There are very few things more exciting than the high-flying, hard-hitting, board-checking action of an NHL hockey game. One of the best ways to up the action, though, is by elevating the stakes with NHL sports betting. Whether you’re an expert looking to turn a serious profit, an avid fan looking for an added rush, or you’re skating somewhere in between the two, you’re in the right place to get started.

One of the most important decisions you can make in your NHL sports betting career is which site you choose to place your bets with. Regardless of whether your end goal is profit or just added fun, this is a decision that you aren’t going to want to take lightly. Now, before you start getting stressed, we’re here to let you know that you can relax because we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’re going to walk you through everything you need to know to pick the absolute best NHL betting site for you and your normal or unique wants and needs.

If you’ve got a hot tip that will melt the ice or are just ready to get your bets in now, we won’t keep you any longer. Just visit our list of the top NHL betting sites available to you on the web.

Don't let hockey betting sites that are popular strike any fear into your heart. If you want to feel positively about hockey betting lines and similar subjects, then you simply have to prepare like a champion. You can learn so much about NHL odds. You can learn just as much about NHL lines in general. Best Betting Site for NHL Odds: BetMGM BetMGM offers a huge variety of betting options at a good price. They are well known for their selection of alternate pucklines/spreads and extremely creative prop bets. Pricing is in line with industry standards or better. Best Betting Site for NHL Odds: BetMGM BetMGM offers a huge variety of betting options at a good price. They are well known for their selection of alternate pucklines/spreads.

1. Betting 2020 NHL Western Conference Division Title Futures 2019/12/18 - 1:52pm The race for this season's Stanley Cup is taking shape with the NHL closing in on the midway point of its regular-season schedule.
2. Top 3 Teams – As the season moves along, the top tier teams will separate themselves from the pack. These are the complete teams. They win at home. Who’s In Net – Goalies in the NHL are much like pitchers in the MLB. Every betting line and spread is set according to which goalies are starting.

For those of you that aren’t quite sure yet which NHL betting site you want to use and need some more information, keep reading. We’re going to walk you through everything you need to ensure that you end up at the site that is the best option for you.

Tips for Selecting the Best NHL Betting Site for You

If you’re brand new to NHL sports betting or making the switch from brick and mortar betting, you might not know exactly what it is that you’re looking for. Additionally, there are a lot of great options for NHL betting sites so it may seem tough to pick the right one for you. These tips are here to help you on that journey.

Don’t Limit Yourself to Just One Site

It might seem silly that our “tip to pick the best site for you” is actually to pick multiple sites, but there is a reason for that. Strategically speaking, joining multiple NHL betting sites offers a lot of advantages that can help you win more bets and put more money in your pocket when you win.

The name of the game to winning betting any sport (including the NHL) is line shopping. For short, line shopping is finding the best payout odds for a particular bet you want to make. Different online betting sites often are going to offer different payouts for the exact same bet. This means that by just going to a different site to place your bet, you can get paid more money for the exact same outcome. If you read our guide on understanding sports betting value, you’ll see that we have an entire section dedicated to understanding the importance of line shopping.

Your ability to line shop is only going to be limited by two things – your effort level and the number of betting sites that you check. We can’t do a lot about your effort level except point out the importance of line shopping and how easy it is to do thanks to the internet. What we can recommend, though, is to make sure that you are set to take full advantage of these different lines.

It can take a few minutes to get an account set up and funded online. If you are attempting to get a last-minute bet in and you find an amazing line on a different NHL betting site, you may get shut out if you don’t already have your account set up and verified. Save yourself the trouble and join multiple sites right off the bat.

How many should you join? 45-50 should be good. Kidding. We are kidding. 2-3 sites are probably plenty to get the full benefits of line shopping your NHL bets. Not too many that you’re overwhelmed, but enough that you can find the best line possible on each bet you’re looking to make.

Initially, look for sites that have big bonuses or perks for sports bettors in general. These are going to be much more common and certainly cover all of your NHL bets. Additionally, though, look for any online betting site that caters specifically to NHL sports bettors. Frequently (especially around Stanley Cup time), we will see sites offering specialized promotions to attract hockey bettors. You’d be silly and be leaving money on the table if you didn’t try your best to take advantage of these opportunities.

Gauge the Importance of Mobile Friendliness

One of the big reasons that people love to bet online is that they don’t have to take the time to go to a brick and mortar casino or sportsbook to place their bets. While online sportsbooks take away this ball and chain, they still can take things a step further. There are some online sportsbooks offering NHL betting action that allow you to bet directly from your smartphone or tablet by way of a mobile-friendly website or a dedicated app.

If you’re someone that likes to bet on the go, you’re going to want to make sure that you select an NHL betting site that is mobile friendly. For people that love to go to games, watch them at a bar, or sometimes forget to get their bets in until the last minute, this is a must for you. For the rest of you, it’s maybe not quite as important but is still a nice perk to have and something that we quickly see becoming a deal breaker if an online site does not have it.

How We Rank NHL Betting Sites

Anytime you see a highest-rated list anywhere on the internet, the first question you should always be asking is how did they come up with this list, what criteria did they use, and did sites or people just pay to be on the list. We’re going to walk you through all of that now.

First, no sites can ever pay money for a more favorable rating or to be included on our recommended list. If we allowed this to go on, the list would be of no use to you and would merely be an advertisement pretending to be a well-vetted review. Not on our watch.

Additionally, we’d like to be fully transparent with the criteria that our reviewers use to rank which NHL betting sites we’re going to recommend, and which are going to find themselves on our blacklist.

Trust and Reliability

The number one criterion we will always look at first is the trust and reliability of a betting site. How much fun or profitable would sports betting be if you were placing your bets at a site that you couldn’t fully trust? Beating the books straight up is tough enough on its own; no reason to make things harder on yourself.

If we have even the slightest thought that something is not right with a site in regard to trust and reliability, it’s a no-go from us. We analyze the sites that we recommend here based on their history, industry reputation, customer complaints, and their security practices and procedures. We do our absolute best to vet them as completely as possible to ensure that your money and your bets are safe and sound.

It’s alright to take some chances on a wild puck line or on the worst team in the league to win The Stanley Cup, but don’t take a chance on the security of your money, your bets, and your personal information.

Variety of Bets

When you look at betting the big three sports (football, basketball, and baseball), you really don’t have to worry too much about the variety of different sports bet types available to you. Most online sites are going to offer a wide variety of choices on almost every game. This gives those bettors the utmost ability to leverage their knowledge and expertise and maximize their full profit potential.

But what about us NHL sports bettors? Well, because the sport is slightly lower on the size totem pole, you have to pay attention to how much attention the betting site is giving to the sport. You will find some sportsbooks that offer no action on the NHL until the playoffs or Stanley Cup time. On the other end of the spectrum, you will find online sportsbooks that seem to be run by Wayne Gretzky himself with the number of options they offer.

Should you be looking for the site with few options or the site with all the options? The answer is that it depends. What you need to figure out first is what type of sports bettor you consider yourself. If you’re brand new to betting the NHL, you might get overloaded and confused with too many different bet types and options. While complex bets are not required to make a lot of money, they are available for those bettors that desire them. These can be very confusing to novice bettors. If you’re brand new and just looking to get your feet wet, you might be better off betting with a site that offers fewer bet options and takes a simpler approach to things.

On the flip side, you might be a more experienced bettor who likes to dabble in some of the more complex bets. If this is you, you’re going to want to look for an NHL betting site that caters more to people like you. This should be pretty simple to figure out by reading our review of a site or simply clicking through to their betting portal and seeing what they offer on an upcoming game.

Basically, the bottom line here is to find the NHL betting site that caters itself best to your specific needs. Remember, though, simple bets pay out just the same as complex ones. There is no advantage to using the more complex bets unless there is something specific you want to bet. Often times sports bettors get confused and think that complexity and better payouts are positively correlated. They are not.

Ease of Use

One of the most important things we look for and test during our review of an NHL betting site is how easy the site is to use. You should be able to load money easily, place your wagers quickly and correctly, and overall have an experience that keeps you relaxed and not feeling like a lost puppy.

While many online sportsbooks offering NHL action have caught up to speed with some of the other criteria listed here, this is one where a lot of sites still seem to miss the boat. Often there seems to be a disconnect between the site developers and the end users that results in a clunky and hard to navigate hockey betting experience. Not only is this just plain annoying, but it can also cost you a lot of money. A bad interface can cause you to miss bets you’re trying to get in quickly or even worse cause you to accidentally put in an incorrect bet without even realizing it.

Again, picking NHL winners is hard enough on its own; there’s no reason to make it any harder with the site you are betting on. It’s for that reason that we take ease of use very seriously when making the list of recommend sites at the top of the page.

Banking Components

In the old days of sports betting online, getting money on and offline was a bigger headache than it was worth. Thankfully with technological innovations, this process has gotten much smoother, and with the right site you can get your account funded and your winnings withdrawn in a matter of no time. While this technology exists, it does not mean that every sportsbook offering NHL action has adopted it. In fact, there are some betting sites that use such antiquated processes that it confuses us how they stay in business.

When deciding which NHL betting sites we want to rank and recommend, we take a long look at their banking options, ease of banking, and their policies and procedures surrounding the funding and withdrawal of your money. Much like is the case with trust and reliability, anything that seems off or gives us a bad taste in our mouth here is an instant no-go.

You need to be able to load your account quickly and even more importantly enjoy your winnings quickly without any sort of additional headaches. Online sports betting is supposed to be easier; there’s no reason to waste your time with a site that doesn’t understand and embrace this.

Additional Resources

While this is something still rather rare across the industry, there are some online sportsbooks that offer additional resources to help you with your research and keeping up with NHL news. Some of the additional resources you’ll see include up-to-date news about the sport, player and team bios, statistic gathering tools, or links to clips and past games.

Again, these resources are not very common when it comes to the NHL, but we do like to give some credit to sites that offer them. On that same token, we don’t get too upset with sites that don’t offer them as they are really just an added bonus and not really a necessity to facilitate a top-notch

Why Bet the NHL Online Versus The Casino

If you’re used to placing your NHL bets in the local sportsbook, you may be wondering why fix what isn’t broken. Well, while your local book will probably always continue to take your action and pay you out when you win, you’re probably leaving quite a bit of money and profit on the table. Here’s why:

The Wrap-Up

By now, you should have all the information you need to pick out the best NHL betting site for you. We highly recommend using one of the sites we’ve recommended at the top of the page as these have been fully vetted by our team of experts. If you’re dead set on going it alone and picking your own site, at least utilize the tips and criteria, we have recommended, but do so at your own risk.

There is a lot of money to be made betting on the NHL and a lot of fun to be had. We wish you the best of luck and hope to see you crushing the books soon!

Just watching a close hockey game is a high stress affair on its own. Every possession has game changing potential and the heart skips a beat when the wrong team slaps the puck towards your number one goalie. Now, take that stress and double it and you’ve got a close approximation of what it feels like to have real money on the line at hockey betting sites.

Why do we do this to ourselves? I don’t know, but it’s awesome. Having a little skin in the game puts you in the middle of every shot and every save. It’s one thing to bask in the glory of your team winning a big game, but it’s a whole different experience when you have a personal stake in the outcome.

Don’t have any bookmakers nearby? No problem – that’s where hockey betting sites enter the picture. As long as you have a computer and access to the internet (something tells me you do), you’ve got everything you need to place real money bets on the NHL, the Olympic Games and other leagues around the world.

Best Hockey Betting Sites

Simply finding an online sportsbook that accepts hockey wagers will never be a problem. Hockey may not have even half the viewership numbers of football or baseball, but it’s still a mainstay sport in many parts of the world. It would be very surprising to find a betting site that doesn’t cover the sport.

However, we want to do more than just find a place to bet. We want to find the best place to bet. Some hockey betting websites seem to do the minimum just so they can claim they cover hockey. Others offer an extensive selection of wagers for a variety of national and international leagues. We want to find brands and operators that fit the second category.

Long story short, the above hockey betting sites are the ones that fit the bill. They are all safe, trustworthy places with the most complete lineup of betting options. It’s no accident that these are some of the biggest names in the online gambling industry. Successful sports gambling sites have the resources and manpower to support an extensive variety of wagers in all sports.

What do you mean by “coverage”?

When I say “coverage,” what I mean is the variety of wagers and the number of games for which bets are available. Most hockey betting sites are pretty good about covering all the NHL games. That alone is good for more than 1200 games. At the minimum, a site should offer pucklines and point totals for every game of the NHL season.

The best hockey sites take it further with wagers on Olympic matchups and leagues in other nations such as the Kontinental Hockey League and the Elite Ice Hockey League. These other leagues are pretty niche so I won’t hold it against a site if it doesn’t cover these other leagues all the time. It’s a nice bonus but not mandatory.

Is it safe to bet on hockey online?

Nhl Betting Sites Free

Yes, but only if you do business with reputable betting sites. The internet requires trust in all matters of finance. It’s not like you walk in, look someone in the eye and shake his hand. Everything revolves around reputation. And even on the internet, you cannot fake a reputation. People talk and word gets out. Eventually, time sorts the good from the bad.

That’s another reason why I like to default to established brands. The longer a website has been around, the more information you can dig up. If you run a search on any of the hockey betting sites that I recommend, you’ll see that I’m not the only person with good things to say about these companies.

Is online hockey betting legal?

The answer to this question depends on where you live. My readers from the UK have a clear-cut answer: yes. Not only is it legal to bet online in the United Kingdom, but the government actually monitors the industry and issues licenses to gaming companies.

The answer is not as clear-cut for visitors from other countries, especially those located in the United States. Technically, there’s nothing in the law that says it is illegal for people like you and me to place bets over the internet. Several states have laws on the books that could be interpreted to apply to individual gamblers, but those laws aren’t enforced at all.

On the other hand, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) and the Wire Act do outlaw the business of online sports betting. Those who own and operate online sportsbooks do face serious legal risks. That’s why all the big sites are hosted overseas in gambling-friendly countries. As a rule, we only reccomend playing at licensed and regulated gambling sites. The good news for those readers in the US, is that daily fantasy sports websites provide a safe and legal sports option for hockey fans.

Looking for Something More Specific?

Sports Betting Nhl

This page is intended as a guide to hockey betting sites in general. If you’re looking for a specific type of hockey, we have a couple other pages with information of a more specific nature.

Types of Hockey Bets and Wagers

Now it’s time to get to the fun stuff. A quick review of the different types of hockey bets will have you ready to place your wagers in no time. Hockey is a pretty straightforward sport for betting purposes. There are four main types of bets that you’re likely to encounter.

The moneyline is a basic wager on who will win the game. Hockey sportsbook sites set the payout odds for wagers on each team and display them in the betting area in a format that looks something like this:

• Washington Capitals +165
• Chicago Blackhawks -200

In this matchup, the oddsmaker believes the Capitals are the underdogs and have given them payout odds of +165. This means that for every $1.00 you wager on the Capitals, you will profit $1.65 if they win the game.

The situation is reversed for the Blackhawks, who are believed to have the advantage going into this game. Hockey betting odds of -200 mean that you will need to risk $2.00 for every $1.00 in potential profits. If, for example, you wager $200 on the Blackhawks and they win, you’ll be paid a total of $300 for a net profit of $100.

Once you understand how the moneyline works, you’ll have no problem with the puck line. The only difference between the two is that the puck line gives or takes a couple of goals from each team to help even out lopsided matches or give you the opportunity to approach a game from a different angle.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re confident in the Blackhawks but aren’t sold on backing them at -200. If your hockey site has a puck line on that game, you can get better odds in return for giving up a scoring advantage. Here’s an example of that same Capitals-Blackhawks game in the puck line format:

• Washington Capitals +1.5 -185
• Chicago Blackhawks -1.5 +160

You’ll recognize the moneyline hockey odds in this wager. Those are still in effect, although the payouts are different. The +1.5 and -1.5 shows the point spread. In this example, Blackhawks are giving the Capitals 1.5 goals. What this means is the Blackhawks must win by at least 2 goals to win the match for betting purposes.

The point total gives you an opportunity to wager on how many total goals will be scored in the game. The oddsmaker sets a total (usually around 5 to 5.5) and you try to predict if the actual combined score of both teams ends up being greater than or less than the total.

The Grand Salami is a variation of the point total except it covers all games played on a single day. In this wager, the hockey betting site sets a number (usually around 50-60 depending on how many games are scheduled) and you try to predict if the total number of goals scored that day is greater than or less than that number.

Have Multiple Hockey Sports Betting Accounts

I’ll be the first to admit that my hockey betting strategy is pretty haphazard. However, I do have one tip that will help you no matter how good or bad you are. Get an account at more than one sports betting site and shop the odds every time you find a bet you want to place.

If you’re thinking about backing the Capitals at +165, for example, check around and make sure someone else isn’t paying +170 or +180. This requires no special knowledge or even any real effort. You’ll be surprised at how often you find discrepancies between hockey betting sites. Take advantage of that and make sure you always get the most for your money.

NHL Betting

The esteemed National Hockey League (NHL) as we know it today came from humble beginnings way back in 1917, with just four teams. Now, the NHL is the premier ice hockey league in the world with 30 teams from the United States and Canada.

NHL betting is firmly entrenched in the North American domain, but it still generates betting action around the world. Both US and international bookmakers are consistent about putting up NHL lines, futures and props every year. No matter where you call home, there’s a website somewhere that will book your NHL action. Speaking of which, let’s begin with a quick list of the best sportsbooks for the NHL:

Best NHL Betting Sites

You may have noticed our top-sites list favors US-facing websites. That’s no accident. The NHL draws the majority of its audience and betting action from the US and Canada. International sportsbooks do cover the NHL, but we’ve found that US-facing sites tend to offer the most betting options and best promos for the NHL.

Betting on NHL Games

Every team in the NHL plays 82 games in the regular season with the potential for more games in the postseason en route to the Stanley Cup. Do the math and that comes out to 1,230 betting events in the regular season alone. What this means for savvy bettors is that there are many opportunities to find value in the NHL.

Of course, it helps to know how NHL betting works in the first place. The most basic form of NHL betting is the straight-up match bet. In this bet, you pick an upcoming game between any 2 teams and place a wager on the team that you think will win. If you are correct, you receive a payout.

North American bookies use the moneyline format to express the odds for straight-up bets. The average NHL bet looks something like this:

• Team A -130
• Team B +110

The moneylines in this example show how much money you can expect to win per dollar wagered. Team A is the favorite to win with odds of -130. This means that for every $1.30 you risk on Team A, you stand to win $1.00. In other words, you’re being asked to risk more than what you stand to win because Team A is seen as the most likely to win.

Nfl Betting Sites

Team B is the underdog with odds of +110. For every $1.00 you risk on Team B, you stand to win $1.10. So if you bet $100 on Team B, you’ll get $100 plus your original wager back if Team B wins. The odds are a little better for Team B because they are less likely to win.

As with any form of internet sports betting, the ultimate key to success is finding the bets that offer good value. You can’t expect to win your bets on every match, but you can make decent money if you take time to research and identify value bets.

The Puck Line

The puck line is a combination of the point spread and moneyline wager. Pure point spreads don’t work well in ice hockey because it tends to be a low-scoring game. So, hockey betting sites combine point spreads with moneylines to create a hybrid type of wager.

A typical puck line looks like this:

• Team A +1.5 -140
• Team B -1.5 +120

Team A is the underdog in this example with a point spread of +1.5. This means that if you bet on Team A, your bet will win if Team A wins, ties or loses by 1 goal. The -140 tells you that you need to risk $140 for $100 in potential winnings.

Team B is the favorite in this matchup with a point spread of -1.5. This means that Team B must win by at least 2 goals for any bets on Team B to be considered winners. The +120 means that for every $100 you risk on Team B, you stand to win $120.

Betting on the Winner of the Stanley Cup

At the end of a regular season of the National Hockey League, eight teams qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is an elimination tournament where the teams are grouped in pairs and play a best of seven series with the winners progressing through to the next round. The two teams that get through the previous rounds compete in the final for a chance to win the Stanley Cup – the ultimate trophy in the NHL.

One popular NHL bet is on which team will lift the Stanley Cup at the culmination of the season. Betting markets for the winner of the Stanley Cup are available at online betting sites well in advance of the start of the season and remain open throughout the season right up until the final games are played.

Betting on the winner of the Stanley Cup is also a fixed odds bet; you simply select which team you think will win the trophy and place your wager accordingly. The odds available on teams fluctuate throughout the season depending on how they are performing on a weekly basis.

These wagers are classified as “futures” because of the long-term outlook. Futures have their pros and cons. On the pro side, futures offer significant payouts for the biggest underdogs. If you make the right pick early in the year, it is possible to earn a massive payday at the end of the season.

Nhl Betting Odds Tonight

The downside to futures is that they are hard to win. As well all know, anything can happen in sports. Sure, you can wager on the favorite, but the payouts are smaller and favorites are far from locks. As the season progresses and more information becomes known, the odds for the various teams tighten up.

Other NHL Hockey Bets and Wagers

Betting on individual NHL matches certainly makes up most of the wagers made on the National Hockey League, and betting on the winner of the Stanley Cup is also common. However, wagering on the NHL is in no way limited to just these particular bets.

Nhl Betting Lines

At most NHL betting sites, you will find there are variety of other bets that can be placed on the NHL. For example, over/under betting is common. Also known as totals, over/under bets are wagers on the total number of goals scored in any one game.

You’ll also find a variety of prop bets that cover everything else. Prop bets are offered on all sorts of random subjects, such as which team will score first, which players will score, who will make the playoffs and so on. Basically, props cover everything not related to which team will win a specific matchup.