Drake posted a $1 million betting slip on Instagram on July 10, putting Conor McGregor on the line for UFC 329 in Las Vegas. The wager pointed to a Saturday night, July 11 fight against Max Holloway and put a celebrity betting move in front of a seven-figure crowd size of its own.
The slip showed a $1 million stake on Stake and a projected $1.85 million return, for $2.85 million back if McGregor won. FanDuel listed McGregor at +180, so Drake backed the underdog anyway.
McGregor and Drake
McGregor and Drake have known each other for a decade, and their history gives this bet more weight than a random post. McGregor said they connected in 2016 and met at one of Drake's Summer Sixteen Tour stops later that year, then added Drake to the weigh-in stage for UFC 229 in October 2018. That kind of repeat public link turns a betting slip into an extension of a long-running alliance.
McGregor also described the connection this way in an interview with UFC’s Meghan Olivi: “I’m a big fan of Drake. I had a meeting with Jimmy Iovine of Apple and he invited me to the show” and “I’d spoke to Drake before the first Diaz fight – he reached out and messaged me – and we’ve been in contact since then.”
Stake and July 10
Earlier in July, Drake posted a clip of himself hitting a $30 million jackpot while playing in the Stake casino. That put the July 10 McGregor wager into a broader run of public gambling posts, with the new slip reading less like a private bet and more like a public endorsement placed before the result was known.
Drake also has fresh chart momentum behind him. In May, he released ICEMAN, HABIBTI and MAID OF HONOUR in May, those projects debuted in the top three slots of the Billboard 200, and ICEMAN's “Janice STFU” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The betting post landed while his name was already moving through both music and gambling metrics.
Las Vegas and UFC 329
UFC 329 was scheduled for Saturday night, July 11, in Las Vegas, with McGregor set against Max Holloway. Drake's seven-figure slip made the matchup part sports book, part celebrity signal: a public $1 million position on an underdog at +180, posted one day before the fight.
The wager's scale is what separates it from a casual pick. If McGregor won, the payout would have turned Drake's $1 million into $2.85 million, and the public post would have paid off as both a betting hit and a loud piece of pre-fight support. The only question left after the post was simple: whether the ticket would cash when UFC 329 ended.
