McDonald’s out millions in free french fries thanks to Raptors’ run

McDonald’s made a promotional deal with the Toronto Raptors that worked out better — or perhaps worse — than they could have ever anticipated.

Last offseason, McDonald’s made a deal with the Raptors in which they would give away free french fries in Ontario whenever the team made at least 12 three-point shots in a game. 18 days later, the team traded DeMar DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard, and the company had to be reassured by the Raptors that the deal wouldn’t hurt the promotion.

McDonald’s initially estimated that they would ultimately have to give away roughly 700,000 orders of free fries, but the number ended up being closer to two million, corresponding to about $5.8 million in free fries. The Raptors have hit at least 12 threes in 44 regular season games and ten playoff games.

“Do we want to stop now?” McDonald’s franchisee Mike Forman said, via Jake Edmiston of the Financial Post. “No, we don’t want to stop now. This is good.”

Forman added that the hope is that the promotion will draw more repeat customers, who must download the restaurant’s app in order to redeem the offer.

This will likely be revisited ahead of next season, but for now, McDonald’s and the Raptors can enjoy the ride. They should probably blame Fred VanVleet, or at least his baby, for the uptick recently, though.