Accepting losses and losing streaks are unfortunately all part of the package for sports bettors. But you should not despair if your formula is not working, or you encounter defeat. Sometimes, all it takes is to revise your betting strategy or cast a wider net with your NHL bets to get back to those winning ways.
NHL Hockey Betting Strategy Directory
On this page, I have collected a number of different NHL betting strategies, relating to virtually every possible angle of NHL betting. These strategies are not reserved for NHL betting experts, in fact, NHL betting beginners can also benefit greatly from these strategies. Here, I will show you the importance of evaluating match odds, picking different betting markets, how progressive betting systems work, and some little features that you can consider in your NHL parlays.
Learn all the NHL Betting Terms and Explore Niche Betting Markets
The language used in betting circles and popular forums can get quite technical, especially when reading insights or analysis from pro tipsters. Rather than assuming what these terms mean from the context, we go into detail about what these betting terms relate to and exactly what the tipster is referring to when they use them.
There is a lot to dive into, even with the simplest betting markets such as puck lines, spreads, totals, and more. That brings us onto the next topic, of browsing alternative betting markets. NHL is a hugely popular US sport, and therefore sportsbooks have no shortage of betting props, player bets, and alternative puck lines. In many cases, these markets have a lot more value than simply going for the mainstream markets, and there is great money to be made when you diversify your selections.
Understand the Importance of NHL Betting Odds Value
On the surface of it, evaluating odds can seem quite tedious to casual bettors. If you only bet once in a blue moon, who can blame you for not shopping around and looking for wagers that give you a few extra cents on your wagered dollar? But this is one of the defining qualities that distinguish pro NHL bettors from carefree casual bettors.
With popular wagers, such as moneylines on favorites, or total points over bets, sportsbooks will tend to add more juice, as most bettors will be more interested in betting on the favorite or on an Over total points betting market. The betting value tips in favor of the underdogs and Under total points betting markets, which leads to great betting opportunities on these markets. When planning your next wagers, you should bear this in mind. Don’t just look at which bets have the best likelihood of coming through on paper, but also check out the odds on the wager, and that should help you decide whether the wager, at the given price, is worth the risk.
Don’t Limit Yourself to Simple NHL Parlay Wagers
Calculating value is even more essential for parlay bettors. The difference in a straight bet is probably only going to amount to a few cents or dollars, but in parlays those odds can grow exponentially. NHL parlay betting is very popular in the US, with huge potential returns, even if you are just betting on a few heavy favorites to win their games.
But the NHL is notorious for its volatility, and all it takes is for one underdog to overcome the favorites for your bet to lose. What if I told you that there are ways to cover your parlays to avoid these debilitating defeats? For example, you can use teasers to change the puck lines on your spread bet parlays, or wager numerous stakes in round robin wagers to cover more possible outcomes.
The top US NHL betting sites provide these advanced parlay betting tools, so that you can mitigate losses and adjust the risk to reward ratio to your liking. You may not use round robins, teasers or system bets all the time, but you should know how they work, so that you can use them to mix up your NHL betting tactics.
Current Form is Key
The NHL season is a long one. Stretching over 82 games, you will inevitably see teams go through ups and downs. The trick is identifying when when a team is really struggling or when a team looks like they are playing their best hockey so you can capitalize on it and make some money.
When you check on the records of NHL teams, you will see both their ‘last 1o’ and ‘streak’ listed. This gives you a good insight into that team’s current form. Even if a team is low in the league rankings, even they have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and are on a win streak, now might be a good time to bet on them. Their overall perception might be they are bad because of their league position, so you will also likely get very good odds, as well.
Consider the Schedule
NHL lines can reveal a lot for where and when a certain team is playing during the week. If the Winnipeg Jets are the best team in the entire NHL at the halfway point of the season, they might be priced as +100 against the 8th placed Los Angeles Kings on a Friday night. When you dig a little deeper, you see that the Jets are playing their third game that week and so fatigue will be a factor.
The Jets are the best team in hockey, but they aren’t superhuman. This is where you need to look at travel schedules as well. Is a team having to travel to a different coast? Also consider who the home team is and physical impact it will have on the away team after going through a long distance trip. Some teams will have to travel thousands and thousands of miles and this will naturally have an impact.
How to Hedge Your NHL Bets
This NHL betting strategy is not really approved of by US sportsbooks, so we would caution any bettors considering hedge or arbitrage betting. The principle is to place contrasting bets on the same game line, so that you are guaranteed a win regardless of the outcome. The wins will not be as great, but if you can find discrepancies between the odds at different sportsbooks then it is mathematically possible to place contrasting bets with guaranteed returns.
There are various types of hedge betting strategies, including matched betting, arbitrage betting, and dutching. All of them, except dutching, are generally shunned by sportsbooks, and if an operator suspects that you are hedge betting, they may suspend, or in extreme cases, even ban you. But with dutching, you are not really breaking any laws or upsetting any operators.
Progressive Betting Systems for Winning in the Long Run
These strategies go beyond what will happen in the next round of NHL games. You are not thinking about how much your next bets will win, but rather, thinking about how to turn a profit in the long run. The basic principle of progressive betting systems is to stake units for every bet, and to change the number of units on your next wager based on whether your previous wager won or lost.
A positive progressive betting system involves you increasing the stake on your next bet, whereas negative systems involves you reducing the stake. There are plenty of applications for these progressive betting systems, and they all work slightly differently. Martingale, one of the most popular systems, involves aggressive increases in your stake to ensure a long-term profit. D’Alembert is another progressive betting system and is intended to recoup losses and play safe.
Capitalizing on Live Bets and Outright Wagers
There is no way of knowing how well a team prepares for a game, or how mentally ready the players are before hitting the ice rink. We have statistics and historical data to get a good idea, but there are so many more variables that come into play. A lot of these questions and assumptions can be answered in the first few minutes of play.
Enter live betting markets. In-play betting, or live betting, provides you with the opportunity to make predictions during a game, and if you have an eye for spotting early game indicators or important signs of what comes next, then you can make good money on NHL live bets. Timing is an important part of live betting, as is evaluating the odds and not being afraid to make snap decisions. The cash out option is another tool that is very useful in the right hands.
Outright bets are also a great source for professional NHL bettors. The best NHL betting sites in the US are stocked with masses of futures and outrights, betting on the winners of the Divisions and Conferences to regular season points, who will make the playoffs, and finally which team will win the esteemed Stanley Cup.
Master Betting Tools to Analyse Your Bets
Assessing probability, potential returns, bankroll management, and applying any NHL betting strategy requires a few calculations to be made on your part. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean creating large dossiers and incessantly adding numbers and formulas. We have a number of tools and betting calculators that do the hard work for you.
These betting tools are designed with your interests in mind, and crunch the numbers to show you exactly what the odds on a given game imply, and you can use our designated betting strategy calculators, such as the Kelly Criterion calculator, to evaluate how aggressively you should stake each wager.
Our betting tools are completely free to use, and you can use them to follow any of our betting strategy guides, or even to figure out your own betting strategies.
Find a Better NHL Betting Site
Before applying any strategy or building any tactics, you need to have a good US NHL sportsbook. Each betting site has its own strengths and weaknesses, and our goal is to highlight all of these criteria so you can find the one that best suits your needs.
NHL is popular, but it is not as mainstream as NFL or UFC betting. Therefore, a lot of sites don’t have good NHL bonuses, or simply don’t have enough NHL props bets to give you that extra flexibility. That is not the case in any of the sportsbooks I have highlighted above. If you want to learn more about any, feel free to check out our independent reviews, or head on to the sportsbook to see what they have to offer.
