Best NHL Betting Sites & Offers

NHL Betting Sites

Seen by some in the US as a sport diminishing in popularity, the National Hockey League (NHL) is still a huge draw with smart bettors. Why? Well, because hockey is exciting (it’s the fastest team sport in the world) provides sports-crazy gamblers with a host of markets to take advantage of. From season-long bets to prop bets, to Stanley Cup betting, to a selection of varied betting offerings in between, the NHL offers an array of betting options appealing to both new bettors and seasoned gamblers alike. In this article, we’ll discuss how to bet on the NHL and learn what the best bets are, taking a detailed look at prop bets along the way. If NHL betting grabs your interest, read on and get to know everything you need to about betting on The Show.

How to Bet on the NHL

For the most part, NHL betting uses a moneyline betting system rather than the point-spread system favored in other sports. This involves betting on a game based on a given price with the aim of picking the team that will win. NHL betting odds that feature a minus sign (e.g., -120) indicate the amount a bettor must stake to win $100—this is always applied to the team that’s favored to win. Conversely, odds with a plus sign (e.g., +120) show the amount $100 will yield when staked on an unfavored team. Of course, these odds can be affected—negatively and positively—by variables of all kinds. Whether a team is playing at home or not is a pretty big consideration, with most odds generally favoring those with the home-ice advantage. A team’s overall level of fatigue will likely sway how the odds stack up. Teams that have been on the road for a while may not have the energy to play as aggressively as they need.

Although straightforward moneyline betting wagers (e.g., betting on team A to win) are far and away the most popular NHL bets, there are plenty of other options available. Common NHL betting picks include individual player performance bets, season-long team performance bets, and puckline bets (which basically involve picking a team that will either win by more than 1.5 goals or lose by fewer than 1.5 goals).

Betting on specific events that might happen during a game is also a big draw for hockey fans these days. Known as prop bets, this form of wagering can be used to bet on everything from the number of goals scored during the first period to the number of shots a goaltender will save during the third period. We’ll look more at this later.

What is the Best NHL Betting?

• Top Scorer BetsThis is a straight-up bet that is super popular among hockey fans. As simple as it is popular, this type of bet can be applied to a single game or to the entire season.
• Futures BetsMost futures bets deal with a team's chances of winning the Stanley Cup, and therefore they’re made before the season starts. Oddly enough, many sportsbooks list futures in fractional odds (i.e., 5/1, 7/2) rather than show the standard moneyline.
• Over–Under BetsOver/under betting is used by gamblers who want to try predicting whether the total number of goals scored in a game by both teams will be greater or less than a designated number. While the designated over–under number tends to change (and the payout odds stay the same) in most other sports, it nearly always stays the same in hockey. Look and you’ll see over–under bets in NHL betting hover steadily around 5.5 goals, with the payout odds changing to accommodate the line changes.
• Grand Salami Bets Much loved by hockey fans, the grand salami allows bettors to enjoy a wager on every game being played on any given day for the cost of just one bet. This exciting wager works by letting gamblers bet over or under the total number of goals scored by all teams playing on that particular day.

What Are NHL Prop Bets?

In addition to potentially being very lucrative, NHL-based prop bets can also be hugely entertaining as they offer gamblers the chance to bet on a wide range of items that might occur during any particular game. Some of the most common types of prop bets include:

• Top goaltender: In the fast-paced world of hockey, it’s often the case that a goaltender will see more action than any other player. So it makes good sense to bet on what a shot-stopper’s save percentage is likely to be. This can be applied to individual periods as well as entire games.
• First-period goal totals: This can be a fun prop bet to get involved with, especially if you know from the outset that a game is likely to be an explosive encounter.
• Going to overtime (OT): Shrewd hockey fans are drawn to this bet as the odds offered can be pretty generous at times. A word of warning: calling OT in a game before it starts isn’t as easy as you might think.