heard of this, but if you haven’t, here’s the gist. Netizens noticed a pattern whereby the rapper would predict a high-profile match but often lose his highly publicized bet. It happened so frequently that it became a superstition that if Drake bet on you to win, you would lose.

Check out the following table for some of the unfortunate outcomes of some of Drake’s bets.

Still, players can join Stake.com using our bonus code and play or place bets like Drake. If you’re in a restricted region, just know that using a VPN for Stake.com may give you access to the site’s features, but we strongly advise against this. This would cause you more problems than accessibility down the line.

Inside the fallout: what happened to the Drake-Stake partnership

After nearly four years of collaboration where Drake promoted Stake.com through live streams, social media posts, and on his bio, things came to a head. While on a live stream with Adin Ross, the artist called out Ed Craven, accusing him of not appreciating talent and dissing his OVO crew. Shortly after, he proceeded to delete his Kick account.

Later, Drake, who had been known for his exclusive giveaways with no Stake.com bonus drop code needed, posted screenshots online of denied withdrawals from his Stake.com account and termed it a personal vendetta. Stake Casino, on their part, never responded to the claims. They also kept silent when rumors of a Drake-Stake DEA investigation surfaced. It later turned out these were unfounded.

While the fate of the partnership is unknown, you can still see Drake’s face and his exclusive roulette and sports category still displayed on the Stake.com website when you visit.

Pros and cons of the Drake-Stake collab

Regardless of whether it is viewed as a success or not, the partnership between Drake and Stake Casino had its upsides and fair share of scrutiny.

Pros and cons

• Exposure of Stake.com to millions of Drake and hip-hop fans
• Huge giveaways to fans during the live streams
• Enhanced credibility for Stake.com
• Stake built an engaged community on Kick

• Drake’s huge wagers led to questions about responsible gambling

Drake x Stake.com partnership is still live

Despite a highly publicized fallout, the Drake x Stake.com partnership is still live; you can access the Stake.com ambassador pages to see it ongoing. It is one of the most successful partnerships we have seen, and it's plenty beneficial for both parties. On one hand, Drake is paid well for what he brings to the brand, while Stake.com appealed to a more global fanbase and gained credibility.

Now, more fans want to play on the crypto casino, and they can do so without needing a VPN for Stake. Click on our banners to register for an account and use code to claim a 200% welcome offer of up to $2,000 to play some of Drake’s favorite roulette games starting now!

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