How to Bet Hockey
It seems like an eternity ago when the Florida Panthers dispatched the Edmonton Oilers to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history but in reality, it was about three months ago. Now, we sit less than two weeks from the start of the regular season as the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres open the regular season with a pair of games in Prague, Czechia October 4 and 5. The regular season gets underway in earnest on October 8 in North America. With the return of hockey season comes the typical questions and concerns about how you should bet on hockey. Well, we’ve got you covered with all the information you need before the regular season gets underway. Let’s take a look at the most popular ways that you can bet on hockey.
Moneyline Bets
This is pretty normal as it’s just like you would wager in any other sport. Let’s say you’re looking at wagering on the season-opening game between the Devils and Sabres on October 4. Current odds have the Devils going as a -155 favorite, meaning you would have to bet $155 to win $100 if New Jersey prevailed. Meanwhile, the Sabres are +130 to +140 underdogs in the contest. If you were to back Buffalo and they pulled out the victory, you would win $130 to $140 on top of your original $100 stake in the contest. If you’ve placed a moneyline bet in any other sport, you know how these work.
Puck Line Bets
The puck line is similar to the run line in baseball or making a point spread bet in basketball or football. You’re banking on a team to cover the line, which in most games, is +/- 1.5 though that can shift depending on the talent disparity of the two teams squaring off. Using the previously mentioned New Jersey/Buffalo contest as an example, if you were to place a puck line bet on the Devils -1.5, you’re banking on the Devils to win by at least two goals. If you bet on the Devils -1.5 at +155 and they win 5-3, your bet wins, giving you a $255 return ($155 from the odds plus your $100 stake) on the bet. Conversely, if you were to bet on the Sabres +1.5 at -170 odds, you would be laying $170 to win $100 and hoping that Buffalo either wins outright or at least stays within one goal. If the Sabres were to fall 6-5 or something like that, you would walk away a winner.
Over/Under
This is the same as with any other sport where you’re banking on the teams to either score more or fewer goals than the total set by the books. Sticking with the game we’ve discussed, the over/under for the game is set at 6.5 goals. If you think that offense is the name of the game for this contest and you bet the over, you’re banking on the teams combining to score at least seven goals. Should you bet the under, you want the teams to combine for six goals or less in the contest. You’ll normally find the sides on this in the -105 to -115 range unless you’re running across a pair of teams that can’t score or high-octane/defensively deficient teams, in which case you’ll see shifts accordingly.
60-Minute Line
Normally, when you place a bet on a side, that bet isn’t decided until the game is decided, be it in overtime or a shootout. However, you can sometimes find more favorable lines on a team winning in regulation. Let’s say that the Bruins and Canadiens are squaring off at the Bell Centre. Boston may be going off as -145 favorite on the moneyline in the game but if you’re confident that the Bruins will get things done in regulation, you might be able to get them on the 60-minute (also known as the three-way) line at -115 or -120. One thing that you have to take into consideration is that overtime and shootouts don’t factor in here, so if Boston and Montreal were tied at the end of regulation, your bet would be a loser.
Player Props
You’ve seen these before in other sports and things aren’t any different here. You can bet on players to score goals, going over/under on assists, points, shots on goal, blocked shots and even saves for goaltenders.
Team Props
This one is pretty self-explanatory as well. You can place wagers on how many goals a team will score in a game. That takes the worry about whether a specific matchup winds up over the total because it removes the other team from the equation. Rather than betting the total of 6.5 goals for a game, you can bet the over/under for a team at 3.5 goals for example. That way, if you were to bet Boston over 3.5 goals in that game against Montreal and they win 4-2, you would be a winner.
This covers the major bets that you would make for any individual contest. Of course, you can place future bets for division winners, conference winners, the Stanley Cup winner, award winners, and, for those who are a bit morbid, betting on the first coach to get fired. With the regular season less than two weeks away, you’re prepared for the season now that you’ve got the inside scoop on how to bet the sport.
