Betting NHL futures needs to be in your sports betting repertoire.
Key Points
- Betting NHL futures typically comes with higher, plus-money odds making higher payouts possible.
- Betting on the Stanley Cup is not the only NHL futures bet on the market.
An NHL futures bet is exactly as it sounds. Bettors are placing a wager on something that is going to happen in the future. The most common NHL futures bet is on the Stanley Cup champion.
Betting NHL Futures
Just prior to the beginning of a season, hockey sportsbooks will release odds for teams to win that season’s Stanley Cup. If the team you place a bet on wins the Stanley Cup, your bet is a winner and you are paid out according to the odds at which you placed your wager.
Futures bets can typically make for some big payouts. You can find value many times on NHL teams listed at +2000, +3000, and even greater. Even the best teams, including the favorite, is typically listed at plus-money to capture the Stanley Cup. That’s simply because it is difficult to pick the eventual winner, especially early in a season.
What do you know about how to make money betting on sports?
Why NHL Futures are Fun
Very simply, it’s the payout at the end that makes betting NHL futures worth it. Imagine placing a wager on a team to win the Stanley Cup at +5000 at the beginning of the season. A $100 bet will payout $5100 if your team wins ($5000 + $100 wager).
There is also the potential to place multiple bets on a few teams, likely winners, and guarantee a profit. Let’s say you like the overall favorite at +350. You like a second team at +400 and you like a sleeper at +750.
You place a $100 wager on each team. That’s a total of $300. If the overall favorite wins, you’ll win $350 and net $50. It’s even better if your sleeper wins. You’ll win $750 which means you net $450. It’s safe to say that futures wagering in hockey can be very profitable.
Other Bets
Betting on the Stanley Cup is not the only NHL futures bet you can make. Bettors can find a number of futures bets at their sportsbook. It is important to use multiple sportsbooks to compare betting lines.
Typically, there are futures bets on all division champions as well as on the respective conference champs.
Some of the more popular NHL futures bets are on the season-ending individual awards. The President’s Cup is awarded to the NHL team with the most points at the end of the regular season. Bettors can also place wagers on individual player awards like the NHL MVP, which is known as the Hart Memorial Trophy.
Again, you’ll find many of these bets include favorites at plus-money offering bettors some serious value.
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Winning NHL Futures Bets
One thing to stay away from is simply betting on your favorite team. If your favorite NHL team is listed at +15000 to win the Stanley Cup, there’s a reason why.
What you can do though is something we have mentioned already – bet on multiple teams. Where NHL futures odds are typically offered at plus-money, you can make multiple bets and still come out ahead.
