There are countless hockey and NHL betting sites in Canada. However, if you want to bet on hockey, you need to find the best sites for it, not use just any sportsbook out there. That’s because not every sportsbook is right for you, nor does it offer all the things you need.
We’ve made sure to do as much research as possible to find the best licensed and regulated NHL betting sites for Canadian bettors. All you need to do is check out our list, choose one or more sites you like and start placing bets.
There are many hockey and ice hockey leagues in the world, and many betting sites cover a wide selection of them. However, you’ll typically want to bet only on the most popular ones. More importantly, you should always bet on the leagues and teams you follow, as knowledge is crucial for placing good bets.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the main leagues you need to know about if you’re going to bet on hockey.
The NHL is the top ice hockey league on the planet, even though it features only teams from Canada and the United States. At the moment, there are 31 teams in the NHL, and seven of those are Canadian. A new team will join the league for the 2021/2022 season.
You’ll get a vast number of games to bet on in each NHL season, with the pinnacle of the season always being the Stanley Cup Final.
This is the second-best ice hockey league in the world, right after the NHL. The Kontinental Hockey League is based in Moscow and features teams from Russia, Europe, and China. The league grew from the Russian Superleague, and it currently boasts 24 superb teams, all of which are trying to win the Gagarin Cup, the seasonal trophy in the KHL.
The AHL is connected to the NHL and also features teams from both Canada and the US. It has 31 teams at the moment, four of which are from Canada. Every season, they all battle it out for the Calder Cup, named after Frank Calder, the league’s first president.
This is the leading ice hockey league in Sweden and one of the world’s best ice hockey leagues. It currently has 14 teams, and it’s famous for always having a sizable number of spectators, which can only mean that its quality is unquestionable.
Bet On Hockey
As is the case with most sports, there are numerous bets you can use in hockey. Betting sites tend to cover massive selections of betting markets. However, only a couple of bets are genuinely excellent in hockey and NHL betting.
The most basic bet available in hockey and every other sport is the moneyline bet. All you need to do is choose a team you believe will win the game and bet on it.
This bet is similar to the moneyline bet, but it’s focused on a specific match period. You’re effectively betting on a team to score more goals in a single period of the game.
The puck line bet works the same way as the moneyline bet, but there’s a twist. The favourite starts with a 1.5 goal disadvantage, so they have to win by a two-goal margin if you bet on them. If you bet on the underdog, they can lose, the game can end in a draw, or they can lose by one goal, and you’ll still win the bet.
Handicap bets exist in every sport, and they are a way to make the teams more evenly matched, especially if one is significantly better than the other. Thus, a handicap bet adds or subtracts a specific number of goals. In essence, the handicap bet is just a puck line bet, except the line isn’t always set at 1.5, and it changes depending on the relative strengths of the teams.
This is a popular bet in most sports. All you need to do is bet on the total number of goals in a match being above or below the number proposed by the betting site.
Prop bets come in various shapes and forms, and they always require you to predict something very specific, like a player scoring a particular number of goals in a match.
Futures bets are all bets in which you need to predict an outcome in the distant future, like the Stanley Cup winner or the winner of a specific conference or division.
Live bets are bets you make while the match you’re betting on is happening. In hockey, the most common live bets include game totals, moneylines, puck lines, and most notably, game props. Live prop bets are incredibly exciting and potentially lucrative.
If you want to become a more successful player and make more money from hockey betting, you need to follow some essential guidelines:
Online sports betting still has a complicated relationship with Canadian law. For you to bet legally in Canada, you have to use a licensed site, but these are rare, which is why you should join offshore sportsbooks, like the ones we recommend in this guide. No law forbids you from doing this, and these sites are well within their rights to offer services to Canadian sports bettors.
You bet on hockey just like you bet on any other sport, so there’s nothing you really need to learn here. All you need to do is choose a good sportsbook, create an account, deposit money, and place a bet you want on the event you wish to bet on, and that’s that.
Of course, this is one of the most common bonuses in sports betting and the best way to get free bets. It’s available on many NHL betting sites, including the ones we recommend.
15 June, 2021
