As the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Panthers and Oilers gets cranking, betting on pro hockey has never been more popular or accessible. Over 75 percent of Canada and the United States can now legally bet on sports.
Many in the non-betting community only refrain from joining in on the fun because they simply don't know how it works. That's understandable — because when you're talking about investing your hard-earned money.
Want to get up to speed on betting on pro hockey? Below is a comprehensive guide to betting on the NHL.
NHL betting, explained: Types of bets
So, you’re interested to join the millions of North Americans who bet on pro hockey each year. Great! But first, you'll need to know how it all works — and what kind of bets you can make.
What is a moneyline?
A moneyline is quite simple: it’s a straight-up wager on the winner of a sporting event. It’s the O.G. of sports gambling thanks to its simplicity. Unlike puck lines, which differ by winning margin but always have relatively similar odds, moneylines never involve winning margins but generally see fluctuating odds.
‘Moneyline’ sounds complex to beginners of the sports betting world, but don’t let the lingo fool you into thinking it’s above your head. Betting a moneyline is just picking a winner — anyone can do it. However, the savviest bettors know which moneylines yield the best value, and which ones should be avoided.
As will be explained in the +/- section further down, the numbers listed beside each team on the moneyline are usually American odds.
Quite simply, the American moneyline odds:
- indicate each side’s implied win probability.
- determine the amount of money you would win, based on your wager.
The team with a plus sign (“+”) next to their odds is the perceived underdog, while the team with a negative sign (“-”) next to their odds number is perceived by your sportsbook as the favorite.
Many times, both teams will have “-” signs next to them. In these instances, the team with the number farther from zero is the perceived favorite (-115 would be the slight favorite over -105). Any time you bet the side with the longer odds (the underdog), you will net a bigger payout on the moneyline. Of course, the risk of losing such a bet is also greater.
Let’s look at a specific example of betting and winning on a moneyline. Let’s say you happen upon a game between the Panthers and the Oilers, where the Panthers are listed at -110 and the Oilers are listed at +150.
If you bet $100 on Edmonton at +150 moneyline odds and the Oilers win the game, you would win $150 for a total payout of $250. But if you bet $100 on the Panthers’ -110 moneyline and Florida wins, you would profit $90.91 for a total of $190.91.
With moneyline betting, the lines with plus symbols signify the amount of money you would win on a $100 wager, while the odds with minus signs represent the amount you would need to bet to win $100.
What is betting the puck line?
If you bet on the winner of a game but not the moneyline, chances are you’re betting the puck line — which is basically like the spread in hockey. The puck line evens the betting playing field between the favorite and the underdog of a specific betting contest. It allows you as a bettor to gamble not just on the win or loss, but on how much one team will win or lose by. Betting the puck line has become a very popular form of hockey betting.
First-time bettors almost always get burned by the puck line early on. Handicappers make fine careers setting lines, so it stands to reason that they know more about odds and trends than most novice gamblers. Learning how to read, interpret, and react to puck lines and the odds attached to them are all vital parts of a bettor’s journey.
The puck line represents the margin of goals in which the favored team or player must win by to “cover the spread.” It also represents the margin of goals an underdog may lose by to cover. Bets on the puck line often have different goal amounts and almost always have different odds.
Here’s an easy way to understand the spread: if an underdog — say Edmonton — is getting +1.5 goals against the Panthers, that means the Oilers can essentially lose to Florida by any margin under two goals and still cover. Add 1.5 goals to the Oilers' total at the end of the game, and if the final amount is more than the Panthers' final score, Edmonton covers and you win for ‘taking the goals’ (betting the underdog).
In the same respect, the Panthers would have been -1.5 and therefore would not cover because they didn’t win by two. So, anyone ‘laying the points’ (betting the favorite) went home empty-handed even if Florida technically won the game.
Spreads and puck lines are great because they make things more interesting than cut-and-dry moneyline betting. But they also make things a bit more complex, and you don’t get paid out as well when you hit on upsets.
What is betting the over/under or "total"?
Another popular bet you will encounter in your betting journey is the over/under. This is easy to explain: sportsbooks release a specified point total, and bettors decide whether to bet that the final score will equal more or less than that total. If you bet the OVER, you are predicting that the teams will combine to exceed the books’ projected total. If you bet the UNDER, you expect the teams to combine for fewer goals than the books’ listed total.
For example: the Panthers and Oilers have an over/under of 8.5 goals. They combine to score seven. OVER bettors lost, UNDER bettors rejoice.
Why list it at 8.5 instead of just eight? Because casinos and sportsbooks don’t like pushes — they want one side or the other to win and move on. There will always be a winner or a loser since you can’t score half-points or half-goals in sports. That 0.5 is called "the hook" in sports betting.
Most of the time, the over and under are listed with "pick'em" or even odds. You are betting on what oddsmakers/handicappers believe will be the exact total points or goals scored — so in their eyes, you’re betting on a coin flip. Thus, the odds generally sit at -110 on both sides of the over/under spectrum.
At -110, you must bet $110 to win $100. You guessed it, the books and casinos take the $10 (or 10%, whichever way you want to look at it) as a ‘vig." A vig is your flat fee/commission for being able to place the bet. This can also be called the "juice."
So, if two guys bet $110 on different sides of the over/under, the house wins the money that the loser ultimately lost as well as the winner’s $10 vig. The house takes in $220 in wagers, pays out the winner $100, pockets the loser’s $110, and pockets the winner’s $10 vig.
In summary: an over/under bet is simply a bet on whether you think the points or goals in a game will be more or less than the listed total. These bets are generally, but not always, offered with a 10-percent vig and serve as a 50/50 proposition. Knowing how much “commission” you are paying is key to managing your bankroll.
What is a futures bet?
A futures bet is simple — it's any bet on something that will be settled in the future. That can be an NHL Stanley Cup Finals bet, a stat leader bet, or an awards race.
Futures bets typically pay out at plus odds, with larger potential payouts the further away your wager is from the expected result. The closer you get to the day the bet is settled — and the further from the pack a team or player moves — the shorter the odds become for that player or team.
For example, the Panthers were +1800 to win the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals before the NHL regular season began. Now that they have just one team to get through, they are -130 to win it all. Similarly, Connor McDavid was +800 to win the Conn Smythe not long ago, but he's just +200 to be named the Finals' most outstanding player now.
What is a parlay?
A parlay is a bet that involves multiple different wagers rolled into one. The individual wagers within a parlay, called legs, must all win in order for the parlay to win. For this reason, parlay odds are typically much longer and therefore yield much higher potential payouts.
What is prop betting?
Prop betting is wagering on specific game and player stats to occur in a game, series, season, or postseason. This can involve betting on a player to accumulate a certain amount of points, goals, or assists, betting on a team to finish with a certain amount of goals in a game, season, or playoff series, or betting on a player to record a hat trick or goalie to mount a shutout.
What is a 60-minute line?
A 60-minute line, also known as a three-way market, is a bet that doesn't include overtime. Three possible outcomes can be chosen in a 60-minute line bet: visitor win, home win, or tie. If you want to bet on a tie taking place, this is the market in which to do it. Sharp bettors also place bets on 60-minute lines to get more appealing odds than a standard two-way moneyline.
What is live betting?
Live betting involves placing moneyline, puck line, over/under, and prop bets while the game is in play. The total amount of bets available to you may be reduced during game play, especially if one team or player got off to a particularly strong start. Live bets allow bettors to react to a team looking better in the game than perhaps they were initially expected to look when the pregame odds were set. Live betting also allows sharp bettors to "hedge" their bets so they can reduce the amount of money they lose with failed pregame wagers.
What is a Grand Salami?
A Grand Salami is a total (or over/under) posted by the oddsmakers that involves not just the combined score of one game but the entire combined scores of every team in every game within a particular league.
NHL betting, explained: Odds
Now that you know the different types of bets you can make, you should also familiarize yourself with the concept of odds. It's perhaps the most crucial premise all bettors must learn.
- Odds are displayed in a variety of different formats: American, decimal, and fractional
- Learning how to read odds gives you a core understanding of which bets are worth making, e.g. risk management
Every successful sports bettor masters the concept of odds before embarking on their betting journey. Odds inform bettors how much inherent risk and potential reward lie within a bet, how much money they should gamble, and the implied probability of winning.
What are American, decimal, and fractional odds?
Odds are featured in American, decimal, or fractional formats, and serve two basic functions:
- They represent the implied probability of the outcome of a sporting bet.
- They specify the amount of money a bettor can win by correctly predicting that outcome.
Odds do not always represent probability. Sometimes, odds shift when sportsbooks try to lure more action onto one side or the other. Various factors have been known to influence odds, so shifts should not always be viewed as hints toward the inevitable outcome of the event.
When sportsbooks alter odds drastically, bettors often find themselves enticed into thinking an edge or advantage may exist. In actuality, it could just be that the books want more bets flowing in on the other side of a potential outcome so they can bring in more profits off their ‘cut’ of the placed bets.
Books always charge a cut for each placed bet, much like the ‘rake’ in a game of poker or Black Jack. These small charges or commissions are known as ‘the cut,’ ‘the juice,’ or ‘the vig.’
What are American betting odds?
American betting odds always feature a +/- with a specific number. So, what do these positive and negative symbols mean?
What do the + and – mean in sports betting?
The – and + on a sports betting line represent the favorite and the underdog, respectively. They also indicate your prospective payout if you bet the line.
A negative number before a betting line means the involved player or team is the perceived favorite. The negative number signifies how much you would need to bet to win $100.
A positive number before a betting line means the involved player or team is the perceived underdog. The number indicates the amount of money you would win if you bet $100.
In many cases, especially in good matchups, puck lines, and over/unders, both sides of a bet will be listed with negative odds. When betting on a player, team, prop, spread, or over/under with negative odds, you usually risk more than you will profit.
What are decimal betting odds?
Decimal odds (aka “European” odds, “digital” odds, or “continental” odds) are more commonly used in continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Once you learn how they are calculated, decimal odds are actually quite easy to read. Just like with ‘+/-’ in the U.S., favorites and underdogs can be easily determined through the decimal numbers.
Unlike with American odds, the decimal odds number equals the amount a bettor wins for every $1 wagered. For decimal odds, the number signifies the total payout, rather than the profit. Your wager (or stake) is already included in the decimal number (no need to add back your wager), which makes it much easier to calculate your total payout.
Here’s how to calculate the total (potential) return on a wager using decimal odds:
Total Payout = Wager x Decimal Odd Number
For example, imagine you have two teams pitted against each other. One has a listed decimal number of 4.0 and the other has a specified number of 1.3. For this example, we’ll choose the Panthers and the Oilers.
Panthers: 4.00
Oilers: 1.3
These numbers represent the amount you could win against each $1 you put at stake. So, if you bet $100 on the Panthers to win, you could receive a total payout of $400 ($100 x 4.00). This amount includes the initial wager of $100, resulting in a total net profit of $300.
Similarly, you could receive a total payout of $130 ($100 x 1.3) if you successfully bet $100 on the Oilers. Deducting $100 from this return gives you the $30 net profit earned.
The higher the total payout (i.e. the higher the decimal odd), the less probable (and riskier) it is for the listed team to win.
What are fractional betting odds?
Fractional odds (aka “British” odds, “U.K.” odds, or “traditional” odds) are commonly used by British and Irish sportsbooks and bookies. Thus, we often see golf, soccer, rugby, and cricket odds listed as fractions. Fractional odds are typically featured with a slash (/) or hyphen (-) and are utilized by some of the largest international bookmakers.
A fractional listing of 10/1 (ten-to-one) odds would mean that you win $10 against every dollar you wager, in addition to receiving your dollar back (i.e. the amount you wagered). In other words, this is the ratio of the amount (profit) won to the initial bet, which means that you will receive your stake ($1) in addition to the profit ($10), resulting in a total payout of $11. If you bet $100 at 10/1 odds, you would profit $1,000 and net a total of $1,100.
Here’s how to calculate the total (potential) return on a wager using fractional odds:
(Numerator x Bet amount) ÷ Denominator = Potential Winnings
Let’s use the 2024 Stanley Cup futures odds as an example.
Panthers: 159/50
Oilers: 220/50
We can immediately establish that the Panthers are the favorites, while the odds for Edmonton to win are longer. You would win $159 against every $50 you wager on Florida to win the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile, you would win $220 against each $50 you put at stake for Edmonton to win.
Too confusing? We get it — betting on sports shouldn’t require an advanced degree in mathematics.
Betting and betting conversion calculators can be found all over the web, and sites like Sports Interaction allow you to see odds boards with all three forms of odds.
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