There are few sports more thrilling than ice hockey, and for the intelligent punter, this fascinating sport is also an opportunity to profit. The starting point for ice hockey success is knowledge.

Whether you are betting on the NHL or any of the European leagues, make sure you know the teams, their strengths and weaknesses. This won’t be enough to guarantee you a profit, but it is the essential building block, on which you can build your winning strategy.

Know The Schedule

The first way to get an edge when betting on ice hockey, particularly if you’re betting on the NHL, is to study the schedule closely. Ice hockey, particularly in the US and Canada, is a gruelling sport with a packed schedule that places huge demands on both players and teams, so look out for teams that have to make long distance trips or that are scheduled to play three times in the space of a week. No matter how deep their roster, they may struggle to show their best form in those circumstances.

With such a busy fixture list, it is also common for teams to opt to priorities some fixtures over others, choosing to be at their best for the most important divisional games or when they come up against local rivals. So, by knowing which fixtures a particular team are most likely to be targeting, you can sometimes spot an opportunity that other, less well-informed punters may miss.

The Importance of Goalies

Without a doubt, THE most important role in any ice-hockey team is that of goal-tender. One common mistake made by ice hockey punters is to think of the goal tenders on a team as more or less identical in ability and instead focus on the forwards. But no other position has such a major impact on a game. And when teams have to choose their second or even third-choice goalie, it can have a major negative effect on their results. So, if there is one area of each team’s roster that you absolutely must focus on, it is the goal tenders. Take the time to familiarise yourself with the merits of all the goaltenders in the league you are studying and keep a close eye on team and injury news.

Check out the Goals markets

The most popular ice hockey markets are obviously the Match Result markets, but there are a number of goals-related opportunities that are worth exploring, not least because they are often overlooked by other punters, and because bookmakers tend not to devote as many resources to getting the odds right in these markets. .

The best place to start with goals betting is the Total Goals market, which requires you to predict the total number of goals in a game. This is a good starting point, as teams are fairly consistent in the number of goals they score and concede, so a little research in this area can prove profitable.

Other goals markets to consider are the Both Teams To Score market, which is ideal if you think you’ve found a game in which you think one team is unlikely to score, and the Correct Score market, which is obviously more volatile, but offers some big prices for those punters prepared to weigh up the abilities, fitness, morale and motivation factors that can influence a typical ice hockey game.

Keep your eye on value

The key to success in any form of sports betting is finding value: occasions when the odds available are bigger than they should be. Some punters equate short prices with a lack of value, but this is a mistake, particularly in ice hockey, when there are limited game outcomes.

One of the best ways to boost your ice hockey betting is to practice pricing up each market yourself, using your judgement and knowledge, before comparing your prices to the real market. This will not only enable you to spot betting opportunities, it will also help to improve the focus of your analysis and should rid you of any tendency to overlook short priced bets. Remember, whether your team is available at 1/10 or 10/1, value can be found in any price range.

Conclusion

There are no short cuts to making money from betting on ice hockey, but the punter who is prepared to do the work, build up a solid grounding in knowledge on his chosen ice hockey tournaments, and then apply that knowledge in an intelligent way, there are considerable rewards to be found.