(Photo credit: The Bay Area Bias / Foter / CC BY-ND)
There are many different ways to bet hockey online.
Here’s a look at the 8 different main types of NHL odds for betting on hockey, our national winter sport.
1. Moneyline NHL Odds
NHL moneylines are the most common way to bet on hockey.
All you have to do is pick which team you think will win the game and bet on them. If they win, you win.
Unlike Proline hockey tie rules, moneyline NHL odds in online betting don’t factor in whether the team you bet on won in overtime or a shootout. The only time this matters is if you bet on a team to win in regulation time, a bet that almost all sportsbooks offer.
Just win, baby.
2. Puckline NHL Odds
The puckline is a nice tool to use if you don’t want to lay a lot of juice on a favourite or want to increase your chances of winning with an underdog.
The puckline is hockey’s version of the point spread in basketball and football or the run line in baseball.
If you take a team at -1.5 on the puckline, that means your team will have to win by more than one goal.
Often, laying -1.5 on the puckline will turn a heavy favourite into an underdog return, since many games in hockey are decided by one goal. Nearly 1 out of every 4 NHL games go to overtime, which would mean you’d automatically lose your -1.5 puck line bet on the favourite.
On the other side, if you take a team +1.5 on the puckline, that means they can either win the game or lose by one goal and you’ll be a winner.
You’ll have to pay a lot more juice to take +1.5 on the puckline because it increases your winning percentage that much more.
Also, beware of the empty-net goal, which can screw your +1.5 puckline bet. In 2015-16, you would have been burned a lot playing teams +1.5 on the puck line against Dallas, because the Stars scored 24 empty-net goals that season.
3. Over/under NHL Odds (totals)
The Over/Under NHL odds can be a fun way to bet on a game, particularly when you don’t have a strong feeling on which team will win.
The oddsmakers will provide a total (generally ranging from as low as 5 to as high as 7) and you bet whether the teams will score more goals than that in the game (over) or less than the total (under).
Totals are also nice because they usually don’t cost you that much juice to play.
Again, empty-net goals can heavily influence the result of an Over/Under bet.
For example, if a game is 3-2 in the dying minutes, the losing team will pull their goalie for an extra attacker. If the Over/Under on the game is 5.5, you’ll win or lose your bet based on whether an empty-net goal is scored or not.
For that reason, if you’re betting Over/Under, make sure you aren’t risking a significant size of your bankroll.
4. Team totals NHL Odds
This is similar to over/under, but in this case you are just betting on how many goals one team will or won’t score.
Team totals are based on the betting odds of the game. The favoured team will always have a higher team total than the underdog, and team totals in a game with an over/under of 5 will be lower than a game with an over/under of 7.
A good time to use team totals is when you feel one team will either break out offensively or struggle to score. Instead of laying the heavy juice on the favourite or risking an underdog bet, you can choose the team total instead.
5. Live Betting NHL Odds
Live betting is a way to bet on the game while it’s in progress.
Odds will be adjusted after each period, at which point you can wager on the moneyline, puckline or total once again.
If a team is trailing and you think they have a strong chance of coming back to win, you can get some really fat odds on them through live betting.
Or if you think the team that is leading will hold on for the win, you can bet on them too (it’ll cost you quite a bit of juice to do that, though).
6. Period Betting NHL Odds
Period betting allows you to capitalize on opportunities you aren’t sure will be there the entire game.
Perhaps you think the favourite will come out hungry and score a couple quick ones. Or maybe you think the underdog will keep things tight for a while but run out of gas in the late stages.
With period betting, you can go for the big score by laying -0.5 at bigger odds (usually +150 or higher) or play it safe with +0.5 at expensive juice. Or, you can play things safe and bet the moneyline. That way, if the period ends tied, you don’t lose.
Period betting can also be done with over/under, for added excitement.
7. Futures Betting NHL Odds
This is your chance to gaze into your crystal ball and bet on what you foresee happening.
Do you think the Penguins will win the Stanley Cup this year? Maybe you believe the Canucks will win the Northwest Division.
These are just two examples of things you can bet on through Stanley Cup futures betting, and at some pretty nice odds as well.
Pinnacle is one of the best hockey betting sites for you to find some good Futures odds.
And a cool thing is that you can bet Futures throughout the season, so if you think a team is starting to show some improvement, you can catch some value before the oddsmakers catch on.
8. Props Betting NHL Odds
Hockey betting props offer you the chance to bet on individual milestones that could be reached during the season.
Bodog offers a ton of NHL props like who will win the Art Ross, Calder, Norris, Hart, Vezina and Rocket Richard trophies.
You can also bet on players reaching a certain number of points during the season, whether they be Sidney Crosby or Keith Yandle.
Props can also often be found for individual games, where you can bet on whether Alex Ovechkin will score a goal that night or Carey Price will get a shutout.