Hockey is one of the most exciting sports to watch around the world and even more fun for many who like to bet on hockey online. Now, there are a few reasons for the uptick in entertainment value. For one, fans love the end-to-end action, and the fact that, more often than not, the games are always close. So, if you think about it, hockey bets placed on closely matched teams quickly become nailbiting experiences.
It’s one thing to watch a sport such as basketball, cricket or football — where points can come in bunches, and scores can get out of hand quick. But hockey is a completely different story. Goals are so small, and goalies are quite large, and agile nowadays, making it extremely difficult to fit the puck between the pipes.
Games are often looking at a score line of 3-2, or 4-3, more often than not. The game is already exciting — with bone-crunching hits, highlight-reel plays and epic fights taking place on the ice. The trash talking, chirping and taunting is quite fun as well. So when you add in the fact that games are never really even out of reach, well, it’s easy to see why hockey is so exciting. The power play is one of the most unique “special teams” situations in all of sports, and one silly act leading to a penalty can completely change the outcome of a game.
As such, fans know not to leave games early when they’re attending. And, to that point, they also make sure to watch games from start to finish when consuming in front of television sets. Games are never over until the final whistle is blown.
And while watching hockey is entertaining in and of itself, there’s one particular twist that can make it even more engaging for fans: Betting.
Betting on hockey games makes one of the most exciting sports in the world even better, and there are a number of options on how to do so. Sportsbooks offer hockey betting odds for gamblers to wager, and many different types of bets as well.
The most popular bet type is to simply make a straight bet — picking which team can win the game. Bettors can also make a regulation time bet, predicting if a squad will win or lose in the 60 minutes of regulation time, excluding overtime. There are also over-unders, which entails bettors picking whether a final score will go over or under the total.
The legalization of sports betting in the United States has allowed fans to follow sports in ways we’ve never seen before, and the opportunity to watch an already-exciting sport through a different lens is too great to pass up on.