Hockey is among the sports with a great history. Nowadays bookies offer more markets and events to bet on. The advent of online betting offers popular hockey events. Before you embark on the hockey betting journey its imperative to first understand the basic rules of this sport and the available bet type markets offered by online bookmakers.
In general hockey is still considered a non-contact sport with players not required to push, touch or intentionally trip an opponent. The keeper is the only player allowed to use hands, feet and any part of the body to prevent a goal.
Majority of bookmakers offer ice hockey to field hockey and this is because ice hockey is considered field hockey as an after thought sport. Meaning there is not a priority to many of you punters based in other parts of the country and depending on the region and popularity of hockey you may find more value in markets than other regions.
This article explains the types of available online betting markets that you understand in detail and also a betting guide strategy that you can use to develop a winning strategy.
Popular hockey betting markets explained
As the Olympics in July, approach you should see more markets during the 2021 Hockey Olympics with also the men’s and women’s hockey World Cup to be held in 2023. So here are the common markets you should definitely find online from your bookie:
Full-time result market
This is also known as the 3-way bet market, meaning that the event has three ways to be valid that is home win, a draw and a away team win (1 x 2). You only need to pick the winner of the match at the end of the match result and you can place a bet before (pre-match) or during the game (in play). The favourite team to win spots lowers odds than the underdog or draw option and it’s wise to use previous data you may find value in different odds markets.
Over/under bet
The over & under markets is offered for you to predict whether the match will go over or under a range of scored goals and usually odds are offered according to previous encounters or match results. Regardless of the winner of the match the bet is considered valid if the bet market is reached in terms of number of goals scored during the event.
Handicap bet
Similar to point spread betting whereby you are giving the underdog an added advantage and the favorite to win a disadvantage. In order for the bet to be valid the favourite has to overcome the imposed margin. Let’s say you are backing a team to win and the margin need to overcome is (-2). In order for the win to be considered the team has to win by at least 3 or more goals. It’s a good bet market if you are looking for value in odds since the odds offered are significantly higher than 3-way bets.
Outright betting
These are bet runs for the whole tournament in that you have to predict the winner of the event at the end of the season and in order for the bet to be valid the team has to win in the finals. It’s practically the hardest bet type since you will be basing your possible winner on possible future outcomes and sometimes the bet can lose in the course of the tournament. Some bookies offer cash out options so that you may recover part of your stake money back.
Odd/even bet markets
You only need to predict whether the match ends with a total number of goals being even or an odd number. An example is an event ending in a (2-2) draw this is considered as an even number while (3-1) is considered an odd number result.
Hockey betting strategy and tips
Since hockey is ranked lowest among popular sports, it has the best odd markets with events sporting match higher odds. Here are some of the strategies you can use to bet and win.
Follow the sport
By following hockey betting sports or identifying popular hockey events provides understanding to this little known sport and you better understand through watching how they score, how goal keeper save or even how a fool is administered by the refer. Such bits of information help you better predict the winning side.
Betting on the underdog
Usually this is considered a terrible idea but if you can find a small flow in the bookies odds market, the chances of winning such bets are slim to non. Meaning it’s rare for the underdog to win and they usually win under special circumstances. Professional punters hedge their bets to increases their chances of a win on the underdog betting markets. And you may need a lot of luck and experience in online hockey betting.
Avoiding being bias
Being biased in sports betting usually blinds you from a possible outcome since you are always picking favorites and the truth is that not all favorites teams win all they games. Ruling out any possibility of a draw or loss is jousting being bias. Therefore checking all possibilities is considered a wise option compared to always jumping for the favorites
Look for value in odds
Take time and analyse less popular leagues since they generally have the highest odd markets and although bookies offer fewer markets. The possibility of winning on such less watched leagues is high since the ‘crowd effect’ doesn’t play a role affecting odds movement and you can find much better odds here.
Picking the right bet type for the right event
It’s important to understand how a bet type works in order to pick the best possible outcome, and this will also help in decision making since different possibilities have variable odds. Also limit the number of accumulator odds since more events Equals increased risks and its important to limit accumulator bets to increase the chances of win. In short, go for simple bet markets like over/under or the odd/even bet markets.
