I have always enjoyed going to live hockey games, whether they were NHL or minor leagues. There is just something exhilarating about the raw intensity that is always present in the arena. The intensity is just a little bit closer to the vest when you show up at a game having placed a nice little wager on the outcome, and maybe a few fun prop bets. I wouldn't say I know the game inside and out like I do football, basketball and baseball, but I know enough to get in on some of the key events during the season. Due to the United States' position on legal online sports betting, USA bettors are limited to legally licensed and regulated offshore destinations for participating in legal hockey betting, which suits me just fine.
I've been accessing these options for years for my sportsbook wagering, and I hadn't planned on making any changes any time soon. They legally offer a legitimate and secure wagering environment that includes hockey betting lines, and that welcomes US residents. There are no federal laws which prohibit US players from participating in online sports betting at these legally licensed and regulated offshore brands. These brands have treated me very well thus far. The DOJ is very firm on their position regarding the Federal Wire Act, and the only attempt made by an individual state to change the rules was met with a resounding kick in the teeth. With powerful opponents such as the NFL and NCAA, it is going to be a long and hard battle, with most of it being fought uphill. In the meantime, I will just continue to engage in the same hockey wagering options I've been successfully accessing for several years.
Below you will find the legally licensed and regulated online sports betting options that are available to bettors in the US and overseas. These brands are located outside of the United States within jurisdictions which have legalized online sports betting for their territory. This enables them to legally offer their services to players in the US and anywhere else that they choose. We have combed through the potential options available, and have come up with this refined list of respected and trusted sportsbooks that offer a highly secure, innovative and high quality wagering environment that is feature rich, offering live in play betting and mobile sports betting. Their banking suite options meet or exceed industry standards, and they are among the fastest paying sports betting sites on the Web. We have included some details that will help you compare them at a glance, as well as access to detailed sportsbook reviews that will provide additional insight into each operation. We are confident that you will find the type of online sports betting experience you are looking for from the brands in this guide.
1. Bovada Sportsbook - 50% Max $250
2. Betonline Sportsbook - 25% Bonus For Life
3. Sportsbetting.ag - 25% Bonus For Life
4. Bookmaker - 15% Up To $2500
The most well known league in professional hockey is the NHL (National Hockey League). It is considered to be the only Major hockey professional league, is comprised of both Canadian and US teams, and is the league that receives the most attention and boasts the largest fan base. The betting lines are a little different for hockey than they are for other sports, something that we will go into more detail on a little further down on the page. They include a playoff post season segment that leads up to one dedicated team winning the Stanley Cup for that year. I have found in my travels that fans are either die hard in love with hockey or they don't care about it all. There's not a lot of 'in between' fans that are just mediocre in their affection for the sport. This being said, I'm going to cover the various betting lines available for hockey, and assume a basic knowledge of the sport by the reader. Most novice hockey fans understand the basic structure that includes the standard season, followed by the playoff period and then championship events, ultimately leading fans and players to the Stanley Cup finale. Hence you can apply the following wagering information to any period within an annual hockey season. Check out our page on legal Stanley Cup betting for options.
There are several pieces of information that you will see in the betting lines for Hockey, and some of it is unique to the sport. Understanding this information will drive your wagering decisions for the most part. It is all pretty easy to grasp once terms are explained and make sense to you, so don't worry that it is overly complex. It is in the best interest of the sportsbooks to present the NHL betting lines in an easy to comprehend format as players will engage much more and bet more confidently when they really understand what is going on, so they go out of their way to simplify the data and make sure it isn't intimidating.
Most hockey games render a very low final score; hence point spreads are not as viable in this sport. The moneyline typically replaces the point spread option that is used in most other sports. What this means is that instead of placing a bet that a team will win by a certain number of goals, you are simply wagering that they will win. In the line, you will see a value next to your team, either a positive or negative number. The negative number indicates the team that is favored to win, while the positive number indicates the underdog. The value of the number will determine the wagering schematics. You will have to risk more money to back the favorite team, and will receive a larger payout by selecting the underdog. Here is an example of how it breaks down. Let's take a typical moneyline and use it as an example: Edmonton Oilers +190 vs Boston Bruins -230. In this case, the Bruins are favored to win. Imagine that in between those two figures is the number 100. Should you decide to back the underdog, you would risk $100 to win $190. On a smaller scale, you would risk $10 to win $19. On the flip side, if you were to back the favorite, then you would risk $230 to win $100, making your final payout $330, or on a smaller scale, you would risk $23 to win $10 in profit.
This is a bet that is unique to Hockey, and remains consistent in its components. It combines a point spread concept with the moneyline. The # of goals in the spread is uniform and does not change, remaining at 1.5. This is necessary because there are so many games in which the final score is just one goal. The favorite team will have the -1.5 while the underdog will render a +1.5 on their line. This means that in order to win this wager, your team has to be within the puck line spread. So if you selected the favorite, they must win by at least 2 goals. If you select the underdog, they can lose by one goal and still be within the puck line spread. The money line portion of this combination determines how much you will win and risk. Let's take a typical betting line scenario to break this down. Tampa Bay Lightening +1.5 (-230) Montreal Canadians -1.5 (+190). If you select the favored team, Montreal in this case, and they win by at least 2 goals, then you can wager $100 to win $190 in profit. On the flip side, if you go with the underdog and they either win or lose by only one goal, then you would risk $230 to win $100 in profit. In this scenario, the favorite pays out higher due to the nature of the games to end up with such a low number of goals scored for each team, making it less likely to win by 2 goals than it is to lose by one goal.
This type of bet is a standard one in hockey and just about every sport. In this case, you are betting on how many total goals you think will be scored by both teams. This line almost never deviates from 5 or 5.5 because that is the average number of goals scored per game. The figure does periodically range between 4.5 and 6 for different situations, such as playoff games or when two teams that typically score higher than the average are playing their backup goalies. This bet asks you to predict wither the final combined score will surpass or be less than the total. In a totals line that is set at 5.5, betting for the over indicates that you are expecting 6 or more goals, while betting under indicates you are counting on 5 or less goals being scored. You will see a moneyline associated with the totals line, as well as a U or an O next to the figure to indicate over or under. This money line is the risk to reward calculation that will apply the same way we've calculated it in the other lines discussed. There is not always a + and a – moneyline in each case, sometimes both lines are negative figures. It simply depends on the teams and the odds.
Futures bets work the same in hockey as they do for other sports. They are simply the odds for predicting the outcome of an event that is taking place a long time into the future, such as betting the next season's Stanley Cup winner. Oddsmakers create these lines throughout the year, determine the strength or weakness of the teams and players, and then provide wagers on each team to win. A team that finishes strong in the previous season may be reported at +125 to win the next championship title, so if you wager $100 you would win $125 in profit. On the flip side, an underdog who finished poorly may be considered a longshot, and their futures bet would pay off much larger should they win, rendering much larger figures, such as +2000, which would give you a payout of $2000 for risking $100. These bets can payoff big, but because they are far removed from real time performances, they can be true long shots.
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