The 82-game NHL regular season starts in October and ends in April as the weather gets warmer. The last few weeks are the crucial point in the season when all ice hockey bettors want is to be inside a cold ice rink. The playoffs single out only the best teams on the road to the Stanley Cup with the finish line in sight. So for nine months of the year, bettors have plenty of time to place NHL bets. Make ice hockey bets with bwin.

Betting on the NHL's competitiveness

Because each NHL team plays every other team in the league (a total of about 30 franchises), the competitive balance is pretty accurate in the National Hockey League.

A big reason for the NHL's parity is attributed to the talent supply system and how that talent ends up in world-class teams — through college ice hockey and the American Hockey League draft. Place your AHL bets on our online betting platform. The NHL draft is a great equalizer for NHL franchises.

Betting on the NHL playoffs

The style of competition in the NHL playoffs is unlike the regular season: instead of playing different teams every night, the goal is to advance through four best-of-seven playoffs.

The first two rounds of the playoffs are intra-divisional, with the top seed playing fourth, the second seed playing third, then the winners playing each other. The third round, dubbed the Stanley Cup Semi-Finals, will decide the final four teams — again with home-field advantage based on the regular season standings. Make sports bets on our online betting platform.

Recommended NHL Betting

There are many ways to bet on the NHL, with a long list of bet types available for each game of the season. The top three recommended and most popular wagers are winner bets — since there is no option for a game to end in a tie, winner bets with a handicap, and total goals bets.