Online Hockey Betting
Hockey is definitely one of the most popular sports when it comes to online betting, which means that fans from all over the world have plenty of wagering options to choose from. The competitions covered by most of the major sportsbooks range from NHL to various regional leagues, which include German DEL, French Ligue Magnus and Russian VHL, just to name a few. Consequently, whether you go exclusively for the big events or choose to focus on local contests instead, you’ll be able to compare the odds offered by various hockey-friendly sites and go for the most lucrative offers. However, becoming a successful punter and turning profit requires you to understand how all the available bet types work.
Best Sites to Bet on Hockey Online
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Ways to Bet on Hockey Online
Betting on hockey isn’t all that different from wagering on soccer or other popular team sports, which means that hockey bettors have access to the same basic bet types, such as money lines, over/under bets or point spreads. Puck line bets are about the only popular wager type which is exclusive to hockey, so making the transition from other disciplines feels natural and won’t require you to chew through a lot of additional information. In fact, even if you’re new to the world of online betting, understanding the basics shouldn’t be all that hard. The more advanced bets that require you to predict the outcome of more than one event are generally recommended for seasoned handicappers and require you to assume a high-risk, high-reward approach, but don’t worry – once you get some experience you should be able to tackle even the most complicated parlays.
Money Line Betting
Money lines require you to make the right prediction as to which team will win the game outright. The line for the favorite is indicated using a minus sign, while the line for the underdog has a plus sign. Each money line uses $100 for the purpose of calculating the eventual payout. Negative lines require you to wager the listed amount to win $100, while positive lines require you to risk $100 to list the amount determined by the bookmaker. Please note that on rare occasions when the teams are evenly matches, the game might feature the same juice on both sides, which is usually set at -110.
Puck Line Betting
Puck line betting is almost as popular as wagering on the money line, which is largely due to the fact that playing the puck line allows you to get the better prices on the favorites in every single game. As usual, there’s a catch here, as each match has a set point spread of -1.5 on the favorite and +1.5 on the underdog. This means that winning a bet placed on the favorite requires the team to win by at least two points. Conversely, a wager placed on the underdog will be successful even if the team you picked loses by one point.
Point Spread Betting
Many sites offer rather exotic point spreads, such as 2.5 and 3.5 in addition to the traditional puck line. This type of bets often results in generous payouts for bettors who bet on the favorites due to the low-scoring nature of hockey; conversely, people who like to wager on the underdogs will have to deal with considerably higher juice when placing bets of this kind.
Over/Under Betting
Over/under bets require the punters to predict whether the amount of goals scored between both teams will be higher or lower than the total set by the site. Consequently, over/under bets are often referred to as totals. Most games have the total set at 5.5, which means that betting the over requires the number of points scored by both teams to be 6 or higher in order for the bet to succeed. Conversely, betting the under in such a case would result in a payout only if the total score was equal to 5 or lower.
Parlay Betting
A parlay is a bet that combines two or more selections – and all of those selections must win in order for the entire wager to result in a payout. As you’d expect, the more events you add, the harder it is to pull off a successful parlay. On the other hand, the multi-team parlays offer the highest return on your investment, which means that each bettor has to balance the risk involved with the potential reward. Please note that while many punters like to parlay their money line bets with an over/under bet placed on the same game, combining a puck line and an over/under bet in the same manner generally isn’t allowed.
Proposition Betting
Proposition bets are often informally referred to as prop bets and allow you to wager on other elements of the game, which often aren’t related to the score or winner of the match. For example, proposition wagers may involve betting on the first team to score, first player to score or even placing an over/under wager on team shot totals.
First Period Betting
First period betting isn’t as popular as the bet types listed above, but some hockey-friendly sites allow the punters to place bets that focus strictly on the first twenty minutes of the match. Those wagers are usually available either a money line or in the form of a 0.5 point spread. Furthermore, there are a few sports betting sites that offer second and third period betting, which generally tends to follow the same rules.