Our Guide to the Best New Hockey Betting Sites

Hockey – specifically ice hockey – is a fairly popular sport in the UK. However, elsewhere in the world, hockey is a very big deal, especially in the ‘Big Seven’ Hockey nations: Canada, Czechia, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and United States.

The popularity of hockey is certainly growing in Europe though, with the sport increasingly popular in Germany and across Scandinavia. There is, though, a professional ice hockey league in the UK, the Elite Ice Hockey League. The growing popularity of the sport means there are more spectators, and more people willing to bet. Here we summarise the advantages of great new hockey betting sites where you can benefit from interesting new offers.

Betting on ice hockey has increased in popularity in the UK in recent years, especially on international leagues such as the NHL. In this guide, we shortlist the best hockey betting sites by looking at important features such as bonuses, odds, live betting and available ice hockey markets to bet on.

How to Find the Right Hockey Betting Sites

Although ice hockey isn’t one of the most popular sports in the UK, you can still bet on it at most online sports bookmakers, with most markets covering the biggest hockey leagues and competitions in the world – although it’s also possible to bet on the British Elite Ice Hockey League too.

When picking an ice hockey betting site to start playing at, players should consider exactly what they’re looking for, as there is no shortage of bookmakers to choose from. Do you want big bonuses, good odds, a big selection of markets, live streaming, a user-friendly mobile experience – or a happy blend of all of these things?

Ice Hockey Betting Offers

One of the highlights of signing up to new sports betting sites is enjoying the often generous welcome bonuses available to new players. This is no different if you’re looking to bet on ice hockey.

One of the very best sports welcome bonuses comes from new betting site, NetBet, who offer an extremely generous £50 matched free bet with simple terms and conditions. This offer basically means if your first bet is between £10 and £50 at the site, the bookie will give you a free bet to the same value as your stake.

While there aren’t too many ice hockey-specific bets or promotions at UK bookmakers, there are some more general sports promotions you can take advantage of, such as boosted accumulators (AKA Acca Boost) which will add a set percentage to any potential winnings based on the number of selections you make.

Ice Hockey Betting Markets

If you’re new to ice hockey betting, you’ll find that most of the betting markets available aren’t too dissimilar to football. After all, the objectives and scoring of the games is pretty much the same: two teams, two goals, put the round thing in the other teams’ goal more than the other team puts it in yours.

Just like in football, you can bet on the match outcome, total goals and point spread (which is essentially handicaps). On bigger matches, you can also bet on players to score and other more specific player-related markets.

How to Cross-check the Best Hockey Odds

Whatever sport you are betting on, it’s very important that you get the best odds possible for your bets, and this is no different with ice hockey. Different bookmakers have different odds for the same market, and there are lots of bookmakers – so make sure you get the most value from your bets.

To show why this is especially important, let’s use an example. Say you want to place a 10-fold accumulator bet at bookmaker one, where all of the odds are 1/1 (2.0). At another bookmaker, the same selections are priced slightly higher at 5/4 (2.2) each. If you placed the same £10 10-fold bet at both bookmakers, you’d get a return of £10,240 at the first bookmaker but £26,559.92 at the second – for exactly the same bet. This is why you must compare odds before betting.

In order to find the best hockey odds, it’s highly recommended to use an odds comparison site which will automatically compare the odds available at dozens of major bookmakers, across every market – and even on accumulator bets.

The Variety of Ice Hockey Bet Options

As hockey isn’t one of the biggest sports in the UK, betting markets are quite limited – but this doesn’t mean you can only bet on the result of hockey matches. You can also bet on goals markets, player markets on big games, as well as handicap bets if you really think a team is going to win comfortably.

In-Play Betting and Live Streaming

One of the biggest innovations in online gambling in recent years have been the introduction of in-play markets, making live hockey betting possible – i.e. betting on hockey as the action unfolds in real-time.

Live betting markets make it possible to bet play-by-play on the latest sports events, and even watch the event via a live stream on the sports betting site in some instances. In-play betting works in much the same way as placing a pre-match bet, with the only noticeable difference being a five-second delay when confirming your bet – this is to stop people placing bets as an action occurs and before the bookmaker has a chance to react.

Why is Ice Hockey a Popular Market in the UK?

Hockey isn’t a massively popular sports in the UK currently (almost as popular as basketball), but many sports fans enjoy betting on hockey – especially on the biggest competitions, such as the NHL. Nearly every bookmaker offers players the opportunity to bet on ice hockey, with a decent selection of markets available to players.

If the fast-growing popularity of the sport in Germany and Scandinavia spreads into the UK – we could yet see a bigger fanbase for the sport in Britain.

The Biggest Competitions in Hockey

There are various ice hockey competitions played around the world, although the NHL is the biggest club league in the world. The IIHF World Championship is also a hugely popular event for international teams, and in the following sections we’ll take a deeper look at the biggest ice hockey competitions in the world.

NHL

The National Hockey League (NHL) is by far and away the biggest club hockey league in the world, and the most followed league of any sport in Canada. It is made up of 24 American teams and seven Canadian teams.

The league was founded in 1917, with the Stanley Cup being the coveted prize. The Montreal Canadians are the most successful team in the league’s history, having won the cup 25 times – although their last came back in 1993.

IIHF World Championship

The IIHF World Championships is an annual international ice hockey tournament between 16 qualified countries. It takes place over two weeks in May each year in a host country. Two groups of eight teams each play each other, before the eight best teams move on to the knock out stages.

The tournament started in tandem with the 1920 Summer Olympics, before it hosted its first individual event in 1930. Following the 2018 tournament, Russia (previously the Soviet Union) have won the most gold medals at the even (27), just one more than Canada (26) – who have won more medals in total. Sweden, Canada and Russia tend to dominate the event.

Champions Hockey League

The Champions Hockey League – formerly the European Trophy – is a European ice hockey tournament featuring the best club teams from the 13 European domestic leagues.

The competition first took place in the 2014/15 season, with the first three seasons seeing Swedish winners, before Finnish side JYP took the honours in 2017/18. 32 teams enter the tournament based on reaching the qualification positions domestically.

Swedish Hockey League

Founded in 1975, the Swedish Hockey League is Europe’s most popular domestic league, with 14 teams battling it out each year. The league is extremely competitive, with different winners almost every year. Historically though, Djurgårdens IF are the league’s most successful team having won 16 titles – although the last of these came back in 2001.

Deutsche Eiskockey Liga

One of the fastest-growing hockey leagues has been Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga, founded in 1994 as a replacement for the Eishockey-Bundesliga. With average attendances of over 6,000 per game, this league is one of the best supported in Europe.

The league has been dominated by Eisbären Berlin, Adler Mannheim and – most recently – EHC München, who were formed in just 2011 and won consecutive titles in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Winter Olympics Ice Hockey

Ice hockey has appeared at the Olympic Games since 1920, moving to the Winter Olympics in 1924 – where it has since been staged.

Again, Canada has dominated the proceedings, with nine gold medals, although they could only manage bronze at the 2018 games, with a Special Russian Olympic Team winning gold while Germany claimed a surprise silver.

Great Britain actually won gold in 1936 but hasn’t entered an ice hockey team since 1948.

The History of Ice Hockey Betting

Like many spectator sports, ice hockey betting has been taking place as long as the sport has been played – whether through formal bookmakers or between friends.

With online innovations in online betting, though, players are now able to bet on hockey action from around the world – and in an instant with live hockey betting which allows players to bet in real-time as the action unfolds.

Conclusion

Although ice hockey isn’t a massive sport in the UK, it’s certainly growing in popularity around different parts of Europe, with many British hockey fans enjoying the North American NHL.

For those looking to find new ice hockey betting sites in the UK, you have plenty of choice, as most bookmakers offer plenty of markets on the main hockey action. If you like generous welcome packages, look no further than NetBet for new players, but if you want the best mobile and live betting experience around, make sure to check out MansionBet. Curious about the newest betting sites? You’ll find everything you need on our homepage.