How to Bet on Hockey: A Complete Guide

The extraordinary emergence of the Vegas Golden Knights, as well as the expanding interest in sports gambling as more countries legalize betting, have been important drivers in the explosive expansion of NHL betting in recent years.

However, betting on hockey remains difficult for a variety of reasons.

To begin with hockey betting tips, despite recent rise in hockey betting, betting on major sports in general remains quite low for this sport.

Aside from your die-hard hockey wise guys, there aren’t many casual bettors that want to go down on hockey.

Football is and will remain the king. Basketball is ranked second. Baseball is well behind in third place. There’s also ice hockey.

To put this gap into context, a blockbuster Monday Night Football game may receive over 100,000 total wagers, yet a regular-season hockey game may receive as little as 5,000.

Betting on hockey has minimal value as a contrarian approach

Why? because there isn’t enough public opposition. So, right away, you are foregoing a critical edge that exists in other popular sports but not in ice hockey.

Similarly, because NHL games are low-bet and the handle is much smaller, positioning yourself on the house’s side is less important.

As a result, unlike a football or basketball game, a hockey game is far less risky for bookmakers.

We can, however, still make money by betting on hockey. Simply exercise self-control and choose your locations. Here are a few pointers.

Hockey betting is possible

It is more important to anticipate who will win the game than which team will cover the spread (the puck-line in hockey).

The favorite has lost 1.5 points, while the underdog has gained 1.5. However, it is not as popular as moneyline betting.

You can also place bets on totals. A normal total in hockey is 5.5 or 6. Because scoring has lately increased, there are more 6.5 totals than ever before.

Hockey is a “Favorite” sport

Baseball is the only other major sport with a large moneyline, aside from hockey.

The nicest aspect about betting on underdogs in baseball is that you only need to win approximately 45% of the time to break even (with spread sports like football and basketball, you need to win 52.38% of the time to break even, assuming regular -110 juice).

Instead, look for underdogs with plus-money payouts, such as +120, +150, or +170.

Unfortunately, hockey and baseball cannot be compared because dog barking is not as loud. According to Bet Labs Sports, baseball dogs have won 42.5% of their games since 2005.

Dogs won 41.2% of their hockey matches during the same time span. Even if it might not appear to be much, a 1.3% difference over the course of a season adds up to a substantial difference.

Since 2005, NHL Favorites have been 9,884-6,917 (58.8%), but if you must lay the underdog, your loss is -240.82 units.

This means that a $100 bet placed once would result in a loss of $24,082. Dogs, on the other hand, are significantly worse (-449.79 units).

Hockey does not place a high priority on having home-ice advantage

Since 2005, the victory percentages for home and away teams in the top sports are listed below.

• The home-road ratio for NBA teams is 59.3%.
• NFL road teams have 43%, while home teams have 57%.
• NHL away teams 45.1%, home teams 54.9%
• MLB away clubs are 46.1%, while home teams are 53.9%.

As you can see, home court/home field advantage is important in basketball and football but has a far lower impact in baseball and hockey.

Road hockey teams have lost -221.96 units since 2005, while home teams have lost -465.93 units.

Again, both situations result in defeat, but the road team’s defeat is decreased by more than half when compared to the home team’s defeat.

Why is home team advantage one of the worst in hockey?

One aspect could be the stadium building. In contrast to other sports in which the crowd is virtually on top of you and nothing separates the players from the fans, hockey has high plexiglass ringing the perimeter of the rink, isolating the players from the spectators.

This eliminates noise and distractions, allowing players to focus on the current game. As a result, the playing field is levelled, and the advantage of the home team is minimized.

Concentrate on your favorite rest stations

When you mix favorites and away teams, you might receive a clear advantage in Hockey predictions. Road favorites have won plus 14.19 units while going 2,586-1,935 (57.2%) since 2005.

This strategy isn’t going to change the world, but it’s the only one in a major sport where betting on road favorites blindly has paid off on the moneyline.

Every night, hockey is a physically hard sport that is played. As a result, gamers must sleep more.

It revitalizes their tired legs and provides a major advantage (plus coaching staffs have more time to break down film and game-plan against their opponent).

It’s critical to back road favorites who have had three or four days off since their last game and are rested. Since 2005, these teams have gone 655-417 (61.1%), won plus 75.36 units, and returned 7% of their investment (ROI).

A $100 wager on each one would have yielded $7,536 throughout this time period. When the rested road favorite plays a team that missed the playoffs the previous year, this system improves to 64% with plus 86.9 units (11.3% ROI).

Buy Short Road Dogs Now While Prices Are Low

Just because hockey is a popular activity does not exclude dogs from having value. Short road dogs (plus 130 or less) coming off a win are an excellent area to gamble on underdogs.

These teams have gone 474-467 (50.4%) since 2005, winning plus 89.36 units and creating a 9.5% ROI.

In a coin-flip game, getting the plus money is more valuable because the books say the teams are evenly matched with a short line + 130 or less. You also take into account the road team advantage.

Dogs are a good team to back because they are on a roll following a win and are feeling good about themselves.