Puck Line Betting Explained

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Hockey, the all fast and yet cold/winter sport of the World, is a game who is getting more and more attention when it comes to betting, especially with hardcore games happening within the National Hockey League (NHL), and the latest World events, such as the Winter Olympics, the Hockey World Cup, and more. As a sport growing in betting popularity, it obviously comes with a wide variety of different types of hockey bets to choices from, such as hockey puck line betting.

The first point to make note of is that in hockey puck line betting you will see the point spread representing the favorite (team most likely to win according to the online sportsbooks) and the underdog (team less likely to win according to the online sportsbook) by a simple plus or minus sign next to them. The ‘underdog’ is usually accorded with a plus sign while the ‘favorite’ is given the minus sign both at the puck line odds, and the money line too. Secondly, these puck line odds/numbers represent how many goals the ‘favorite’ team must win by or vice-versa, how many goals the ‘underdog’ can lose by. It will all make much better sense once we get over to the example below.

What Is the Puck Line in Hockey Betting? The puck line is the term for the spread betting option in a hockey game. The puck line is -1.5 goals for the favorite and +1.5 for the underdog in every game because hockey is so low scoring, with varying juice on each side depending on how even the teams are. Public money: Amount wagered by the general public on any betting option. Puck line: Point spread pricing in hockey. Prior to a match, the favorite is normally posted at -1.5 goals while the. A puckline bet is a form of spread wagering explicitly for hockey. As with point spread or simply spread bets, there is a range set by the sportsbook which is the expected range or spread by which a team is expected to win or lose. So, then what is the difference between a puck line and spread betting? And because hockey games are usually low scoring affairs, the Puck Line is a mixture of a point spread bet and a moneyline bet. The point spread is typically only 1.5 goals (-1.5 for favorites, +1.5 for underdogs) and then the odds are applied to determine the payout. This combination is the Puck Line. The 1.5 goals is a good median number. At most sportsbooks Hockey betting will offer two different types of wagers: the puck line and totals. The puck line works exactly as a point spread wager. If the favored team is listed at -11/2 then they would have to win the game by 2 or more goals for the bet to pay.

Puck Line Betting Explained

Puck Line Betting Explained

* Please see illustration below to help understand puck line bets, text explanation follows.

The hockey puck line is quite simple to understand and is similar to point spreads, with the addition of the hockey money line in it too. Looking at the example, you will need to bet $155 at the Detroit Red Wings to win $100 since they are the favorite, and you will only need to bet $100 to win $210 with the Nashville Predators, as they as the underdogs, less likely to win, and hence, will give you a higher possible payout if they do win – very tempting, right?

Example of a Puck Line:
Detroit Red Wings -1.5 (-155)
Nashville Predators +1.5 (+210)

The bet above illustrates that If you were to bet on the Detroit Red Wings’ puck line, you are betting that they will win by at least 2 goals (giving 1.5 in goal advantage to the Predators). If you were to side with the Nashville Predators, then that means they must either win or lose by no more than 1 goal for you to win your bet.

Puck Line Betting Explained Chart

Take note, the .5 in the puck line point spread above is used to eliminate any possibilities of a tie happening, which would end up in a ‘push’, or in other words, the online sportsbooks returning the money to the bettors as a ‘no action’ bet. Puck lines are almost always available to bet on; however, if a game is too evenly matched according to the odds-makers, unfortunately there will not be one available to bet on.

Puck line betting explained

Puck Line Hockey Betting Strategies and Tips

How Does Puck Line Betting Work

Although sometimes you would like to go with your gut feeling in betting our odds there are still a number of hockey puck line betting strategies and tips you should consider and which should work for you.

Some of the basics, yet, quite important and forgotten about by many bettors, is to research. Go through our list of recommended sportsbooks at www.OnlineBetting.com and look through their puck line odds, see which will give you a better payout if not a better opportunity to win according to your facts on the teams and game. That is where the other part of research fall under; research the teams, the statistics for home games vs. away games, injuries, replacements, did they just come from another game? Would they be tired? Is their goaltender in a current Hot Streak? There are a lot of things to account for and think about so make sure you keep researching until you are confident on your bet.

Puck Line Betting Explained For Dummies

When it comes to hockey puck line betting tips, there is nothing better than research, that way you will know if a strong team, the favorite, will score as they usually do in case their most valuable players (MVP) is missing from the ice, for example. All considered, there is no better way of learning than by trial and error.