The NHL is the world’s leading ice hockey league, in which several teams from the United States and Canada compete each year to lift the Stanley Cup. Ice hockey is a popular sport in the UK, and so interest in the NHL is high, as is betting on the NHL. This page will list the best NHL betting sites at which to place your ice hockey bets, as well as providing general information on NHL betting.
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We’ve taken a look at all the leading betting sites in the UK and evaluated them for what they offer in terms of betting on hockey in the NHL. This is the top ten list we have come up with in line with what we have found.
We’ve given you our top ten list, but now it’s time to take to the ice, pucker up and get to know the best five sites on our list a little better. What makes them so suitable for all your National Hockey League betting needs?
As with most things sports-betting-wise, it’s bet365 that comes out on top, in our opinion anyhow, for ice hockey. It’s really a case of two factors. The first is that coverage of ice hockey at bet365 is exemplary. The second is that bet365 will pay out your ice hockey bets if the team you have backed goes up by three goals, and your bet is paid out immediately. It doesn’t matter if the opponent comes back to force the match into overtime or even go on to win, your winning bet is still paid.
Coverage of the NHL at bet365 is simply not bettered anywhere else, and there are a massive number of markets including individual player props for each game, plus all the usual outrights too. As for coverage of other ice hockey competitions … well, that is exemplary as well. As well as the NHL, Elite League and World Championship, you’ll find ice hockey matches in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and even Slovakia available to bet on!
What We Like:
Room for Improvement:
The problem with bet365’s wonderful coverage of ice hockey is that it makes what any other site offers seem insignificant. However, we’ve got a top five to build so we’re going to put Paddy Power at number two. This site’s coverage of the puck-bashing game is certainly decent, but it mainly only covers the NHL, and the main European leagues. This should be good enough for most sports bettors.
There are plenty of inventive bets available via Paddy Power too. You can back bets such as ‘any player to score three or more goals’ on any day of NHL play, plus which team, out of that day’s fixtures, will be the highest scoring. You can also bet on the winner of the Conn Smythe trophy which is the player voted the MVP of the playoffs. European coverage includes the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and many others.
What We Like:
Room for Improvement:
Not everyone wants to explore multiple markets when it comes to ice hockey betting. If you just like to back teams to win, then Betfair is the site for you – the exchange betting side of it, that is. Your backed bets get matched against lay bettors with the best odds possible. The only slight downside is that if your bet is a winner, you have to pay a small commission to Betfair, but it’s worth it. Exchange coverage stretches as far as the NHL plus leagues in the UK, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Finland.
Betfair runs a ‘normal’ sports betting site too, so it’s not just a case of the NHL exchange betting. NHL coverage here is adequate rather than exceptional. All NHL games have at least game-winner options but more betting options are needed. There are also bets available on World Championship games and leagues in Europe. Coverage in the UK has bets on the Elite League and there’s the Professional Women’s Hockey League in North America too.
What We Like:
Room for Improvement:
Spread betting, if you are not already aware, is a way of betting that brings you higher returns the more you are right. Conversely, it will cost you more the more you are right so spread betting on ice hockey is not, perhaps, for newbs. If you are something of an ice hockey betting expert though, spread betting on your favourite sport is something you should definitely consider (our guide to spread betting is available via the link).
Spread betting depends on measurables and with NHL games, there are plenty of measurables. You can place bets on the overall game-winner, the total goals in the match, the number of goals scored by either side, overall performance (goals scored and winning the game) and others. You can even place these spread bets on a period-by-period basis! It’s something that is well worth your consideration.
What We Like:
Room for Improvement:
William Hill is a name that should need no introduction to anybody, not even ice hockey fans. The name is more associated with horse racing betting and football, so why are we mentioning it in terms of ice hockey? The answer is that ice hockey and NHL betting in particular via William Hill is surprisingly good. Betting options per event include money line betting, total match goals, outrights, first, last or next goalscorer, correct score, BTTS (both teams to score – see our BTTS guide), winning margins, and more.
Coverage of the NHL is very good, with a staggering 150+ markets per event, especially with the biggest games. That’s something even our number one pick, bet365, cannot even match. Watch out for enhanced odds too – these are combos or other single bets in which you get ‘above the odds’ if you take them up. Check the T&Cs of any enhanced odds deals at William Hill, just so that you understand the full details of the offers.
What We Like:
Room for Improvement:
If you just want to make a direct comparison of the ten best NHL betting sites on our list, then the table below will help. We’ve picked out a few important aspects of ice hockey betting, and you can see by a tick or cross which of our chosen sites meet that criterion and which do not.
Betting Site | Ice Hockey Promos | Av. Markets per NHL Game | Ice Hockey Live Streaming | No. of Competitions Covered |
Bet365 | ✅ | 140+ | ✅ | 17 |
PaddyPower | ❌ | 80+ | ✅ | 22 |
Betfair | ❌ | 80+ | ✅ | 22 |
Spreadex | ❌ | 40+ | ❌ | 7 |
William Hill | ❌ | 150+ | ✅ | 14 |
BetUK | ❌ | 10+ | ❌ | 18 |
BetGoodwin | ❌ | 13+ | ❌ | 14 |
Luckster | ❌ | 50+ | ❌ | 14 |
QuinnBet | ❌ | 13+ | ❌ | 14 |
CopyBet | ❌ | 120+ | ❌ | 15 |
It’s all very well us dictating to you which we feel are the best NHL betting sites in the UK, but how have we come up with our list? Well, here is a brief but hopefully useful explanation of what we looked for while coming up with our definitive top ten list.
Looking for NHL betting offers is like looking for buried treasure as they are as rare as open-air ice hockey matches played in the Sahara desert. We have found one though, and we go through it in detail here.
We’ve touched on this before but now we are going to explain it fully. If you place a pre-game bet on a money line market for an NHL game at bet365, if it’s a single and your backed team goes three goals up, then your bet is declared a winner, no matter the result. This includes legs of multiples and bet builders, but it does’nt include cashed-out bets. This offer at bet365 not only applies to NHL games but also to the World Champs (mens, top two levels), Olympics (mens) and the highest level leagues in Finland and Sweden. You can check the full T&Cs of this offer at bet365.
The NHL is rightly regarded as the premier ice hockey tournament on the face of the globe, but betting opportunities do extend far beyond that. What follows is a detailed look at the NHL, how it works, and what teams are competing for, as well as details of some other ice hockey competitions that are likely to be of interest to betting punters.
The NHL was created in 1917 as a successor to the National Hockey Association. At first, the NHL only contained Canadian teams, but the competition expanded into the US in 1924 with the addition of the Boston Bruins and the New York Americans a year later. The league grew in popularity until the early 1940s when it found itself in danger of collapsing, and in 1942 the league was reduced to six teams.
It was the rise in network television channels in the 1960s that led to renewed interest in the NHL. By 1967 the league had risen to a dozen members with half of them being US teams. The NHL then had to battle with the rival World Hockey Association until a merger was proposed and accepted in 1979. This led to the NHL having a record 21 teams.
The 2023-24 version of the NHL had 32 teams, each playing 82 games. There are two conferences, each having two divisions, as follows:
Eastern Conference |
Western Conference | ||
Atlantic Division |
Metropolitan Division | Central Division |
Pacific Division |
Boston Bruins |
Carolina Hurricanes | Arizona Cardinals |
Anaheim Ducks |
Buffalo Sabres |
Columbus Blue Jackets | Chicago Blackhawks |
Calgary Flames |
Detroit Red Wings |
New Jersey Devils | Colorado Avalanche |
Edmonton Oilers |
Florida Panthers |
New York Islanders | Dallas Stars | Los Angeles Kings |
Montréal Canadiens |
New York Rangers | Minnesota Wild |
San Jose Sharks |
Ottawa Sabres |
Philadelphia Flyers | Nashville Predators |
Seattle Kraken |
Tampa Bay Lightning |
Pittsburgh Penguins | St Louis Blues |
Vancouver Canucks |
Toronto Maple Leafs |
Washington Capitals |
Winnipeg Jets |
Vegas Golden Knights |
At the end of the season, the top three teams in each division qualify for the playoffs, as well as two ‘wild cards’ which are two teams per conference with the next best record (which can be from the same division). Teams are seeded per conference with the team with the overall best record being seed number one, and the wildcard team with the worst record seed eight. Seed one meets seed eight, seed two meets seed seven and so on.
Each tie is the best-of-seven with the first team to win four games progressing to the second round. The same format exists for this round too, with the winners going on to the Conference finals. The team that wins each conference final is therefore crowned the NHL Conference winner.
The winners of the Eastern Conference and the West Conference then meet up in the Stanley Cup playoffs. These two are played on a best-of-seven series. The team with the best regular season record has home advantage for the first two games, switching around for the next two games. Home advantage is switched back for the next game and switches per game until one side has won four games at which point they are crowned the winners of the Stanley Cup.
The Stanley Cup itself is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada in 1892 for whom the trophy was commissioned and who donated as an award to Canada’s top-ranked amateur ice hockey club. It became the championship trophy of the NHL in 1926.
The Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup a record 24 times, including 16 times out of a possible 26 seasons in their dominant era between 1952 and 1979. They have not won it since 1993, though. The Toronto Maple Leafs are the next most successful side at 13 wins, followed by the Detroit Red Wings with 11.
Despite North America’s insistence on erroneously calling the winners of their national sports leagues ‘the world champions’, the Ice Hockey World Championship is actually a proper, annual international global hockey championship run by the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation).
The content runs annually and currently consists of 54 teams split over five divisions. The top-ranked teams in the top division include Canada, Finland, the United States, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. The UK re-entered the top division from Division I in 2024, replacing Hungary.
For the World Championship (top division), teams are split into two groups of eight, playing each other side once. The top four from each division go through to the playoff round. Matches are then played on a knock-out basis, with the winners of the final being crowned World Champions. There are no playoffs within the lower divisions.
Canada have won the most World Championships at 28, one ahead of Russia/Soviet Union on 27.
The American Hockey League is a pro ice hockey league in North America that serves as the leading development league for the NHL. As of 2024 it consists of 26 US teams, and six Canadian teams.
The league was formed in 1936 when the International Hockey League and the Canadian-American Hockey League linked schedules and then merged two years later. The set-up of the AHL exactly mirrors the NHL although the competition is considered second tier, and teams do not move between the two. The Hershey Bears (from Hershey, Pennsylvania) are the most successful competitors in the AHL with twelve titles.
Ice hockey has formed part of the Olympic Games since 1920. It was been part of the Winter Olympics since 1924, with the women’s tournament added in 1998. Ice hockey has been held at every Winter Olympics since. NHL players generally do not take part in the Olympics as usually they are held in February, during the NHL season.
From 1920 until 1988 ice hockey at the Olympics games was dominated by Canada and the Soviet Union. There were three ‘cold war clashes’ in 1956, 1972 and 1980 between the Soviet Union and the US (the 1980 match being dubbed the ‘Miracle on Ice’ after the unfancied US team’s win over the USSR). Winners have been more varied since the breakup of the Soviet Union, including Sweden, Czechia and Finland. The 1992 tournament was won by ‘Unified Team’, a temporary side formed of players from previous Soviet states, and the 2018 tournament by ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’ who were selected Russian athletes that were allowed to compete despite the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee following a doping scandal.
The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) is currently the top tier of UK ice hockey, brought into existence following the 2003 demise of its predecessor, the Ice Hockey Superleague. The current set up of the league has five teams from England (Coventry Blaze, Guildford Flames, Manchester Storm, Nottingham Panthers, Sheffield Steelers), three from Scotland (Dundee Stars, Fife Flyers, Glasgow Clan), one from Wales (Cardiff Devils) and one from Northern Ireland (Belfast Giants).
Teams compete for three trophies each season – league champions, playoff winners and cup winners. Each team plays each other team six times over the course of a season, with the team acquiring the most points (two points per win, one point per overtime loss) being crowned the league champions. The top eight teams then meet in the end-of-season playoffs on a knockout, two-legs per tie basis. The semi-finals and final are single ties played at a single (usually neutral) venue over the same weekend.
In the Challenge Cup teams are split into three groups with the group winners and the next five best teams qualifying for the playoffs. Ties are two legs aside from the single leg final.
The EIHL is the latest top tier UK ice hockey league. Previous top tier leagues include the British National League (1954-60), the Premier Division (1982-96) and the Superleague (1996-2003). If all top tier leagues are taken into account, the Sheffield Steelers are the most successful UK side of all time, with ten titles ahead of the Belfast Giants on seven.
The key market for NHL games is probably the winners of each match, but there’s plenty more you can bet on, as our exploration of popular NHL sports betting markets will show.
Betting on the overall winner of the Stanley Cup is the most popular outright bet for the NHL, at any stage of the season. Out of the thirty-two competing teams, which name will be etched on the trophy’s ever-expanding plinth come the season’s end?
The ‘money line’ is the American term for the odds of each team winning. Usually with NHL bets, one side is the favourite, and one side is the underdog. Choose which team you think will win and place your bets accordingly. Note that unlike football, most ice hockey bets are settled after any overtime period is played by the majority of sports betting sites in the UK.
This form of handicap betting means that the team you back has to win by -1.5 goals, or not lose by +1.5 goals depending on your choice. If you back a team to win by -1.5 goals then 1.5 goals is taken from their score. So if your backed side wins 3-2 after the adjustment the puck line handicap score is 1.5-2 meaning that your bet loses even though your backed side won.
This bet is usually offered on an over/under basis. A total will be set (for example over/under 3.5), and you place your bet on hockey as to whether you think the number of goals scored (by both sides) will be over or under that total. Usually, different totals will also be available, and you can bet on the goals scored by one chosen side only, too.
Football (er … soccer) bettors will know all about this one. The double chance bet allows you to combine two potential outcomes: Team A/Tie, Team B/Tie, and Team A/Team B. As ice hockey is a game where ties are decided by overtime (a ‘first goal wins’ fourth period), this bet only covers regulation time.
This is another ice hockey gambling bet that only covers regulation time. If you place a bet on a ‘draw no bet’ option, then – should the score be tied after the end of three periods – your bet stake is returned to you i.e. a push.
With this wager you can either bet on both sides to score at least once (BTTS – yes) or for one side to keep their net free of enemy pucks (BTTS – no). When placing this bet, check to see if the betting sites include overtime for the purpose of this wager.
Here you need to select the winning side, and the number of goals you think they are likely to win by. You may not need to be exact, as many bets will need to be placed on an ‘over/under’ basis. Our tip here is to use a spread betting site to place such bets, as the more right you are, the more you will get paid.
The easiest bet to understand, but also the hardest bet (perhaps!) to get right. You are betting on the correct final score of a game (including any overtime). If you don’t get it spot on, you don’t win anything.
Prop (short for ‘proposition’) bets are bets on individual player performances during a match. This could be the points scored by a player (over/under), player to score an exact number of goals or a netminder to stop a number of net-bound shots (over/under). The number of options depends upon the extent of the prop markets offered by the betting site you are using.
NHL betting and all forms of ice hockey betting are ideal for live betting. Games are fast-paced and last for an hour unless an extra period is played. Despite this, game scores are low with there being an average of three goals per game.
Like football, ice hockey is a game of measurables. As well as goals, there are power play goals, power play opportunities, penalty kills, shots, shots saved, and individual player performances too. These measurables change during the course of any game, allowing people to bet on them as play progresses and to bet based on in-game occurrences. If you head to any betting site in the UK while ice hockey games are in action, you will no doubt be able to see the latest NHL live odds and bet on them.
As for live streaming, pickings are slim and for the NHL online you can forget it. Broadcasting rights for the NHL in the UK are held by Premier Sports which broadcast via multiple channels including Sky TV and Amazon. You can also stream via the Premier Sports site, for a fee. The same goes for the UK’s Elite League, and the Champions Hockey League which is a European League which includes sides from Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Finland and others.
That pretty much covers every top-class league on the face of the planet … but some ice hockey live streaming is available from what’s left, including the Swedish Hockey League and the Czech Extraliga.
Even mad keen ice hockey fans may find themselves unstuck if they don’t know how to bet on the NHL, or any ice hockey match when it comes to it. We’ve asked our own in-house ice hockey betting experts to come up with a few tips and strategies, and that is just what they have done.
Finding the best odds is always important, no matter which style of NHL betting you are employing. The better the odds, the better the returns from your winning bets when you bet on ice hockey, it really could not be any simpler.
Because the NHL is not a UK league, you will find the odds across the board do not vary so greatly. However, it is still important to use sites that offer consistently competitive odds when placing your NHL bets, or indeed any ice hockey bets.
To help you, we’ve surveyed five of our top NHL betting sites for the four favourites for the 2025 Stanley Cup and we indicate below the odds we found for each pick at each site (as at 14:00 01/07/24).
Site | Hurricanes | Oilers | Panthers | Rangers |
Bet365 | 11/1 | 8/1 | 9/1 | 12/1 |
PaddyPower | 17/2 | 9/1 | 8/1 | 13/1 |
Betfair | 17/2 | 9/1 | 8/1 | 13/1 |
All UK betting sites now offer apps that you can use on your phone or tablet, be it powered by iOS or Android. You can download these apps – for iOS uses it’s from the App Store, and for Android owners it’s from Google Play. Android owners may also be able to download apk files and install them directly from the site itself, or from other sources (not really recommended – take care).
Even if a site doesn’t offer an app you can still use their betting functions via your mobile. Just pop open your usual mobile browser and head to the site. As with all contemporary sites, the site will adjust itself to match the size of your screen. All the full functionality of any site will be available on mobile, including live betting and live streaming where available.
Here, mainly for non-ice hockey fans or for sports bettors who are exploring their ice hockey betting options, is a complete glossary of all the important terms used in the NHL, Elite League and so on.
Term | Definition |
Blue Line | The blue line dividing center ice from the end zones. |
Boarding | A penalty called when a player intentionally slams an opponent into the boards. |
Body Check/Checking | Using your body to block an opponent or take them out of the play. |
Center Ice | The ‘neutral zone’ between the two blue lines. |
Crease | The area in front of each goal forbidden to opponents unless they are in possession. |
Delay of Game | A penalty is called if a player deliberately wastes time. |
Face Off | The start or restart of play. |
Freezing the Puck | Holding the puck with the stick so it cannot be played and causing a stoppage. |
Goal line | The red stripe at each end of the rink. |
High Sticking | Carrying the stick about the shoulder and striking an opponent, causing a penalty. |
Intermission | A break lasting 15 to 18 minutes between periods. |
Major Penalty | A five-minute penalty. |
Match Penalty | A penalty that results in a player being excluded from taking any further part in the game. |
Overtime | A further period is played if the score is tied after normal time. The length of the period and the number of players on the ice varies depending on the competition. Further overtime periods may occur as well if the game is still tied. Overtime may also be curtailed on a ‘first team to score’ basis. |
Period | A 20-minute section of play. A game has three periods plus an extra period if the scores are tied. |
Power Play | When one side has more players on the rink due to penalties incurred by their opponents. |
Rink | The playing arena. |
Shorthanded Goal | A goal scored by a team during a power play when they were not the team with the player numbers advantage. |
Shoot Out | In some competitions a way of settling a match if the score is tied after overtime. Usually it is three shots for each team, followed by sudden death if still tied. |
Slap Shot | A powerful shot. |
Slashing | Fouling an opponent with the stick. |
Spearing | Using the butt-end of the stick to foul an opponent. |
Tripping | A penalty when a player uses their stick to trip an opponent. |
Zamboni | The machine that smooths the ice before the game or between periods. |
We’ve taken to the ice, puckered up and explained to you practically all you need to know about NHL betting online as well as betting on ice hockey overall. We hope you find the information that we have presented here invaluable, and that it proves useful when you are placing your ice hockey bets. No matter what you bet on, always remember to maintain your betting at responsible levels.
Following our evaluation of all UK betting sites in terms of placing a bet on NHL games, we concluded that bet365 deserves its place atop the list of NHL ice hockey betting sites.
Choose any of the sites on our ‘top ice hockey betting’ list and head to the ice hockey bets section there. See what’s available to bet on and place your bets accordingly.
The best way is to come up and then continually refine an ice hockey betting strategy. Also, evaluate ice hockey betting odds to maximise your returns, and take advantage of any NHL betting offers you may find.
This is usually a bet on ice hockey on the number of goals or points scored during a match, either the total of both sides, or one team. For your bet to win, the total goals scored must be at least two.
Peter is one of the most well-known and well-respected names working in the field of online sports betting today. Having a Bachelor of Arts degree, Peter has worked for many high-profile publications in the industry, both online and in the real world. He joined the SafestBettingSites team in 2021 and has provided millions of words ever since. When not writing, Peter enjoys performing and writing music, gaming, reading and he is a massive movie buff, with a particular love of Japanese cinema and anime.
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