NHL BETTING STRATEGY – THIS IS EASY!

“People who are really knowledgeable can pick us off in hockey, because even those who set the odds know less about hockey than about the NFL and NBA.” Kevin Bradley, Bovada sports book director.

The Best Handicappers know the NHL is by far the least bet on of the 4 major US sports and Sport books don’t put nearly as much effort in setting NHL betting lines as they do with the other 3 leagues. With a 6 month, 82 game regular season and another 2 months of playoffs there’s $ to be made taking advantage of this if you know what you’re doing. Top handicappers can pinpoint 1 or 2 games out of a full slate, that has the best value and take advantage of it. The money line, puck line, and total are the most popular bets. Understanding how to bet on hockey is very important because there are different odds for each individual bet. There are instances where if a bettor really believes in a favorite the payout for betting the puck line will payout way more than betting the money line. The majority of games are going to be 1 goal games and the totals goals scored usually are around the same so figuring which type of bet to place is important.

THE MONEY LINE
The money line is the most popular way people bet on the hockey.

PUCK LINE
The puck line is the spread. Bet on the favorite at -1.5 goals or the underdog at +1.5 goals. The line would look like this
Boston +1.5 (-180)
Montreal -1.5 (+160)
If you have confidence the favorite is going to roll their opponent this is the bet for you. High risk, high reward.

3. TOTALS
Totals are almost always set at O/U 5 or 5.5 goals but they’ll occasionally put a 6 on the board. Because these totals rarely change they change the risk on both bets. Totals will look like this

Anaheim 5.5 (-135) over
Toronto 5.5 (+110) under
The Over/Under over the entire season will usually split around 50/50 so you should have a strong opinion before betting the total.

Bradley said what serious NHL bettors already knew. The books don’t spend extensive time on hockey as they do on football and basketball. A person with even a moderate bankroll and patience can profit over the length of a season without much research. If you bet on only favorites over the course of an NFL or NBA season you will be broke in no time. Hockey is different. The good teams ring up wins over the mediocre/bad teams night after night. The books only defense of this is to raise the risk on betting on the favorite. It still doesn’t work. At the midseason mark the trends have proven that, as it has in previous years. If you took the top 8 teams at the (Anaheim, Nashville, Tampa, NY Islanders, Detroit, St Louis, Chicago, and Montreal) and blindly bet only when they were favored you would already be up a good amount. If you bet the exact odds posted, (for example Nashville -160 to win $100) on EVERY game these teams were favored youwould be up about 6k right now. It would be more if you take Chicago and Detroit out of the equation because those 2 teams along with Pittsburgh are bet on so extensively that they are favored almost every night with really high odds. Those 3 teams lose $ over the season but not as much as you might think. The top 8 teams last year would of netted you 8k and without Chicago over 10. Imagine what you could do with a little knowledge and research.

Using one of our Top NHL Handicappers can be very rewarding. The best handicappers turn a profit on betting the NHL year after year. NHL handicappers don’t always look at the most popular teams or big games, they understand the real value can be found in less popular and widely overlooked games. The books don’t spend as much time setting these odds because they know the public will bet on Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh. They make the bettor risk a lot more on these big money teams knowing the squares will lose over the long season. NHL Points leader Anaheim had a 9 day stretch in November as huge favorites against lowly Arizona, Vancouver, and Florida at home. They lost all 3 games. The best cappers knew during this stretch The Ducks 2 best goalies were fighting injuries while some of their best skaters were battling the flu. If you bet blindly on Anaheim that week you got crushed. Research and a top handicapper would of spun you towards the dogs and your bankroll would of grew. The most important thing to look at are the goalies. A hot goalie can shutout a top shelf team while an exhausted star has a better chance of giving up 3 or 4 goals to a middle of the pack team fighting for their playoff lives. A handicapper know things like defending champ Jonathon Quick hasn’t won a game in 3 weeks and is 23rd in goals against and 28th in save percentage on the season. Or how the Predators lost Vezina Trophy candidate Pekka Rinne for a month while the backup is just 1-4 on the season. Unless you are an experienced NHL bettor you’re not going to look up all this info and find value like a top NHL handicapper. A little bit of research and setting yourself up with the right capper can make the NHL season a very profitable one.