The Moneyline

The moneyline market is the simplest of all hockey betting markets. It only requires you to predict which team will win a particular game. Odds will be presented for each team. Those odds will be prefixed by a minus (-) or a plus (+) sign, as in the following example:

Team A	-175
Team B	+150

Moneyline Hockey Betting

When odds are prefixed with a minus sign, you need to bet that figure in order to make a profit of $100. You would therefore need to bet $175 on Team A to make a profit of $100 if they win. Of course, if the bet wins, your $175 stake would also be returned to you.

When odds are prefixed with a plus sign, you need to bet $100 in order to make a profit equal to the figure shown. A bet of $100 on Team B would therefore give you a profit of $150 if the bet wins. You would also get your $100 stake back.

When the odds of one team are prefixed by a minus sign, that team is the favorite to win, according to the sportsbook. The team with odds prefixed by a plus sign is usually referred to as the underdog in the game.

The Puck Line

In this market, the favorite team is given a theoretical handicap and the underdog is given a theoretical advantage. Any bet that you place on a team must therefore succeed after the handicap or advantage has been applied. Consider the following:

Team C	-1.5	+150
Team D	+1.5	-172

Puck Line Hockey Betting

Here, Team C is being offered at odds of +150 with a handicap of -1.5. That means the final score of the team will be reduced by 1.5 goals before your bet is settled. If the team still wins despite that deduction, your bet will win.

Team D is being offered at odds of -172 with an advantage of +1.5. Again, the final score of the team will be adjusted before your bet is settled. In this case, the final score of the team will be increased by 1.5 goals. If that helps the team to beat the score of Team C, your bet will win.

In this example, Team C has to beat Team D by at least 2 goals for your bet on Team C to win. If you chose to bet on Team D, they would only have to win the game or lose by no more than 1 goal for your bet to win.

The Totals

Both the moneyline and puck line markets require you to side with one of the two teams involved. The totals market is different. Here the sportsbook makes a prediction about the total number of goals that will be scored by both teams combined. Your task here is to bet on whether the actual total will be Over or Under that sportsbook prediction.

u5.5	-110
o5.5	-110

Totals Hockey Betting

As you can see from the example above, the sportsbook invites you to bet on whether the total number of goals in the game will be Under or Over 5.5. Bet u5.5 and your bet will win if the total number of goals scored is 5 or less. Bet o5.5 and your bet will win if the total number of goals is 6 or more.

Other Markets

There are other bets that you can place on hockey games, such as parlay bets and prop bets, but the three markets just described are the main ones. It is a good idea to stick with those until you have some experience under your belt, as other types of bets can be a lot more difficult to win with.