Ice hockey is much loved across Europe and, of course, North America, thanks to the high-profile NHL. Our guide has full details on how to get matched up with the best hockey betting sites.
Whatever your favourite ice hockey league or hard-hitting cup action, you need a good bookmaker to get the best odds for your bets. In this review, we give you a breakdown of the leading platforms and why they stand out from any other sports betting site. Let’s get started.
The best tactic for finding the best hockey betting sites is to stick to our complete guide right here. In it, you’ll find all the insights from our experts about which are the best hockey bookmakers and why. Plus, we also look at areas like in-play betting and leading market variety.
20Bet has an excellent variety of ice hockey betting markets. Along with the NHL, there is enormous league coverage from England, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, and many more. Moreover, with welcome bonuses such as a 100% matched first deposit, there are a lot of bet options to explore and use your funds on.
A very nice feature of their service is their hockey analytics market. This is something unique as it links a market option to a specific statistic, like the Minnesota Wild Over 2.5 based on the analytics of them going above the line in 14 of their last 15 matches. These analytics markets can also be found in-play, along with betting on Goals, Periods, Combos, and more.
The in-play platform is good and loads quickly. A nice graphic complete with action indicators is present and includes a scoreboard, stats, and more, which offsets the fact that there is a lack of live NHL streaming. In this regard, the site is subject to local restrictions, which might affect what is offered.
Another one of the best betting sites for hockey is Sportingbet. For starters, they have a big selection of hockey price boosts every day, on markets like a player to record over 4.5 shots or two selected teams to both win.
While the site menus can be cumbersome to get deeper into hockey markets, and the variety of bets outside the NHL is limited, there is a great in-play section. The live hockey betting at Sportingbet runs smoothly, and there are excellent in-game updates, text commentary, and basic statistics such as current team form.There is also an abundance of live streaming options on the site, impressively so from the NHL regular-season action.
In addition, the Build a Bet feature can also be found on most hockey matches, where selections from markets like Player to Score, Total Shots, and Match Results can be combined into one bet, which is ideal for hockey bettors looking to place unique bets.
While Stake.com’s site looks pretty basic, there are many positive aspects to consider when it comes to betting on hockey, which is why it is included on our list of top hockey betting sites. One of these positives is the great acca boost feature, where winning bets on at least five selections will receive a bonus payout, which applies to your hockey acca bets.
For selected pre-match and live markets, there is a cash-out feature that lets bettors guarantee a profit or cut losses on live hockey bets. Overall, the hockey odds for the match-winner market are good. For example, there is usually around 1.60 to 1.75 on solid home favourites. Although we missed bet builders in some live matches, Stake.com offers consistent hockey odds for live in-play hockey betting overall. You can expect to see an average of around 1.20 to 1.30 on a home team 1-0 up inside the first period of the match.
In hockey, there are generally only a few elite teams among the many that play the sport. The same can be said for online bookmakers. While there are certainly plenty of them available, not all provide the same quality of ice hockey betting coverage.
Therefore, it is important to size up the competition in order to find quality platforms that consistently offer competitive odds. When looking for hockey betting sites, here are some of the main elements we consider:
Putting the pieces of the puzzle together leads to the benefits of getting good hockey betting sites to use. Next in this review, let’s break down the ins and outs of those key features.
One of the biggest and best betting features available is live in-play betting. No matter how much time you spend studying statistics before a match, unpredictable things can happen. Maybe a team’s star player gets a 10-minute misconduct penalty, causing them to miss the final stages of the match and making a bet that was looking promising suddenly appear more vulnerable.
Live in-play betting is the counterpoint to pre-match hockey betting, as the markets and odds directly correlate with how the game is playing out. This can provide some great opportunities on the fly. A team that is losing heading into the third period but has been strong in previous matches in the final twenty minutes could be worth a look at the live odds, for example.
There are many positions to leverage through live in-play betting. So, having a good in-play platform available from the best hockey betting sites is a boon:
At the best hockey betting sites, you will see a graphical view of the ice, and in-game stats will be embedded in that, keeping you up to date. So even if you can’t watch the match, which is the ideal scenario, there is generally plenty of on-site information at bookmakers to help you gauge an in-play selection, including blogs featuring the latest hockey betting tips.
Live streaming is something that pairs perfectly with live in-play betting. It’s worth checking out the best hockey betting sites that provide this service. Streams are usually free for funded account holders but can be subject to geolocation restrictions.
You have everything you need in one place by loading a live stream of a hockey match on the same screen as the live in-play markets. There is a direct visual source of information about the flow of the game and the current value in the betting markets.
Cash Out is another additional feature that can help your hockey betting. If a pre-match bet is in a good position with only 10 minutes left to play, having the opportunity to settle that bet early at cash out betting sites can mitigate any risk of unpredictable things happening.
Both pre-match and in-play markets can have the cash-out feature applied to them, so it’s fairly widespread, especially at the best hockey betting sites we have recommended on this page.
Other features like acca editors and bet builders give you the most flexibility on your hockey bets so that you aren’t stuck with selections you aren’t passionate about or bets that aren’t quite ideal.
While all the features of an online hockey betting site are great, things at the end of the day boil down to the hockey odds. You want good odds for your selection. A great way to think about your hockey is incrementally over the long term, especially if you are a regular bettor.
While it’s highly unlikely that every time you bet, you will get the industry’s best odds, percentage-wise, if you match the top price more often than not, that’s a good position to be in. What you don’t want is to constantly find out that you could have gotten better hockey odds elsewhere after striking a bet.
This is an area of strength where the best hockey betting sites can step up. They deliver better odds on a more consistent basis, which means that there is good value over the long term.
An ice hockey match that looks like it could be a good competitive match-up could see the favourite at around 1.60 through 1.80 pre-match on average, with the underdog around 2.1 to 2.3 odds. For a match with a strong favourite, it could change the odds landscape to the favourite betting around 1.4 while the underdogs drift out to 3.00 or longer.
Getting a good idea of the odds range in match-ups is excellent knowledge to have. It will let you assess the hockey odds that you see posted. Stronger odds help greatly with placing valuable bets, which plays a role in your ability to take advantage of betting sites with high maximum payouts.
An important element of the best hockey betting sites is that they will deliver good coverage of a wide array of competitions. The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning ice hockey is the NHL. It is the world’s biggest professional league, and it’s at the top of the pecking order. For that, you want to consider the best NHL betting sites.
The NHL Playoffs and the Stanley Cup Finals are remarkably competitive, producing some long-standing iconic hockey legends and moments. Teams in the NHL play 82 regular season matches, and then those that qualify have those big extra shifts during the playoffs when things get even more intense.
But the scope of ice hockey betting reaches much further than the NHL. It’s a sport that is played in many European countries too. The European Champions Hockey League is a fascinating annual contest between the top teams from several countries around the continent.
From Sweden to Germany and France to the Czech Republic, there are many good domestic leagues as well around Europe. The Swedish Hockey League, the DEL in Germany, and the Czech Extraliga are popular competitions, along with the Elite Hockey League in the UK.
There are also major international tournaments like the World Championship and the gold medal battle at the Winter Olympic Games. If your interest lies outside of the NHL, then align yourself with the best hockey betting sites that will give you the coverage of competitions that you require.
| League/Competition | Location |
|---|---|
| NHL | North America |
| Swedish Hockey League | Sweden |
| AHL | US |
| Extraliga | Czech Republic |
| National League | Switzerland |
| Deutsche Eishockey Liga | Germany |
| Elite Ice Hockey League | UK |
| World Championships | International |
| Winter Olympics | International |
| IIHF Junior World Championships | International |
Mobile betting quickly became the preference for many bettors over wagering on desktop computers. That is due to the simple factor of convenience. With a mobile device, the latest ice hockey betting markets can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
Sportsbooks can be called up on a mobile browser or through a betting app. Apps from the best online betting sites can be a little more user-friendly on a device, with quick, responsive interfaces for scrolling and navigating the different markets. The same full suite of features you get at a betting site is also available on a mobile device. That includes live streaming, looking at a cash-out offer that has dropped into your account for an active bet, and just following the live markets in general.
Following live hockey markets with your device in hand while watching the game on TV or via a bookmaker’s live stream is great. You can study the live markets from there and, with a quick tap around the live markets, make your hockey bets.
Mobile betting brings a lot of advantages to the table, and you can even get registered with hockey bookmakers and claim a welcome bonus offer through a mobile platform.
Live in-play hockey betting is a big strength of a top hockey betting site. Many punters prefer to see how teams are shaping up on the ice and plan their betting strategies from there. In that regard, our best hockey betting sites all meet the grade with big live market variety, fast in-play platforms with stats, and some with live streams too.
Overrounds in less high-profile hockey leagues can sometimes struggle to live up to expectations in comparison to the best NHL betting sites. But all in all, there are some great advantages to sticking with good bookmakers.
These, in a nutshell, are the ins and outs of some strengths and weaknesses you can find at hockey betting sites. Next, we draw the bottom line on our guide to the best of them.
The big payoff of sticking with the best hockey betting sites like 20Bet, Sportingbet, and Stake.com, which we fully recommend, can usually be found in the odds and variety of live betting. Knowing that you are on a platform that consistently has good service, with live market updates, just gives you a nice piece of mind that you can get on with your selections.
But there are other positives, too, like promotions, consistent industry-leading odds, and mobile betting. So, it is worth checking out our top picks for trusted, licensed sites, all of which also have good welcome bonus offers for new registrations.
There are many great hockey betting sites available. Check out the top picks of 20Bet and SportingBet, as they all deliver superb odds, great live in-play betting, and good competition coverage.
No. The NHL is the highest-profile betting league in the world, but you can also get plenty of variety from leagues and cups across Europe.
New players can get a welcome bonus at a hockey betting site. From there, explore options like rewards clubs, money-back specials, cashback, and same-game multi-insurance.
It is, yes. We only recommend licensed betting sites; they all provide information about responsible gaming and use encryption to protect data.
There is a huge variety. From the standard Moneyline, Puck Line, and Totals, you can find a broad range of markets, including winning margins, period betting, player goals, saves totals, and, of course, in-play betting markets.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
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