NHL Betting

The National Hockey League (NHL) is a favorite pastime in North America – more so in Canada. A great sport that keeps getting bigger in popularity, especially in betting, hence the NHL betting guide to help all players make their bets; yet, with beginner bettors in mind.

Considering the sport in mainly watched and bet on by Americans and Canadians, we will keep the examples with American and Decimal odds.

Hockey Odds

American and Decimal odds are just a way of displaying the odds for the game. American odds for instance are mainly used in the United States, and somewhat in Canada, where numbers are shown as such: -200 or +200.

What this is telling you is that at -200 players need to bet $200 to win $100, as this is the favorite. The underdog will be +200 where players simply need to bet $100 to win $200.

As for Decimal odds, the most popular display format around, and mainly used in Europe and partly by Canadians too, is seen as such: 1.5

What you do here is subtract the number by 1, and multiply it by the amount you are betting. The 1.5 would then be: (1.5 – 1)* $200 = $100

Quite simple for both of them, and now that you have a better understanding on how the odds work, let’s continue with the betting types now.

(Find a more in-depth odds guide on our Betting Odds Explained page)

Hockey Betting Explained

There are 3 main betting types: Moneyline, point spread, and the totals.

With the moneyline, the bettor simply has to bet on who he/she thinks the winner will be. Both teams will have their odds on the side as mentioned above, and all you have to do is choose your team to bet on – simple.

The Point Spread (Canadian Line, or Puck Line) is a bit more tricky, as it requires more accuracy. You will still have the odds from above inside a parenthesis, however, there will be another number next to it first, with is the points by which each team needs to win or lose by for the bet to win. For instance, lets use the Penguins vs. the Blackhawks

Penguins +1 ½ (-200)
Blackhawks -1 ½ (+200)

Basically, the Penguins need to win by more than 1 goal in order for your bet to win you money. If you bet on the Blackhawks though, you only need them to win or lose by not more than 1 goal. The ½ is usually added in order to avoid a push, and the odds are there to show you how much you need to bet.

The Totals (over-under) are the combined scores of both teams… and the bet is usually of whether the combined scores will go over or under the sportsbooks estimation.

Over 5.5 goals (+120)
Under 5.5 goals (-130)

Basically, if you bet on over, you need the final score of both teams combined to be more than 5.5, and vice versa for the under.

Other NHL Betting Considerations

As mentioned in the beginning, this is a beginners betting guide to NHL. These are quite simple really, and good enough to start, in which you will later be able to expand into parlays, future bets, prop bets, and so forwards…

Apart from the above though, you might want to keep a good knowledge of the NHL teams and games so far to get an advantage on your Sports Betting Picks.

For instance, a hot goalie even in a bad team means great winning odds for that team. Also, if they have had back-to-back games, or have had to travel long ways for a game, they might be somewhat tired compared to their opponents, and be a point against them. Injuries, replacements, and even jersey colors affect the players and teams too… so keep on eye on all these and you will be set to make some solid bets on NHL.