Roller hockey (or rink hockey) is hockey without the freezing-cold climate and ice. Instead, two five-person teams slide around on their skates with wheels and are not susceptible to excessive contact from other players.

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Betting on Hockey. Before a person can start to bet the NHL, it's important they have a solid understanding of the money line.The money line is the most common method of betting the NHL, although there is also a puck line, which will be discussed a bit later, as well as totals. While there may be some sites that require payment for ice hockey betting tips which actually turn a profit, they are few and far between. More often than not, users of such sites will pay out large sums of money in fees, eventually sustaining heavy financial losses with precious little profit to show for their endeavours.

Currently, roller hockey is most popular in Latin countries. Despite several international competitions that feature teams from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe, rink hockey has faced many challenges on its path to becoming a widely popular sport. In recent years, organisations have taken a fan-friendly approach and began designing rinks using a variety of different colours that enhance the visibility of the ball. This is great for fans of the sport and even better for those fans out there who enjoy gambling on rink hockey. With the ever-growing popularity, more and more bookmakers are opening up markets for international and domestic competition.

How to Bet on Hockey. Hockey betting in the United States is far from the most popular sport in the land, but ever since the gambling capital of the country – Las Vegas – got a team in, the Golden Knights, in 2017, interest in hockey betting markets has picked up. Betting on hockey is similar in concept to that of baseball lines, as hockey.

Finding a reliable and trusted bookmaker that offers roller hockey markets can be challenging, so we’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of the very best ones. Here’s why you’ll want to bet with one of the following rink hockey betting sites:

• Exceptional odds and offers for rink hockey competition
• Wide variety of markets and betting options
• Trusted brands with reliable support and security

Hockey Betting Sites

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Who plays rink hockey?

Rink hockey enjoys its highest levels of popularity in Latin countries, particularly Argentina, Italy, Portugal and Spain, while it has support in the Portuguese-speaking African nations of Angola and Mozambique. Between them, Argentina, Italy, Portugal and Spain have won 113 of the 120 medals handed out at rink hockey’s 40 world championships.

What are the major rink hockey events?

The Federation International de Roller Sports organises the Rink Hockey World Championship every two years. First held in Stuttgart in 1936, the Rink Hockey World Championship moved to odd-numbered years in 1991, with the next event scheduled for the Angolan city of Luanda in 2013. The Spanish team will arrive in Angola bidding to win the Rink Hockey World Championship for the fifth time in a row. Both Spain and Portugal have won a total of 15 Rink Hockey World Championship titles but the larger of the two Iberian countries has been the dominant force in recent times.

Rink hockey fans hope that their favourite sport will make its way on to the full Olympic Games program in the coming years. Rink hockey was one of the three demonstration sports at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. Twelve nations took part – Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United States of America – with Argentina winning gold, Spain winning silver and Italy winning bronze. Portugal entered the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games as the raging favourite having won the previous year’s world title but it lost two matches in the six-game semi-final phase and then fell to a 2-3 loss to Italy in the bronze medal match.

Even though rink hockey can claim to be popular in more than 60 countries, it faces an uphill struggle to become a full Olympic Games sport. The reality is that the International Olympic Committee included rink hockey as a demonstration sport at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games simply because of its widespread popularity in the Catalonia region, of which Barcelona is the capital. With the International Olympic Committee not employing demonstration sports since 1992, rink hockey’s path into the Olympic Games is arduous.

So while rink hockey continues to fight for a regular place on the Olympic Games program, its major international competitions are its world and European championships.

Domestically, rink hockey league exist all around the world, albeit with the greatest concentration of tournaments in Europe and South America. Bookmakers, particularly those whose target markets include countries in Mediterranean Europe, offer match betting on selected club competitions.

On which rink hockey tournaments can one bet?

Punters can strike bets on the world’s three strongest rink hockey leagues, which are the top divisions in Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as the world and European championship when they roll along, although many of the international games feature prohibitive favourites.

There are 14 sides in Italy’s Lega Nazionale Hockey Serie A1. Hockey Novara has been the champion team a record 32 times – 13 more than its nearest rival – but the northern side has not been the one to beat since the early 2000s.

Spain’s OK Liga features 16 teams, with Barcelona having won more than 50 per cent of the championships. Rink hockey is a Catalonia-centric sport, although the region of Galicia in Spain’s north west is home to a number of strong sides.

The teams of Benfica and Porto are the traditional powers in Portugal’s 1a Divisao. Benfica has won the top division in Portugese rink hockey 21 times, which puts the Lisbon-based side one victory ahead of its fierce multi-sport rival.

There is no argument as to which of rink hockey’s domestic competitions is the finest. Spanish teams have taken out 42 of the 47 European League titles, with Portuguese sides stuck on four wins and Italian teams on one. Consequently, bookmaker focus most of their rink hockey betting energies on Spain’s OK Liga. It generates the widest range of odds.

Just watching a close hockey game is a high stress affair on its own. Every possession has game changing potential and the heart skips a beat when the wrong team slaps the puck towards your number one goalie. Now, take that stress and double it and you’ve got a close approximation of what it feels like to have real money on the line at hockey betting sites.

Why do we do this to ourselves? I don’t know, but it’s awesome. Having a little skin in the game puts you in the middle of every shot and every save. It’s one thing to bask in the glory of your team winning a big game, but it’s a whole different experience when you have a personal stake in the outcome.

Don’t have any bookmakers nearby? No problem – that’s where hockey betting sites enter the picture. As long as you have a computer and access to the internet (something tells me you do), you’ve got everything you need to place real money bets on the NHL, the Olympic Games and other leagues around the world.

Best Hockey Betting Sites

Simply finding an online sportsbook that accepts hockey wagers will never be a problem. Hockey may not have even half the viewership numbers of football or baseball, but it’s still a mainstay sport in many parts of the world. It would be very surprising to find a betting site that doesn’t cover the sport.

However, we want to do more than just find a place to bet. We want to find the best place to bet. Some hockey betting websites seem to do the minimum just so they can claim they cover hockey. Others offer an extensive selection of wagers for a variety of national and international leagues. We want to find brands and operators that fit the second category.

Long story short, the above hockey betting sites are the ones that fit the bill. They are all safe, trustworthy places with the most complete lineup of betting options. It’s no accident that these are some of the biggest names in the online gambling industry. Successful sports gambling sites have the resources and manpower to support an extensive variety of wagers in all sports.

Best Hockey Betting Sites

What do you mean by “coverage”?

When I say “coverage,” what I mean is the variety of wagers and the number of games for which bets are available. Most hockey betting sites are pretty good about covering all the NHL games. That alone is good for more than 1200 games. At the minimum, a site should offer pucklines and point totals for every game of the NHL season.

The best hockey sites take it further with wagers on Olympic matchups and leagues in other nations such as the Kontinental Hockey League and the Elite Ice Hockey League. These other leagues are pretty niche so I won’t hold it against a site if it doesn’t cover these other leagues all the time. It’s a nice bonus but not mandatory.

Is it safe to bet on hockey online?

Yes, but only if you do business with reputable betting sites. The internet requires trust in all matters of finance. It’s not like you walk in, look someone in the eye and shake his hand. Everything revolves around reputation. And even on the internet, you cannot fake a reputation. People talk and word gets out. Eventually, time sorts the good from the bad.

That’s another reason why I like to default to established brands. The longer a website has been around, the more information you can dig up. If you run a search on any of the hockey betting sites that I recommend, you’ll see that I’m not the only person with good things to say about these companies.

Is online hockey betting legal?

The answer to this question depends on where you live. My readers from the UK have a clear-cut answer: yes. Not only is it legal to bet online in the United Kingdom, but the government actually monitors the industry and issues licenses to gaming companies.

The answer is not as clear-cut for visitors from other countries, especially those located in the United States. Technically, there’s nothing in the law that says it is illegal for people like you and me to place bets over the internet. Several states have laws on the books that could be interpreted to apply to individual gamblers, but those laws aren’t enforced at all.

On the other hand, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) and the Wire Act do outlaw the business of online sports betting. Those who own and operate online sportsbooks do face serious legal risks. That’s why all the big sites are hosted overseas in gambling-friendly countries. As a rule, we only reccomend playing at licensed and regulated gambling sites. The good news for those readers in the US, is that daily fantasy sports websites provide a safe and legal sports option for hockey fans.

Looking for Something More Specific?

This page is intended as a guide to hockey betting sites in general. If you’re looking for a specific type of hockey, we have a couple other pages with information of a more specific nature.

Types of Hockey Bets and Wagers

Now it’s time to get to the fun stuff. A quick review of the different types of hockey bets will have you ready to place your wagers in no time. Hockey is a pretty straightforward sport for betting purposes. There are four main types of bets that you’re likely to encounter.

The moneyline is a basic wager on who will win the game. Hockey sportsbook sites set the payout odds for wagers on each team and display them in the betting area in a format that looks something like this:

• Washington Capitals +165
• Chicago Blackhawks -200

In this matchup, the oddsmaker believes the Capitals are the underdogs and have given them payout odds of +165. This means that for every $1.00 you wager on the Capitals, you will profit $1.65 if they win the game.

The situation is reversed for the Blackhawks, who are believed to have the advantage going into this game. Hockey betting odds of -200 mean that you will need to risk $2.00 for every $1.00 in potential profits. If, for example, you wager $200 on the Blackhawks and they win, you’ll be paid a total of $300 for a net profit of $100.

Once you understand how the moneyline works, you’ll have no problem with the puck line. The only difference between the two is that the puck line gives or takes a couple of goals from each team to help even out lopsided matches or give you the opportunity to approach a game from a different angle.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re confident in the Blackhawks but aren’t sold on backing them at -200. If your hockey site has a puck line on that game, you can get better odds in return for giving up a scoring advantage. Here’s an example of that same Capitals-Blackhawks game in the puck line format:

• Washington Capitals +1.5 -185
• Chicago Blackhawks -1.5 +160

You’ll recognize the moneyline hockey odds in this wager. Those are still in effect, although the payouts are different. The +1.5 and -1.5 shows the point spread. In this example, Blackhawks are giving the Capitals 1.5 goals. What this means is the Blackhawks must win by at least 2 goals to win the match for betting purposes.

The point total gives you an opportunity to wager on how many total goals will be scored in the game. The oddsmaker sets a total (usually around 5 to 5.5) and you try to predict if the actual combined score of both teams ends up being greater than or less than the total.

The Grand Salami is a variation of the point total except it covers all games played on a single day. In this wager, the hockey betting site sets a number (usually around 50-60 depending on how many games are scheduled) and you try to predict if the total number of goals scored that day is greater than or less than that number.

Have Multiple Hockey Sports Betting Accounts

I’ll be the first to admit that my hockey betting strategy is pretty haphazard. However, I do have one tip that will help you no matter how good or bad you are. Get an account at more than one sports betting site and shop the odds every time you find a bet you want to place.

If you’re thinking about backing the Capitals at +165, for example, check around and make sure someone else isn’t paying +170 or +180. This requires no special knowledge or even any real effort. You’ll be surprised at how often you find discrepancies between hockey betting sites. Take advantage of that and make sure you always get the most for your money.

NHL Betting

The esteemed National Hockey League (NHL) as we know it today came from humble beginnings way back in 1917, with just four teams. Now, the NHL is the premier ice hockey league in the world with 30 teams from the United States and Canada.

NHL betting is firmly entrenched in the North American domain, but it still generates betting action around the world. Both US and international bookmakers are consistent about putting up NHL lines, futures and props every year. No matter where you call home, there’s a website somewhere that will book your NHL action. Speaking of which, let’s begin with a quick list of the best sportsbooks for the NHL:

Best NHL Betting Sites

You may have noticed our top-sites list favors US-facing websites. That’s no accident. The NHL draws the majority of its audience and betting action from the US and Canada. International sportsbooks do cover the NHL, but we’ve found that US-facing sites tend to offer the most betting options and best promos for the NHL.

Betting on NHL Games

Every team in the NHL plays 82 games in the regular season with the potential for more games in the postseason en route to the Stanley Cup. Do the math and that comes out to 1,230 betting events in the regular season alone. What this means for savvy bettors is that there are many opportunities to find value in the NHL.

Of course, it helps to know how NHL betting works in the first place. The most basic form of NHL betting is the straight-up match bet. In this bet, you pick an upcoming game between any 2 teams and place a wager on the team that you think will win. If you are correct, you receive a payout.

North American bookies use the moneyline format to express the odds for straight-up bets. The average NHL bet looks something like this:

• Team A -130
• Team B +110

Best Hockey Betting Sites

The moneylines in this example show how much money you can expect to win per dollar wagered. Team A is the favorite to win with odds of -130. This means that for every $1.30 you risk on Team A, you stand to win $1.00. In other words, you’re being asked to risk more than what you stand to win because Team A is seen as the most likely to win.

Ice Hockey Betting

Team B is the underdog with odds of +110. For every $1.00 you risk on Team B, you stand to win $1.10. So if you bet $100 on Team B, you’ll get $100 plus your original wager back if Team B wins. The odds are a little better for Team B because they are less likely to win.

As with any form of internet sports betting, the ultimate key to success is finding the bets that offer good value. You can’t expect to win your bets on every match, but you can make decent money if you take time to research and identify value bets.

The Puck Line

The puck line is a combination of the point spread and moneyline wager. Pure point spreads don’t work well in ice hockey because it tends to be a low-scoring game. So, hockey betting sites combine point spreads with moneylines to create a hybrid type of wager.

A typical puck line looks like this:

• Team A +1.5 -140
• Team B -1.5 +120

Team A is the underdog in this example with a point spread of +1.5. This means that if you bet on Team A, your bet will win if Team A wins, ties or loses by 1 goal. The -140 tells you that you need to risk $140 for $100 in potential winnings.

Team B is the favorite in this matchup with a point spread of -1.5. This means that Team B must win by at least 2 goals for any bets on Team B to be considered winners. The +120 means that for every $100 you risk on Team B, you stand to win $120.

Playoff Betting Line

Betting on the Winner of the Stanley Cup

At the end of a regular season of the National Hockey League, eight teams qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is an elimination tournament where the teams are grouped in pairs and play a best of seven series with the winners progressing through to the next round. The two teams that get through the previous rounds compete in the final for a chance to win the Stanley Cup – the ultimate trophy in the NHL.

One popular NHL bet is on which team will lift the Stanley Cup at the culmination of the season. Betting markets for the winner of the Stanley Cup are available at online betting sites well in advance of the start of the season and remain open throughout the season right up until the final games are played.

Betting on the winner of the Stanley Cup is also a fixed odds bet; you simply select which team you think will win the trophy and place your wager accordingly. The odds available on teams fluctuate throughout the season depending on how they are performing on a weekly basis.

These wagers are classified as “futures” because of the long-term outlook. Futures have their pros and cons. On the pro side, futures offer significant payouts for the biggest underdogs. If you make the right pick early in the year, it is possible to earn a massive payday at the end of the season.

The downside to futures is that they are hard to win. As well all know, anything can happen in sports. Sure, you can wager on the favorite, but the payouts are smaller and favorites are far from locks. As the season progresses and more information becomes known, the odds for the various teams tighten up.

Other NHL Hockey Bets and Wagers

Betting on individual NHL matches certainly makes up most of the wagers made on the National Hockey League, and betting on the winner of the Stanley Cup is also common. However, wagering on the NHL is in no way limited to just these particular bets.

At most NHL betting sites, you will find there are variety of other bets that can be placed on the NHL. For example, over/under betting is common. Also known as totals, over/under bets are wagers on the total number of goals scored in any one game.

You’ll also find a variety of prop bets that cover everything else. Prop bets are offered on all sorts of random subjects, such as which team will score first, which players will score, who will make the playoffs and so on. Basically, props cover everything not related to which team will win a specific matchup.