Check out these 5 Free Hockey Betting Tips to Help You Up Your Game

Knowing the game of hockey and betting on it are two different things.
If you're new to betting on the sport you love make sure you check out our guide on how to bet on Hockey first.
If you already know the basics of betting on hockey then jump right in and check out these 5 hockey betting tips to help you get a bang for your buck!

Tip 1 Understand the Different Bets

When you're learning how to bet on hockey, the first thing you should do is understand what each of the most common bet types are. In hockey, the name of some of these bets will be a little different than they are for sports such as basketball and football. They still work exactly the same way, though.

One of the most common bet types in hockey is the moneyline. For this wager, all you have to do is pick the outright winner of a game -- regardless of whether it happens in regulation, overtime or the shootout, and no matter what the final score is. With the moneyline, you'll be betting against odds that the sportsbooks set on each team, based on who the favorite and underdog are.

The next most common bet type is the total goals. This is basically the over/under of hockey. Instead of worrying about which team wins a game, you'll instead be betting on whether you think there will be more or fewer total goals scored in a game than what the sportsbooks set for the line. If the total goals line is set at 6.5, for example, the teams would have to combine to score at least 7 goals for the over to win and 6 or fewer for the under to win.

The third most common hockey bet is the puck line. This is the handicap line in hockey. For most games, the line will be -1.5, meaning the favorite will need to win by at least 2 goals for a bet on them to win.
Once you understand how the different bets in hockey work, then you can start to apply some strategies to them.

Tip 2 Try the Puck Line

What most people will do when they bet on the outcome of a hockey game is opt for the moneyline. They do this because it's the easiest way to analyze a game. All they have to do is pick the outright winner of the game, and be done with it.
With the puck line, the team you pick will have to beat the handicap line that the sportsbook sets. Your team will either be the favorite (-1.5) and need to win by 2 or more goals, or the underdog (+1.5) and have to win by 1 goal or win the game to win your bet.

The puck line can be a really great option, especially if you're betting on the favorite. That's because there's a sizable difference in the odds between the moneyline and the puck line. 
For example, here are the different odds for a playoff game between the Tampa Bay Lightning (the favorite) and the New York Rangers:

• Tampa Bay moneyline -175
• Tampa Bay -1.5 (+150)

If you want to win $100 on Tampa Bay on the moneyline, you'd need to risk $175. If you want to win $100 on Tampa Bay playing the puck line, you'd only need to wager $66.67. That's a pretty significant difference.
Another way to think about it is if you want to wager $100 on Tampa Bay regardless of the type of bet. For the moneyline, you'd win $57.14. For the puck line, you'd win $150.

Of course, Tampa Bay would need to win by 2 goals or more for them to cover the puck line, but that's only one more goal they'd need to win by compared to the moneyline. And there's a significant difference in the odds for that.

You can check the latest pucklines on our hockey betting page on Unibet.

Tip 3 Follow an Expert

A great way to get a handle on how to bet on hockey is find and follow an expert you respect who provides hockey betting tips. There are a lot of these experts out there today -- from sports journalists to sports betting professionals.
You can find these people on social media sites and follow them. They may even write in-depth articles discussing upcoming games or providing general strategies that you can follow.
Having someone else you can trust to provide you with insider information is a great way to find an edge when betting on hockey. Luckily, there are a lot of people out there who do this for a living.

Tip 4 Consider the Effect of Injuries

Injuries have a huge effect on the outcome of individual games. When key players don't participate, lines need to shift, which causes players to play with other players they haven't skated with before. This can cause teams to be not on the same page, which can have a disastrous effect on the game.

You don't want to just look at the injuries to major players, either. Pay attention to injured players up and down the lineup. Hockey is a game where all four lines contribute substantially during a game. So, a few injuries down the lineup could easily have a major effect on the game -- even if star players are playing.

What's more, understand that injuries don't necessarily always result in a lower-scoring game. It could be the opposite. New players having to step in could result in lags on the defensive end, which could actually result in more goals being scored than you might think.

Tip 5 Pay Attention to Special Teams

Special teams also have a huge effect on the outcome of a hockey game. How teams perform on the power play and penalty kill goes a long way in determining the outcome and the final score.

So, when you're diving into your analysis, take a look not just at how each team performs on the special teams units, but how they match up. If one team has a great power play unit and the team they're playing has a poor penalty kill unit, it could lead to a lot of goals being scored in that situation.

This is one area where you can really take advantage of basic statistical analysis and matchups between two teams. You may think it's good enough to just look at the overall records of the two teams when you're breaking down bets, but it's not.

One of the best hockey betting tips is to just dive a little deeper into the stats to see how the teams might match up against each other. It's not a fool-proof way of predicting the outcome of a game, but it will likely give you extra insight into how everything might go down.

If you liked our hockey betting tips check out our article on the 5 most popular hockey betting strategies.