• Hockey is Canada’s most important sport, with increasing betting popularity for the US and World audience and with a wide array of betting choices, such as the point spread. To understand hockey point spread betting better, let us first look at the money line, which is something everyone should be familiar with in order to better enjoy their.
• Get the latest NHL odds, point spreads, money lines and over/unders for popular sportsbooks and view SportsLine's expert analysis of each upcoming game.

Understanding Hockey Odds As a money line based sport with so many similarities to baseball betting, understanding hockey odds follows a similar format. For example, you can have a game between the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins where the Penguins would be listed as a -165 favorite on the money line.

• Where to Bet:

How to read Hockey Las Vegas Money Line Odds

When playing the moneyline, you pick either one team or the other. It's that easy!

If you are wagering on the National Hockey League and making moneyline bets, you'll either be pulling for the favorite or the underdog to earn the win in either regulation, overtime or a shootout. You do not need to worry about a team winning by a certain margin. It is simply a win outright, and that's it.

Similar to our Puck-line and 1st Period Odds, every contest on the board shows the Odds, Date and Time of the National Hockey League contests on the slate.

Hockey will list Favorites and Underdogs for that day's slate of games. The Money Line Odds will list the favorite with a (-) symbol, while the underdogs will be shown with a (+) symbol. The majority of betting sites online, as well as the betting apps, will simply do the math for you. However, it is a rather easy equation based upon a $100 wager.

Edmonton -160 (Bet $100 to win $62.50)
Arizona +145 (Bet $100 to win $145)

In the example listed above, Edmonton is listed as the strong favorite (-), while Arizona is the underdog (+). If a bettor making a wager picked the Oilers, favored to win, they would return just $62.50 on a $100 wager at minus-160. Many books also offer fractional odds, and in this instance the Oilers would be listed as a 5/8 favorite. The decimal format, particularly popular overseas, is also sometimes offered. The Oilers would be listed at 1.625 on the big board.

With the Oilers listed as the favorite, the Coyotes are considered as the underdog. Bettors would receive a larger return on their initial stake with a victory. In the example above, a $100 winning wager on the Coyotes would fetch a total return of $245, which includes a $145 win and the original $100 stake. The fractional odds would be listed as 29/20, while the Coyotes would be shown at 2.45 with the decimal conversion.

Understanding Nhl Betting Lines

“Wait, why does this NFL team have a -235 next to its name? What’s with New England Patriots (-15) vs. Miami Dolphins (+15)? Help! HEEEELPPPP!”

If that sounds like you, we’re here to assist you. If you’ve stared at a board at a sportsbook or just seen spreads and moneylines on the Internet and been utterly confused, don’t worry. It’s not just you. Those numbers can be confounding.

But hopefully, once you’re done reading this, you’ll completely understand how they work. As you prepare to dive into the world of sports betting, here’s a breakdown of how the lines work, starting with …

Spreads

It would be really easy to bet on a game if you could put money on a heavy favorite to win.

That’s where point spreads come in. Let’s look at an example:

Explain Nhl Betting Odds

Philadelphia Eagles (-4.5)

New York Giants (+4.5)

In this case, you can bet on either two outcomes: you can put money on the Eagles to win the game by 4.5 points OR MORE, which makes them the favorites. Or you can bet that the Giants will either win or lose by LESS THAN 4.5 points. They’re the underdogs.

Now, sometimes the spread “moves” during the days leading up to the game. Perhaps the Eagles’ spread ends up being -3.5 (in which they must win by 3.5 points or more to give you a victory in your bet). Your bet all depends on whichever spread you bet on, whether it was when the Eagles were favored by 4.5 or 3.5 points.

If you ever see “PK” or “pick” next to a team, it means there’s no spread and you can bet on who will win, no matter what the score is.

Moneylines

Let’s take that same example above but use moneylines:

Philadelphia Eagles (-200)

New York Giants (+150)

Understanding Nfl Betting Lines

The team with a minus symbol is the favorite, and the number is how much money you would need to bet to win $100. In this case, you would have to bet $200 on the Eagles in order to win an additional $100.

The Giants are the underdogs. If they’re +150, that means you could bet $100 to win $150.

Note that you can bet any amount you want, but those numbers are always calculated and posted the same way, either in how much money you would need to wager to win $100 or how much money you could win by wagering $100.

Odds

Understanding Mlb Betting Lines

If you’re betting on something like the team who will win the Super Bowl in the future, you might see it look like this:

New England Patriots — 3/1

Baltimore Ravens — 5/1

Kansas City Chiefs — 8/1

If you were betting on the Patriots and their 3/1 odds, you would win $3 for every $1 you spend. So if you bet $50 on the Pats and they ended up winning the Super Bowl, you’d win $150 (plus your original wager) back.

Good luck!