The NHL is a sport that many people bet on, but there are many different ways in which you can place your bets on the action. NHL Betting is a growing market.
This has seen a big increase over the past decade too, as the number of people betting has risen. New customers turning to betting can take advantage of welcome offers as they begin their journey, with a range of risk free bets available for punters.
But when you get those free bets, where should they be placed?
The first port of call for most would be the money line, simply who wins the game, by any method. This is the simplest way to bet, and the most popular.
But what about other markets? Here are two betting lines that the bookmakers create, which have become the second and third most popular betting markets for NHL gamblers.
The Puck Line
This betting line is known as the puck line for NHL games, but is called other names in different sports. It is essentially the handicap betting line, a line that bookmakers create themselves to offer punters an alternative way of betting.
With the puck line, a team has a fictional head start in the game, so for example if the line is +1.5, a team has a 1.5 goal start, if the team is -1.5, the team has a deficit to overcome, so need to win by two goals or more.
The odds on this line for those that need to overcome a deficit are significantly higher than on the puck line, and this is the main reason for its use.
If you have a team that you strongly fancy to win by a wide margin, the puck line is where you need to place your bet.
Total Goals Line
Have you ever wanted to place a bet on an upcoming NHL game but you didn’t know which team to pick?
If yes, the way to go is to pick a betting line that offers you the chance to bet without predicting an outcome, and the most popular of these is the total goals line.
Again, this is a fictional line that you can bet on which the bookmakers create. It is usually given as a .5 line, so for example, 5.5 means you are betting on five goals or less, or six goals or more.
Some games will stand out as being potentially high scoring games when top-end offensive players are on show, while others will look like being low scoring affairs if the two teams play defensive hockey.
You can use your knowledge with this market, just like you can with others, though this time you are thinking about how the game will develop and how many goals will be scored, rather than the winner.
Could We See Something New Emerge in the Future?
There is certainly the chance of this happening, and if that is the case then a key area to look at is individual player scoring markets.
This could take the same path as many other sports, offering first goalscorer betting, last goalscorer betting and anytime scorer betting. There is also the option to back a player to score two or more or to score a hat trick in the game.
Players such as the recently signed Taylor Hall of Buffalo would be of interest here, fans would love the ability to pick out their favourite players from around the league and back them to have individual success.
With sports betting looking at ways of taking custom from fantasy sports, this would also feed into that and make this something that can help with that aspect of the industry.
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