Ice Hockey Betting Tips

Ice Hockey is one of my favourite sports. I became disillusioned with football after watching a series of goalless draws, but fans wanting an action packed sporting event need look no further than the end to end action Ice Hockey can provide. Once you can keep up with the action it is a thrill a minute game and very spectator friendly. When taking a family member to the Ice Hockey match the first thing they commented on was that it was so fast they struggled to see the puck as it is quite small. But do not worry, you will get used to the speed of the game and as you pick up the tactics you will learn about dumping the puck, playing into the key and other tactics and terminology and following the game will be no problem.

bwin.com offer great Ice Hockey betting odds on the European and major American leagues each week with plenty of bets to choose from. There is a wealth of information on the Internet regarding different teams so researching your bets will be easy. Here are a few tips to help you when betting on this exciting sport.

Know the Goaltender
The goaltender gets on average ten shots per third (each hockey game is played with three 20 minute periods). Whether the team wins depends largely on the form and ability of the goalie. You will see the team congratulate the goaltender after a win and they do that because the goaltender is kept very busy during a game and without a performance from him they would be heavily defeated. Knowing whether the goalie is fully fit, playing well and generally able is a key part of identifying your bets.

Who Is The Top Scorers?
Players score one point for a goal and one point for an assist. Any player who scores more points than total games they play are probably very good players and are likely to score consistently throughout their career. Check the player histories and any player scoring many points throughout their career are going to continue to do so in most cases. This can be particularly useful at the start of the season when there are always lots of new players joining clubs from all over the world and it is difficult to know who the best players will be.

League Position
The teams change their players so much that you must check how many players from a successful team last season have been retained by that club. A team in Europe who finished first might make a real mess of the off season transactions so by analysing the squad you gain an advantage over the bookmakers as a researcher will look at a match up based on everything including last season’s meetings between the two teams. The previous season’s results may be irrelevant if the squads are featuring almost all newly acquired players.

You can bet on match betting for one team to win or you can bet on total number of goals scored, or the over and under of a total amount of goals scored. Ice Hockey is not like football there are sometimes lots of goals scored and it is not unheard of for teams to score more than six goals in a game. A shutout is real achievements for goaltenders so you can see that higher score lines are more common.

You may like to bet on when the first two or five minute penalty will be given in a match. Ice Hockey is a rough game with common penalties being Slashing, where you hit your opponent with your hockey stick, Roughing, where you are too aggressive, boarding, deliberately pushing your opponent into the boards, fighting, cross checking and interference are some of the other types of penalties the referee can give to unsporting players. One hint regarding penalties, they are not uncommon and there is a reason why backing no penalties to be given is offered at odds of 251.00!

Good luck with your Ice Hockey betting and you may wish to subscribe to the NASN channel so you can watch major and minor league hockey in the USA which Bwin.com also offer odds on during the season.

By Malcolm Clarke