Hockey Betting Tips 2024

Tips to Help You Make Better Hockey Bets

Don't Risk Too Much on Futures

As we discuss on our homepage here, futures are all about betting on the NHL outcome of individual matchups before the season really picks up. Yes, these can be lucrative bets, if only because you're not risking a lot to win a lot. For example, say you put down $20 on a team that's 60:1 to even make the playoffs, and they end up picking up a great free agent or trade deal early in the season to take them into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This is a huge boon for your betting cause here, a sum of $1,200.

However, we advise you not to get carried away with futures. The reason the odds can be so great with futures is that 99.9% aren't going to pan out. And the ones more likely to pan out have higher odds in the first place; e.g. 5:1 instead of 50:1. So while you can throw a couple of bucks down on a future you think might pan out, you don't want to risk a lot of your stack doing this.

Go with a Goalie

While Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Alex Ovechkin and other big-name players get all the money, all the publicity, and probably all the girls too, it's the goalies on a hockey team that truly help decide a team's fate. A great goalie nullifies the efforts of a great scorer. And so players like Carey Price, Jonathan Quick, and Henrik Lundqvist are all players you should be watching more closely than those bigger names.

These are the players who are going to help you win on straight bets, over/under bets, and even props. If a team cannot score against a goalie, then the team with the better goalie is not only more likely to win, but the final score of the game is also more likely to be low. So keep your eyes peeled for great goalies when you're betting hockey.

Avoid Big Favorites and the Deepest Dogs

Anyone who bet on Ronda Rousey in the UFC knows that the biggest favorite in the sport's history isn't always a sure thing. And this can go back even further, with the likes of Mike Tyson losing to Buster Douglas, the Patriots losing the Super Bowl to the Giants in '07, etc.

For hockey in particular, always avoid someone who's too large a favorite. For example, if you see the Rangers are -360 over the Canucks, there's a lot that can go wrong. For starters, and most importantly, you'll have to put down $360 just to win $100. If you lose, that's a huge blow. The other side can sting too. For instance, you may see a team that's +400, which means $1 will get you $4.

Understand that these rarely do pan out, and what's dangerous is that players like placing even more money on the huge dogs for an astronomical payout. Mind your budget here. Avoid favorites that are too large, and don't put down a ton of money on dogs that are too deep. Either extreme here results in lost money a lot of the time.

Don't Shy Away from Props

Hockey lines are fairly limited. You'll rarely find anything like a points spread, and the straight bets are typically kept in the Goldilocks zone and don't pay off well either way. However, proposition bets introduce an entirely different category of betting. For instance, you can bet on the O/U of saves for a goalie, or how many goals will be scored, how many penalties will be called, how many points a team gets in general, etc, etc.

The list of props goes on and on, and may even include how many times the announcers say Wayne Gretzky's name during a Stanley Cup game. These bet types are beneficial because you can find something that's a better bet for your money considering how many options you're going to have. Many gamblers stick strictly with props and avoid lines altogether, and it can be quite lucrative.

The Right Site Makes a Difference

You should also always remember to bet with a winning sportsbook. The right sportsbook is going to offer you better bonuses out of the gate, and also feature more prop betting and live betting action, more actionable lines, streaming options, and much more. Low-rent sites are only interested in you losing the money. Going with a reputable, popular sportsbook simply gives you plenty more to bet on.

Bet Per Game, Not Series

When the playoffs start in the NHL, you'll find plenty of lines and futures dealing with the team you think will win the entire 7-game series. You might have your own ideas about this, but it's better to stick with a game-by-game basis. Say you put down $100 on a 3:1 bet for the Red Wings to beat the Senators in the series.

On paper, this might seem like a great bet. But imagine Detroit's best player gets hurt or their goalie gets suspended. There is a lot of stuff that can happen in an entire series that makes those bets losers. Stick with a game at a time.

Read Injury Reports

If you're betting on hockey blindly, you may as well be flipping a coin. It's always going to be best for you if you see who's injured and who's making the starting lineup. As with the example above, you wouldn't want to place a bet on Detroit to beat anybody if their best players are out with some sort of injury. Checking up on injury reports and rosters helps you to figure out more about the game that's going to be played.

We can suggest some tips for you here to help you bet with a better idea about how to win money with hockey, but we cannot guarantee any sort of victory. The best you can hope for is to make the move that's mathematically favorable for you, and to do so from an informed position. If you can do this, you can easily end up winning more often than you lose, and this means making money.