How to Bet on NHL Hockey
Watching the NHL’s best players smash each other into the boards for three periods is a great time, but putting a wager on the game makes things even more exciting. At Bovada, we’ve got hockey betting in a bunch of different forms, including moneylines, totals, pucklines, futures, and even live bets on games as they happen.
Of course, all those hockey bets won’t be any good to you at sportsbooks if you’re not up on terminology and how hockey odds work, so we put together this basic guide let you know how to bet on NHL hockey games. After a quick read, you’ll be ready to lace up your skates and get right into the NHL betting mix on Bovada.
Let’s drop a puck on this bad boy and start with the moneyline.
How to Bet on NHL Moneylines
If you head to Bovada’s hockey betting section, you’ll see a ton of games (not just from the NHL, but from leagues all around the world, including Russia, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe). Let’s grab an example from our hockey odds and break down moneyline bets.
The moneyline for a game at Bovada sportsbook is found in the “Win” column. The favorite is indicated by a minus sign. Here it’s the Lightning at -330. The Red Wings look to be in for a rough night as an underdog at +265. Now it’s time to bet on the winner.
If you wager on the Lightning to win and they prevail, your bet of $330 on that game wins you $100.
If you wager on the Red Wings to pull off an upset, your $100 bet earns you a nice profit of $265.
It’s safer to bet on the favorite, so the reward is smaller. A gutsy bet on the underdog is less likely to pay off, but the potential winnings are larger.
One quick note on calculations with minus signs and plus signs in hockey games:
If there’s a minus sign on your hockey odds, indicating the favorite, you bet that dollar amount to win a hundred.
If there’s a plus sign, on the other hand, indicating the underdog, you bet a hundred to win that dollar amount.
That’s how hockey bets work (other Bovada hockey betting rules are here).
Now, grab a quick drink and we’ll get into totals betting on hockey games.
How to Bet on NHL Totals
Hockey betting on totals involves choosing whether the total combined score of both teams will be over or under a certain amount. For that reason, it’s also known as the over/under. Let’s pull up our example game again.
The total column is at the end, showing 5.5 as the number of points to consider. If you think the teams will have more than 5.5 points at the end of the game, you can take the over at -120. If you think it will be less, you can take the under. These hockey odds from the Bovada sportsbook would give you an even money profit if you were correct.
If the final score is 4-2, the total points equal 6, and the over would be the winning bet. If the final score is 3-4, on the other hand, the under would be a winner.
How to Bet on NHL Pucklines
Pucklines are the spreads of hockey bets. Here you’re not just betting on which team will win or lose, but how much a particular team will win or lose by. The Spread column in our example has the puckline at 1.5 points.
If the favored Lightning win by 2 goals or more, they’ve “covered the puckline” and $125 bets on them would win $100.
If the Red Wings keep it to just a single goal loss, or even manage to pull off a win, a $100 bet on that team would return $105.
Hockey betting on pucklines exists at sportsbooks because it’s a bit less risky than picking a winner outright. Here you’ve got a point differential to serve as a buffer. This type of action at Bovada gives people a way to bet on a game where they think a particular team will lose, but perhaps not get crushed.
How to Bet on NHL Futures
The first drop-down menu at the top of Bovada’s hockey betting window has the option to select futures bets. There you’ll find a number of events that take place in the future (as opposed to a given day’s games). Futures hockey bets include things like betting on which team will be the Stanley Cup winner, which team will be the division winner, which player will be the league MVP, which player will be the points leader, and so on.
Hockey odds on NHL futures typically revolve around things that will take some time to play out, thus the name “futures.” If you’ve got a hunch about a team that’s going to win it all, this is your home at Bovada for online hockey bets like that.
How to Bet on NHL Live Betting
Most people are familiar with placing hockey bets at Bovada on games before they start, but NHL live betting lets you keep betting all throughout the game if the hockey odds look good. Each event in a hockey game can have an impact on the live hockey lines. Every goal that’s scored typically causes the odds to update, and you may see something you just can’t resist. You can usually bet on the outcome of particular periods and find other live proposition or “prop” bets too, like which team will score next, or who will score the first goal.There’s a ton of ways to enjoy hockey betting at Bovada. The next time a puck is dropping for your team, head here and get your bets in. Until then, we’ll keep the action on ice for you!
Until then, checkout the other Team Sports you can bet on at Bovada. Like Football or Basketball.