NHL betting

The truth is that hockey games on exchanges like Betfair offer excellent opportunities for those of us who also enjoy a gamble on any type of hockey.

This is because most forms of hockey are quite small scale when it comes to international and country-specific gambling markets. So the likelihood is that your additional knowledge and expertise around the world will give you the edge over the rest of the market. And those small edges are all it takes sometimes to win more than you lose – which is all any steady gambler can hope to achieve.

It’s the same principle as probability – but with a small edge. So we all know that the probability of a single die landing on any particular number is 6-1 as long as that die is true. So if anyone ever offered you odds of the tiniest bit better than 6-1 on the roll of that true die – you’d d be foolish not to take it. And of course the inverse is also true.

So if you think a hockey team has a better chance than the odds suggest of winning a game or a tournament etc., then you back your own judgment and see where it takes you.

One specific tip here that is always a good idea is to form your own opinion of the probable odds of any hockey game or tournament etc., before you look at what odds are actually available in reality. You’ll often be surprised at how the odds will differ from your own interpretation – in both directions.

So if you’re an ice hockey fan and you think Tampa Bay Lightning, for example, have a 15-1 chance of winning next year’s Stanley Cup, then the 17-1 currently available on the afore-mentioned Betfair would be well worth taking. But you really need that tiny bit of extra knowledge of the sport and a certain shrewdness to be able to profit over time.

You won’t win them all, but you will come out steadily ahead if your judgement of the odds is good.

If you think you do have what it takes – try it out with a tiny amount of money first to prove it to yourself. And make sure you test your abilities rigorously and over a decent length of time.

Tweets by @eurohockey