There are a plethora of options when it comes to betting on the NHL online. This article will look at the main types of NHL bets you can place and hopefully help you figure out which type of NHL wager to place in any given situation.
**This article uses the American Odds format. If you don’t understand it, check out our odds explanation page.
Money Line Betting
Money line betting is the most popular and straight forward type of NHL wager. With an NHL money line bet you are simply choosing which team you think will win the game. Each team will have odds associated with them coming out the victor, with wagers on the favourite paying out less than wagers on the underdog. Here is an example:
Toronto Maple Leafs +145
Ottawa Senators -165
In this case the Senators are the favourites, as shown by the odds associated with that outcome. If the Sens win a $165 bet on them would win $100, while a $100 wager on the Leafs would win $145 if they pull out the victory. Money line bets are very straight forward.
Puck Line Betting
Puck line betting is another NHL betting option that can be used if you think the favourite will win via blowout, or if you expect the underdogs to at least keep it close, even if they don’t win the game. With puck line bets the favourites must win the game by 2 or more goals, while the underdog must either win the game outright or lose by 1 goal. Let’s look at an example:
Edmonton Oilers (+1.5) -170
Montreal Canadiens (-1.5) +150
In this case the Canadiens are the favourites in the game and would be big favourites in terms of the money line (around -210 favourites). If you think the Canadiens will blow out the Oilers and win by at least 2 goals, then you can bet the puck line in order to receive a higher payout. On the other side of the coin if you feel that the Oilers are better than they are being given credit for, but you still think they will likely lose then you can take them +1.5 goals, so if they lose by one (which is quite common in the NHL) or win the game, Oilers puck line bet pays out.
Regulation Line Betting
Regulation line betting is somewhere in between money line and puck line betting. You can wager the regulation line on either the favourite or the underdog and this line will payout slightly more than the money line because the team must win the game in regulation time. If the game happens to go to overtime or a shootout, the regulation line wager loses. That being said there is also the option to wager on a draw, which would only payout if the game does go to extra time. Here is an example:
San Jose Sharks (-0.5) +135
Ottawa Senators (-0.5) +145
Draw +315
To give you a better understanding, the money line odds for this game were as follows:
San Jose Sharks -120
Ottawa Senators +100
As you can see the payouts are greater with regulation line betting, but if the game goes to overtime the bets lose.
Over/Under Betting
This type of NHL wager involves betting on the total number of goals that will be scored in a game. The oddsmaker sets a total amount and you then wager on whether you think the game will feature greater or fewer than that many goals. The total amount is usually 5.5, but can also be 5 or 6 on occasions. For example:
Edmonton Oilers @ Toronto Maple Leafs
Over 5.5 -125
Under 5.5 +105
If there are 6 or more goals scored in the game then the over wager pays out, while if 5 or fewer goals are scored the under wager pays out.
Prop Betting
Prop betting pretty much encompasses all of the other wagers that you can make on NHL games. These types of wagers are usually not directly affected by the outcome of the game. Some typical NHL prop bets include, which team will win the first period, first period over/unders, which team will score first, etc. The more important the game, the more prop bets you will be able to find online.
Futures Betting
The most popular NHL futures wager would be betting on which team will win the Stanley Cup this year. You can place futures wagers throughout the year, but the odds will change as the teams perceived chances of succeeding change. Some other futures bets you can make include which team will win their given conference or division. For a more in depth look at the kinds of futures bets available in the NHL click here.
Live Betting
Most of the betting options outlined above are also available during NHL games. This is called live or in-play betting. Every online sportsbook does live betting a little differently so we created an NHL live betting page to show you the differences and explain how you can use live betting to your advantage when betting on NHL games.
There are plenty of NHL betting options online for the typical hockey fan. Our NHL predictions usually focus on money line wagers, with a few puck line, regulation line and over/under bets sprinkled in.