Online Hockey Betting

1. See full list on onlinebetting.com.
2. The first thing you need to do to get started betting on hockey is the most obvious: learn hockey! Understand the game, the teams, the rules, the odds, the types of bets, etc. The next step is to choose an online sportsbook which we’ve already covered. Next, you will pick your teams and choose how much you want to wager on the games.
3. Have you considered betting on ice hockey online? It couldn’t be any easier than it is today to get started. The first step is to join one of the best hockey betting sites. Finding an ice hockey betting site on your own can be challenging.

Ice Hockey, while not being as popular as American football or basketball, is still one of the United States’ major sports. Just like other sports, it forms a pretty significant part of any US sportsbook’s betting markets, and US players love to have a punt on their favourite hockey teams.

If you don’t know how, or do but are only just getting started in the world of ice hockey betting, our guide can quickly get you up to speed on the ins and outs of ice hockey betting.

View hockey odds and bet online legally, securely, and easily on NHL games and more. Best NHL Betting Sites Online: Where to Bet on Hockey The National Hockey League provides bettors around the world with ample opportunities to make picks. With 31 teams based in North America, and each playing an 82-game regular season, not to mention 16 squads qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs, NHL betting can be fun and rewarding.

What Competitions Can I Bet On?

The NHL (National Hockey League) will be most Americans’ first port of call when it comes to betting on ice hockey. However, the Ice Hockey World Championships are certainly events which may be worth a punt, too. Let’s look at both of those a little closer.

• National Hockey League (NHL): Like most American sports, the NHL is divided up into a season and the Playoffs. Running from October to April, there are 31 teams, divided up into two conferences. The Western Conference contains 8 Pacific Division teams, and 7 Central Division teams. The Eastern Conference hosts 8 Atlantic Division and Metropolitan Division Teams. Each team plays 82 games, with the top three teams in each division plus a wildcard from each division advancing to the Playoffs.
• All-Star Game: Between the regular season and the Playoffs, an All-Star game takes place, featuring NHL’s top players in each conference.
• The Playoffs: The team with the best conference record will play the lowest ranking wild card member in their conference. The better ranking wild card will play the division winner with the second-best conference record, while second and third-placed teams play each other. Winners then play each other in the Second Round of Playoffs. Eventually, just two teams are left who compete in the Conference Finals to determine the winners of each conference.
• Stanley Cup: The winners of both the Western and Eastern Conferences square off in the Stanley Cup Final, with the team with the best regular-season record getting the home advantage.
• Ice Hockey World Championships (IHWC): Run by the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) this is the main event for International ice hockey. Held every year, the competition follows a Group Stage and Round Robin format, although lowest finishing teams can be relegated to Divisions 1 and 2.

Types of Ice Hockey Bets

Betting on ice hockey really isn’t that different to betting on football. In Europe, you will use the same kinds of bets you will find in football games. However, American players will prefer to use their standard American-style bets for hockey games. These include:

Online Hockey Betting

• Money Line: A one-off bet whereby the punter is wagering money on which team will win the match.
• Handicaps: If there is a definite favourite and an underdog, a handicap bet may be offered. By offering a handicap based on the number of goals in the winning margin, this evens things out. A handicap bet must see a team win by at least the number of goals listed as the handicap total.
• Totals: There are plenty of bets you can make with totals. The number of goals scored is the most popular total bet, although players can effectively bet on anything that features a total number with these types of bets. Keep in mind that Overtime (used to determine the winner in the event of a tie) may or may not be a part of total bets. You need to check this before you wager.

Doing Your Homework

Like any sports betting market, there are betting strategies which players can implement for their ice hockey bets. These vary significantly from country to country, competition to competition and bet to bet. You need to ensure that you fully understand hockey statistics before you decide to wager using a hockey betting strategy, since the approach you have chosen may not actually be ideal for the type of bet you are planning on making. Of course, there are other things to consider, too.

Other Things to Consider

Hockey games are unaffected by the weather, which means that this variable, which affects so many sports, is not going to ruin your game. However, other variables may do. It is worth checking out some of those, so you can better understand how your bet may go wrong before you place it.

• Home Advantage: Playing at home is a massive advantage in hockey, just like it is in most other sports. The bookies will almost certainly have factored this into their bets, but if you do your stat checking and see that an away team has a particularly good record when away at a specific team’s stadium, it may be worth checking out.
• Injuries and Form: Like other sports stars, hockey players are prone to injuries, and their form may fluctuate depending on the game. If a team can no longer reach the playoffs, for instance, they have a lot less to play for than a team who may still make it. That is worth factoring into the equation.
• The Goalie: The goaltender is a vital part of a team’s defence. Goalies with a poor record need to be looked at, as do other elements such as solid defensive pairings, or a handy offensive setup. There are stats aplenty to help you gauge what kind of track record the starting team has when playing with each other on a regular basis. Certain players work and perform better with others, and that’s just a fact of life. It is handy if you know what the perfect line-up is.

Where Can I Bet on Ice Hockey?

Everywhere. Even though ice hockey may not hit the heights of American football or basketball in the eyes of the American public, it is still a significant sport with millions of viewers.

Every major sportsbook offering their services to players in the USA will provide at least NHL betting, if not ice hockey betting on other major competitions and tournaments, too, such as the Swedish Hockey League, American Hockey League, and the Kontinental Hockey League, for instance.

Hockey is one of the fastest and most exciting sports in the world, and betting it can be equally exciting. While handicapping and picking winners is usually the focal point, there are a wide variety of different ways to wager on hockey. Here are some descriptions of the various types of hockey bets.

Money Line – Money lines are simply betting on which team will win the game outright, and is the most straightforward and popular type of hockey bet. Games featuring two teams with the same juice on both sides such as -110 each (bet $110 to win $100) are extremely rare, as there is almost always at least a slight favorite. Home ice advantage often plays a big role in how the lines are set. Top teams at home against lower-level teams can be huge favorites (up into the -300 range, bet $300 to win $100). This in turn leads to big prices on underdogs (in the +250 range, bet $100 to win $250).

Over/Under – Bookmakers set a total for each game and bettors wager on whether the total amount of goals scored between the two teams will go over or under that set total, that is how over/unders work. The total is almost always set in the 5.0 to 6.0 range, with the majority of games set at 5.5. 5.0 is a key number because since the shootout was instituted, there are no longer ties in hockey, and the shootout winner is awarded a goal. Therefore, every game that goes to overtime 2-2 will result in a 3-2 final score, or a push at Over/Under 5.0. Bettors generally have to pay extra juice when betting the OVER 5.0 or UNDER 5.5.

Puck Line – As opposed to betting games on the moneyline, bettors can opt to play the puck line, in which each game has a set point spread of -1.5 on the favorite and +1.5 on the underdog. Wagering the puck line favorite at -1.5 offers a much more attractive price than the money line does, while betting the underdog +1.5 adds some security for more juice. One huge advantage for underdog puckline bettors is overtime, where +1.5 is always a winner unlike in other major sports. On the other hand, teams’ tendencies to pull their goalie when down one goal late in the game often results in empty net goals, which heavily favor puck line bettors on the favorite.

Online Hockey Betting Lines

Point Spread – Many books offer more exotic point spreads such as 2.5 or 3.5 in addition to the standard puck line of -1.5/+1.5. Due to the low-scoring nature of hockey, larger point spreads result in very lucrative payouts for favorite bettors and high juice for underdog backers taking the multiple goals. Another form of point spread betting is the “alternative puckline”, where the underdog and favorite are switched and the odds are adjusted accordingly.

Regulation Time – Another alternative to money line or puck line betting is regulation time betting, where a bettor bets the favorite at -0.5 or the underdog at +0.5. Favorite bettors get a better price on their side by betting on them to win in regulation, while underdog bettors pay a bit more juice and win if their side wins OR the game goes to overtime.

Parlay – A hockey parlay is a bet in which two or more hockey sides are selected, and all must win for the parlay to pay off. The more events that are chosen, the more the hockey parlay bet pays if it is successful. In games with two bad goaltenders/defenses, many bettors like to parlay their moneyline side with the OVER, while games expected to be defensive struggles can be parlayed with the UNDER. While it is legal to parlay a money line and the Over/Under in the same game, bettors cannot parlay the puck line with the Over/Under.

Proposition – Also known as “prop” bets, propositions include placing bets on various elements of the game including player and team statistics. Some examples of hockey prop bets include betting on which team will score first or last, or an Over/Under on team shot totals.

Grand Salami – Before any of the day’s games start, a grand salami hockey bet is available at many sportsbooks, in which all of the day’s Over/Under totals are added together and bettors can bet on whether the combined goals scored over the entire day will be over or under the posted total.

First Period – As the name indicates, first period wagering is betting strictly on the first period (20 minutes) of play. These wagers are either offered in moneyline form (with a tied period resulting in a push) or with a -0.5/+0.5 point spread. Some sportsbooks also offer second and third period betting, which follow the same rules.