As popular as hockey is, it is still considered a niche sport in the online gambling community. That means it hasn’t got the same draw as other sports betting options. You may find this a little hard to believe when you consider the speed of the game and the length of a normal ice hockey season. However, gamblers do place several bets annually on ice hockey, and in this article, we will look closer at how to bet on this sport.
A Few Facts
Hockey is an international sport. It is so popular that many different leagues exist in North America and Europe offering games at several different levels of play. It is common for professional hockey players to have been on ice for most of their lives starting when they were old enough to walk and have skates strapped onto their feet. The most popular hockey league in the world is the National Hockey League (NHL). The NHL was founded in 1917, consists of 32 teams (25 in the United States, 7 in Canada), and awards annually the world’s oldest professional sports trophy – the Stanley Cup. The average NHL hockey season starts in September with a preseason, launches a regular season of 82 games in October, and a postseason (playoffs) in April. The final Stanley Cup game is often played in June.
The Most Popular Ways To Bet On Hockey Online
Surprisingly, even though this sport is not as popular with gamblers as football or baseball, there are many different ways to bet on ice hockey. Here is a review of some of the most common bets.
League/Tournament Outright
Betting on a team to win a specific game is considered an outright bet. During the average hockey season, there are seven outright betting opportunities to wager on. For example, if a bettor follows one particular team, that team will play 82 regular-season games. If that team advances to the postseason, there will be several playoff games.
Match Result – Regulation Play
This is a bet on which team will win the game at the end of three regulation 20-minute periods. If the game ends in a tie, the gambler loses the bet, just as if the team selected to win gets beaten at the end of regular time. Tie games go into overtime and if the selected team wins in overtime, the bet is still lost as the wager was for a win at the end of regulation time.
Match Result – Overtime Games
This is the bet where a gambler selects the winning team at the end of the game, including overtime. The bet here is to predict which team will finish the entire game with the best score.
Puck Line Handicap
Something called the “ice hockey betting puck line” is unique to ice hockey but is a variation on what bettors will recognize as traditional spread betting. In spread betting, a point spread is established by bookmakers to determine a favorite and an underdog. Favorites and underdogs are common in sports betting. A puck line of 1.5 gives the underdog a +1.5 puck line handicap. A gambler betting on the underdog wins the bet if the underdog loses the game by two or more goals. The favorite gets a puck line handicap of -1.5 and must win the game by at least two goals for the bet to win.
Goal Totals – Over/Under
This is a bet where a gambler decides on how many goals they think will be scored in the game, at least, or at most. For example, if the bettor thinks the teams will finish the game with a 3-2 score, a total of 5 goals would be scored. If the bettor feels no more than five goals will be scored, the bet would be -5.5 and if the bettor expects six or more goals, the bet would be +5.5.
Correct Score
Scoreline betting is a bit tougher than most ice hockey wagers. There are three ways to bet on scorelines. For example, if the bettor believes one team will win the game by a score of 3-1, that is the exact scoreline the wager goes on. If the bettor feels the game end at a 2-2 tie after regulation play, that is the scoreline the wager goes on. Finally, if the bettor feels the game will end with a score of 3-2 in overtime, that is the scoreline the bet goes on.
League Betting
There are a total of 74 member leagues in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and this includes both amateur and professional leagues. Aside from the NHL, many popular leagues offer bettors many different gambling opportunities. Top leagues include the American Hockey League (AHL), Swedish Hockey League (SHL), and Continental Hockey League (KHL). Other ice hockey bets can go to NCAA Ice Hockey Championships, the World Championships, and Winter Olympics hockey games.
A Bit About Betting On Hockey Odds
The odds put in place by bookmakers can be a valuable tool for bettors. This means the odds indicate the probability of a given team beating another team in a selected match. For example, if a team has odds of 2.50 in winning a game, you need to do some math. The formula to use is Implied probability = 1/decimal odds. So, for odds of 2.5, the formula results would be 1/2.5 = 0.400 or 40%. This means the team with the 2.5 odds has only a 40% chance of beating the opposing team in the selected game. This information will help you to make wise betting choices and assist with long-term wagering.
Final Thoughts
As exciting a game as ice hockey is, it should be no surprise that the betting options are as exciting. The oddest thing about ice hockey betting online is that it doesn’t appear nearly as popular as other professional sports. While the reasons for that are unknown, it is good to know that bookmakers see ice hockey as a potential gambling opportunity for bettors of all skill levels and that fans of the game can participate in some extra betting activity without having to rely on a lot of strategies.
