NHL Betting

LIVE ODDS

Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the puck, but at Bookies.com, the live odds keep pace with the action, allowing NHL bettors to compare the latest live odds from top sportsbooks to find the absolute best odds and make the right play.

EXPERT PICKS

There are a wealth of NHL betting options out there, from Stanley Cup and Hart Trophy futures to Saturday night New York Rangers games at Madison Square Garden. Our NHL experts study the trends and statistics, assess the markets and provide their best picks for NHL.

BETTING INSIGHTS

On Bookies.com, NHL bettors can evaluate the latest data and utilize the best betting tools to monitor odds shifts and spot value bets. Sometimes the difference between a great bet and a bad beat is the right information, and we’ve got you covered.

LIVE BETTING ACTION DATA

A puck can take some strange bounces and odds can make some sudden shifts. All the more reason why it’s essential to have Bookies.com’s real-time live odds from multiple betting sites to compare when live betting NHL games.

Why Bet on NHL Games?

Few sports compare to NHL betting in terms of excitement and strategy. It’s extremely fast-paced with tons of in-game momentum changes. Just one or two bounces of the puck can change NHL bets in a split second. You’ll see big hits, tons of scoring chances, nerve-racking power plays and maybe a fight or two. Sound good?

NHL betting isn’t quite as popular as NFL betting in the U.S., which is actually a good thing for hockey bettors. It’s easier to find value on all sorts of NHL odds with smaller handles and fewer eyeballs grinding out market corrections over the course of an 82-game season. There are a bunch of ways to bet on NHL games and no shortage of strategies to choose from.

Signing up with online sports betting sites and paying attention to the lines every night can be extremely rewarding. And watching a playoff or Stanley Cup Final game with a little money on the line is absolutely electric.

NHL odds are easy to pick up and understand with a little practice. Soon you’ll be throwing a reverse puck line and total wagers across the ice every night on what is truly one of the best spectator betting experiences in sports. If you are a canadian bettor, check out our review of the best sports betting sites in Canada.

What to Look For When Picking an NHL Betting Site

Security and Trustworthiness

We work exclusively with legal, regulated NHL betting sites and strongly suggest you do the same. Offshore sportsbooks are risky and unregulated, meaning there are no guarantees when it comes to payment issues, disputed hockey bets or fund withdrawals. Nor is there any risk these sites will be suddenly shut down by the authorities. You can rest assured that all the online bookmakers we recommend are licensed and regulated, and that we’ve used every one.

Mobile Experience

There’s nothing wrong with placing an NHL bet from your PC or laptop computer. It’s just that mobile betting is far more common these days in every sport. You can check out the latest betting lines or place NHL bets from anywhere as long as you have your cell phone handy. Make sure the mobile layout is a good one with any given NHL betting app. Speed and easy-to-use functions and tabs are increasingly important for in-game betting, and you don’t want to miss any NHL betting action due to a clunky layout.

Bonus Offers and Free Bets

Don’t leave any money on the table with your hockey bets. Make sure to look around at various NHL betting sites to find the ones with the best bonus offers and incentives for first-time signups. Some might match your initial deposit up to $500, meaning you’d begin with $1,000 to play with for NHL bets. Others offer a one-time free bet up to a certain amount, meaning you win more money to bet with if the bet cashes and don’t lose anything if it doesn’t. Take advantage of these. It’s a no-brainer!

Variety of Bets

Every legit NHL betting site offers puck line, moneyline and totals odds. But how often do the live lines update? What about grand salami betting, where you wager on the total amount of goals scored in every game that day? Do they offer futures betting odds, so you can take advantage of an early bet on a Vezina Trophy winner? Can you get action on a prop bet? Figure out how you want to bet NHL and make sure to choose an online sportsbook that offers the best options to fit your style.

Payment Methods and Banking Options

Depositing money in order to start getting into NHL betting shouldn’t be a hassle. While payment options used to be limited, most top online sports betting sites now offer a variety of methods. That includes PayPal, Play+, debit/credit cards, bank transfers, etc. Figure out what your deposit options are at different sites and choose the one that makes the most sense for you.

User Experience

Pretty straightforward – do you like the site? Are the NHL odds naturally laid out and simple to read? Is it easy to construct a three-team moneyline parlay with just a few clicks? Play around with different NHL betting sites – especially the in-game betting – to see which layout you’re most comfortable with. Placing an NHL bet to win shouldn’t be a chore. Make things easier on yourself and do a little advanced scouting on NHL betting sites before loading up the bankroll.

NHL Betting Strategies to Consider

Fade the Public

A popular strategy in any sport, fading the public in NHL betting is a good method if you’re looking for something to implement right away. All you have to do is look at our NHL consensus page. That shows the percentage breakdown of public bettors on either side of a matchup. Let’s say you love absolutely love the Tampa Bay Lighting one night. You don’t think there’s any chance the New Jersey Devils beat them. Check the consensus first. If something like 85% of bettors or money are on Tampa Bay, you obviously don’t have any inside info. Fading the public would mean betting on the Devils. The logic goes that public bettors often get suckered into bad lines, and betting the other way on NHL odds keeps you more in line with sharp bettors.

Travel Schedules

The NHL season is a physical grind. That’s why staying on top of teams’ schedules and knowing which ones will be more rested on a given night can be a huge advantage for NHL bettors. This is particularly useful with teams that are generally highly valued by NHL oddsmakers and bettors.

The Pittsburgh Penguins could be a road favorite over a bad Montreal Canadiens team. But if the Penguins have been jetting all over Canada and playing the second night of a back-to-back in Montreal? If they played the Toronto Maple Leafs the night before, the legs could get a little heavy in the third period. That’s on top of the usual travel wear-and-tear.

Look for situations like that where the travel schedule contradicts general opinions about the quality of a given team. This tends to work better in the regular season than the playoffs, when travel schedule is more consistent.

Underdog Moneylines

Taking underdogs with NHL moneyline bets can be very profitable if you pick the right ones. Doesn’t matter if it’s the regular season or playoffs. It’s a low-scoring sport, so naturally games will be closer than in other leagues. And there’s a bit of randomness to hockey. The San Jose Sharks could be a big underdog, but a cheesy bounce or 5-on-3 power play situation can swing all the momentum in a hurry.

If the Boston Bruins were an underdog, you could see them listed around +180 or +200, but any team can win on a given night in the NHL. Plus, public bettors usually prefer favorites. So, there’s a bit of a fade the public element here too if you want the Boston Bruins in that scenario. Consistently identifying undervalued moneyline underdogs is a great way to build the bankroll.

In-Game Betting

In-game betting, also known as live betting, is widely popular in just about every sport, especially with so much mobile wagering on betting apps. The NHL is no exception. In-game betting odds apply new moneylines and totals at the end of the first two periods and also after every goal scored. There’s value here.

Let’s say you want to bet on the Carolina Hurricanes moneyline in a game against the Minnesota Wild. If the Hurricanes are a big favorite with a -170 moneyline, you might decide it’s too much to risk. But let’s say the Wild get a fluky goal early to take a 1-0 lead. Now the in-game betting odds will be closer to -110 if not higher. And teams come back from 1-0 deficits to win all the time. Sometimes it pays to wait until the live betting gets going. Make sure to think about these things before you bet to win on NHL games.

Use Our Helpful Tools for NHL Betting

Our hockey experts have covered the sport from inside locker rooms and press boxes across the U.S. for years. Their daily NHL expert free picks have proved consistently profitable. You can use them however you see fit. Weight them against your own research or cherry-pick one or two to fill out the last leg of a parlay!

NHL moneyline parlays are highly popular and can be wildly profitable, especially if you throw an underdog in there. You can see just how profitable and experiment with different combinations using our free parlay calculator.

Our NHL futures betting page also shows the most up-to-date odds on teams like the San Jose Sharks or Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup Final or make the playoffs, lines on players to win season MVP, etc. Once you’re staying on top of NHL odds every day you’ll surely start to see value with a few long-term wagers.

Which States Allow Legal NHL Betting?

More and more states continue to pass legislation legalizing sports gambling. Many incorporated mobile betting while some remain retail only. Betting on NHL games is now legal in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Iowa, Indiana, Arkansas, Illinois, Delaware, Mississippi, Montana, West Virginia, Colorado, Michigan, Oregon, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Tennessee and Rhode Island. A few of them have yet to take their first legal bet, but it’s coming for all the above and others.

NHL Betting In Canada

There is no bigger draw for sports bettors in Canada than the NHL. Ice hockey remains Canada’s most popular sport, and the country has seven teams in the NHL – the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, and the Vancouver Canucks. Ontario sports betting fans can wager on their home province teams - the Leafs and Senators. Similarly, Alberta sports betting fans looking to back their Oilers or Flames have plenty of options to do so.

Single-game betting rules will vary by province, but Canada online sportsbooks will have plenty of action, including for Quebec sports betting fans backing the Senator and those Canucks fans betting at British Columbia sportsbooks.

The NHL’s Stance on Sports Betting

Longtime NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was previously opposed to NHL betting. He went on the record in 2012 to say the league’s vision was “inconsistent with sports betting.” Bettman has since changed his tune along with the rest of the sports world.

He changed course in 2018, acknowledging that times have changed. Bettman and the NHL then teamed up with Bet MGM for the league’s first official sports betting partner. They have since reached similar agreements with William Hill and FanDuel with a new forward-thinking approach to NHL betting.

Why Bet on the NHL with Bookies

Bookies.com gives you all the possible tools and advantages when it comes to NHL betting. You can compare up-to-date lines from multiple legal sportsbooks in your state, while our various free tools help you better assess value and make good decisions. You know you can always trust our recommended NHL betting sites because they’re all legal, and we’ve bet with them all firsthand.

Lastly, our experts provide unparalleled knowledge thanks to years of experience covering the game with our NHL picks. These are free and updated daily to help you with NHL wagering.

Consider Bookies.com your one-stop shop for NHL betting and start making more profitable decisions with NHL odds today.

NHL Betting FAQ