Jay-Z Loses $1 Million NBA Finals Bet After Oklahoma City Thunder Loss

Jay-Z might have made a lot of sound business decisions over the years, but he's just lost some big money on the NBA Finals.

Reports emerged last week that the rapper and businessman placed a $1 million bet on the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the Finals in five games against the Indiana Pacers with +230 odds.

According to Yahoo Sports’ Ben Fawkes, Hov officially lost that wager. He would have made $3.3 million if he had won.

It took three games for Jay to lose. On Wednesday night (June 11), the Pacers beat the Thunder 116-107 in Game 3, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. He placed the bet with Fanatics Sportsbook, which became precarious after the Indiana team won Game 1 after Tyrese Haliburton’s game-winning shot.

OKC would have had to win four games in a row for Jay to win the $3.3 million. While it was a big bet, losing a million dollars is essentially inconsequential for Jay; the 55-year-old is worth $2.5 billion as of 2023, per Forbes.

Historically, teams that win Game 1 have an advantage: they go on to win the entire series about 70.5 percent of the time, per Sports Illustrated. Now that the Pacers are in the lead, OKC needs to win three of the next four games to clinch the championship.

Since Indiana beat the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, Haliburton has earned a new nickname: the Haliban. The sobriquet is a fusion of his name and the Islamic fundamentalist group the Taliban, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the US and several other countries. Of course, the moniker has been memeified.