NHL Futures Betting

Futures bets are wagers on outcomes that will happen in the distance future.  Some typical NHL futures bets include the division winner during the season, the Conference Championships in the playoffs and of course the Stanley Cup champion.

Futures are my favourite type of NHL bet because I feel I have the greatest control over the outcome.  Any team can win one game, but more often than not the best team will finish atop the division after an 82 game regular season.  These bets also allow me to follow my teams and cheer them on each game, without having to make a wager on the single game to excited about it.

Here are the current NHL futures odds from Bodog.com:

You can check out my preseason division winners futures bets in the past NHL bets section of the site.  A lot of bettors will tell you not to take the favourites when making futures bets because the return isn’t worth the risk for a bet that takes so long to mature.  I agree that the bets take long to mature, but I disagree that you shouldn’t take favourites.  For example, in the Southeast Division the Washington Capitals are by far the best team.  Before the season even begins you could be fairly certain that the Caps would win the division.  The odds for the Caps winning the division were -185 so you aren’t receiving a great return, but for an almost certain bet these are great odds for the bettor.  If you can put aside $1000 for 8 months the return you will get from betting on almost guaranteed winners such as the Caps will be much greater than you would be able to get investing that grand elsewhere.  Another example would be the San Jose Sharks who had -150 odds to win their division before the season began.  When you look at the other teams in the division and combine that with the Sharks history of regular season success you would determine that -150 are great odds to bet on the Sharks for the entire season.  Futures bets can be a great way to make money when the outcome is very likely because you will still be able to get solid odds due to the fact the season is so long and other fans will be placing futures wagers on their favourite teams.