NHL Betting Guide

If you’re new to hockey betting, BonusFinder US has got you covered.

How to Bet on the NHL

The National Hockey League is the 4th-most followed team sport in the U.S., and is very popular among hockey fans outside North America as well.

The NHL has 32 teams split across four divisions, 82 regular season games per team that run from October until April, and lots of exciting events including the 16-team playoffs at the end of each season.

For online bettors, ice hockey provides a unique opportunity to place bets on an extremely fast-paced game where the odds change rapidly and few teams find success with top-tier individual talent only.

You can bet on virtually any event within a game, before or during, and every NHL game day has a few surprises. To start betting on hockey, follow these steps:

1. Select an online sportsbook from BonusFinder US
2. Claim a welcome bonus from your chosen sportsbook by clicking on our links and completing registration for a new account
3. Make a deposit to get the bonus funds placed on your account
4. Navigate to the NHL betting markets
5. Choose the hockey game you’d like to bet on
6. Pick your bets from the selection; if you are a serious bettor, compare hockey odds from different online sportsbooks for your chose bets
7. Place the bets you want to make on your bet slip, choose the bet amount, and submit your bet slip
8. Wait to see if your bets win!

Difference Between Puck Line and Moneyline

While there are all sorts of bets available for all NHL games, puck line and moneyline are the most popular by far. Below we explain the difference between puck line and moneyline, so you can choose which one is the best for your betting style.

Moneyline Bets

Moneyline is the most popular option for NHL betting and available for every game. It requires a player to pick an outright winner of the match. If you have not yet started betting on the NHL, a moneyline bet is a good place to start. For more information on moneyline betting, check out our moneyline vs spread betting article.

Let’s say you wager $100 on New York Rangers to beat Montreal Canadiens with the money line odds of +120. If the Rangers eventually win the match, whether it’s a regulation win or a win after the extra time or penalty shots, you’ll get $120.

The negative sign indicated the favorite and the positive sign the underdog. If you bet on the Canadiens, to win $100 you’d need to bet $170.

Puck Line/Point Spread Bets

Spread, or puck line, betting was created to level the playing field. If you’re familiar with baseball runlines, NHL puck lines works just like that. Since ice hockey is a relatively low scoring sport, the handicaps for the spreads are typically +/- 1.5 goals. To illustrate the idea better, let’s take a look at an example.

If the Philadelphia Flyers are the clear underdogs against the Pittsburgh Penguins, NHL moneylines on an online betting site could look like this:

On that same game we can see point spread lines that look like this:

This might be confusing at first since the favorite actually becomes the underdog and vice versa. The key difference is that the favorite must now win by two goals or more to cover the spread bet; if the underdog loses by one goal or wins outright, those bets win.

The beauty of puck line betting is that predicting the outcome this way is harder than just choosing who will win outright.

Other NHL Bet Types

Betting on the NHL has been made easy on all online sportsbooks, so all you need to do is pick a site and sign up before you can start betting. If you’re not familiar with the hockey bet types available for hockey bettors, we recommend you check out the basics below before you start wagering.

Total/Over-Under Bets

Total bets let you decide whether combined goals scored by both teams in the game will go OVER or UNDER a predetermined number. Total goal lines are usually somewhere around 6, and you don’t need to know which team will score more; you’re just predicting the overall amount. It also doesn’t matter who wins the game for a total bet to win or lose.

In the following case, the Hurricanes at Oilers game is expected a high scoring affair and therefore the line is set at 6.5. However, if it turns out that Connor McDavid isn’t playing, the line might drop to 5.5.

You can also bet over/under on season wins; for example, a line for Vegas Golden Knights could be 45.5 over/under for wins in the regular season.

60 Minute Bets

The 60 minute line is a little different than moneyline, since it introduces a third option: a tie. Naturally, hockey games can end in a tie and then the two teams play a 5-minute overtime. If you choose to bet on the 60 minute moneyline, you have to account for the fact that overtime isn’t included.

Prop Bets

In addition to game result bets, there are a wide array of prop bets. You can bet for a specific player to score in the second period, how many shots he takes in the game, whether the goalie allows more than 2 goals in the first period, and so on.

The extensive list of prop betting options on individual players is almost endless, and tons of options are also available for in-game betting on eligible games.

Don’t forget the team props either; you can guess whether both teams score in the first period, is at least two goals scored, and the number of goals in the third period for the home team. The hockey odds on some props can be excellent, but these are hard to win consistently since hockey is such a fast game and unpredictable bounces occur in every game.

Grand Salami Bets

On some sportsbooks, you can also place Grand Salami bets, which are bets on the total number of goals for all games played on a particular day. Like regular total bets, you choose to go over or under the line.

Parlay Bets

Parlay bets include several wagers in one multi-leg bet. The top NHL betting sites allow you to customize your own parlay, but some have a few options ready for sports betting action. Parlays have great odds, but remember that every single wager must be correct in order for you to win the bet.

Single-game parlays have become popular in recent years. As the name indicates, you choose the parlay legs from one game. For example, you can choose the following bet types from Panthers at Bruins game:

• Moneyline: Florida Panthers -148
• Anytime Goalscorer: Aleksander Barkov +140
• First Goal: Boston Bruins +105

This would yield you a single-game parlay with hockey odds of +724 which are much higher than what you get on any of these bets on their own. Determine a good strategy before placing your parlay bet, so you don’t end up losing a ton of money.

Also, many books offer insurance on parlays, meaning you can still win something even if one leg loses. There is a similar bet type, called round robins. Check out what round robin sports betting is.

NHL Futures Bets

Stanley Cup futures are usually long-term bets. If you want to predict who claims the Stanley Cup or if a specific team makes the playoffs, those are futures bets.

You can also guess who wins the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is given to the most valuable player in playoffs. An NHL future is a difficult and risky bet, but it can give you a huge potential payout.

In-Play/Live Wagering

Live betting gives all types of NHL bettors exciting wagering options after the hockey game starts, since you can place wagers as the game progresses in real time. This way you can make decisions on the action you see rather than on pre-game stats.

Keep in mind that the odds can change quickly! All sportsbooks offer various live betting options for NHL games, but some might have more markets than others.

Understanding the Odds

All betting sites offer very competitive odds for the National Hockey League, and most of the time they provide way better NHL betting lines for sports than any brick-and-mortar sportsbook. If you want the absolute best odds for your bets, we recommend signing up on at least a few sportsbooks to compare the lines.

For moneylines, point spreads, and some other bets the plus sign indicates the outcome that is less likely, and the minus sign the one that’s more likely to happen. For hockey, point spread odds aren’t usually the same on both sides (unlike in football), and they can vary for totals as well.

The way to read odds is to think about betting $100. If the odds are +135, betting $100 earns you $135. If the odds are -220, you need to bet $220 to win $100. If you want to calculate your potential winnings with different sums, use our odds calculator.

Hockey Betting Tips

Betting on the NHL action is not difficult, and you can find success even without major betting strategies. However, you should check out some hockey betting trends before you start betting.

Keep in mind that sports betting in general is difficult, let alone making consistently winning bets; you can make money betting but you should do bet on hockey for entertainment purposes only.

Online bookmakers are good at their jobs, you know. You should never bet beyond your means and always keep tabs of your NHL bets, whether they’re winning or losing. Here are a few additional tips for online hockey betting you should follow:

1. Home-Ice Advantage
   While there is a small difference between home and away team win rate, you shouldn’t rely strickly on home-ice advantage. So make sure to at least check out how the opponent has done in previous games before just automatically picking the home team as a winner of the game outright when you bet on hockey.
2. Statistics
   Even if you are a casual sports bettor, you should still check out some significant statistics. For serious hockey bettors, advanced statistics like the players’ Corsi numbers and Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) can shed a lot of light into a team’s performance, but even basic stats like last 10 games’ performance and the goalie’s savings percentage should give you an idea whether a team is hot or not. All losing and winning streaks are bound to end eventually, but they are indicative of a team’s ability to consistently win games.
3. Pick Your Bets
   Don’t bet on everything. You aren’t likely to win all your bets, so it is more worthwhile to focus on a couple types of bets you can research and have good betting odds on to give yourself the best chance to get the max winnings. You should especially consider whether a prop bet is worth your time: it is unlikely that you guess correctly the final score, the first goal scorer, or how many points certain player gets in a game. A futures bet might be a fun experiment or even a huge payday if the Stanley Cup odds are excellent for your chosen NHL team, but you probably shouldn’t spend too much time considering the options for futures bets.
4. Moneyline vs Puckline
   If you think there is a clear favorite to win the game, it might be better to place a puck line bet for the frontrunner. You can get a bigger payout for your efforts in case the game is a blowout win for the favorites. The limited payouts for moneylines make it expensive to consistently bet on them, but of course moneylines might be better choices when betting on the underdog.
5. Check Around for Hockey Betting Lines & Odds
   You should sign up for at least a couple different online hockey betting sites so that you can compare the NHL odds before you place bets. It could make a difference whether to bet on the underdog or not, as different oddsmakers set different odds. Remember that hockey is a challenging sport to bet on and that there is always a chance for an upset. So to get the best possible returns when you bet on hockey, make sure to shop around for the best betting site.

Follow our betting tips to get started with NHL wagering on the best hockey betting sites.

Betting Mistakes to Avoid

States With Legal Sports Betting

Online sports betting is legal in several states across the U.S. Each state has a different number of regulated online sportsbooks, but you should find a good option no matter which state you live in.

You can see which sportsbooks and betting promos are available in your state on BonusFinder US. For example, there are plenty of excellent PA sports betting promos.

Even more states have legalized retail betting, so there are plenty of options if you wish to bet on hockey.