If you are looking for  an online sports betting site to place hockey wagers at I highly recommend that you check out www.Bodog.com.  In this article I will go over some reasons why Bodog is one of the best hockey betting sites, and will fill you in on how to receive a special Free Money Bonus.

Bodog Background

Bodog has been in the online gambling business for over 15 years now, and are definitely known as one of the most trusted and safest online betting sites around.  Although at times during their existence they have had some delays in sending out payments, they have never missed a payout.  Delays in payouts do happen with online betting sites because of the complexity of the system, but Bodog will always ensure you receive your money.

The Bodog name has grown, especially in Canada with lots of advertisements on The Score and TSN recently.  They shifted their focus from the United States to Canada and Europe recently, which is why you may now start to see the Bodog brand popping up on TV and radio advertisements.

Bodog is not just an online gambling company, but an entertainment company, with a Bodog Fight MMA league.  The CEO of Bodog, Calvin Ayre, is a very entertaining guy and runs a great company.

Free Money Welcome Bonus

Bodog is offering any new customer a 10% sign up welcome bonus.

How this works is that you will receive 10% of whatever amount you deposit added instantly to your account balance in free bonus money.  Lets say you deposited $100 to bet on hockey with.  You would then get an extra $10 added to your account balance, to give you a total of $110.  This $10 is the free welcome gift from Bodog.  The more you deposit the bigger the bonus of course, so I highly recommend making your first deposit a big one.  A $500 deposit would give you an extra $50 in free money!

Types of Wagering Offered

Not only can you bet on which team will win (money line) and the over/under, you can also bet on a bunch of other NHL props and futures at Bodog.  If you are a Canadian that is used to betting through government lotteries you haven’t had the luxury of these other fun ways to gamble.  At Bodog you can bet on which team will win the Stanley Cup, with higher payouts for the long shots.  A $10 bet on the Boston Bruins last season would have won you $200 at the start of the season.  You will be able to wager on individual player props and team props on game night, including things like how many points certain players will get or how many shots a team will take on net.

Random Note

The only thing I dislike about Bodog is that they don’t have any good mobile software out YET.  There are a lot better mobile betting sites that I would recommend if you are going to be using your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android phone to place most of your wagers.  You can get it done with Bodog, but it isn’t as easy as some other sports betting sites.  I am fairly confident Bodog will release a mobile betting website to keep up with the other sportsbook soon.

If you are interested in betting on NHL hockey I highly recommend that you click here to sign up at Bodog

Tags: nhl betting

If you want to make money in the long run with your NHL betting you will need to exercise proper bankroll management or money management.

Not quite sure what “bankroll management” is?

Your bankroll refers to the amount of money you have set aside for your gambling, or in this case your NHL betting.  For example you might have $1,000 for your NHL betting for the season.  This would be called your bankroll.  Bankroll management refers to managing your bankroll of course.  Of course if you have $1000 for your NHL betting pleasure you won’t want to be making $1000 sized bets, as this could leave you broke and out of money in your bankroll after just one wager.

In this article I will talk a little more about managing your bankroll for NHL betting, including some tips or strategies for being profitable with your betting.  Bankroll management is commonly used in the online poker world, as each online poker player has their own bankroll or account balance.  Sports bettors needs to have the same mindset as poker players if they want to be profitable.  I should also mention that if you’re interested in online poker check out this PokerStars review (as long as you’re not in the US).

Ok back to some bankroll strategies for hockey betting…

Set Aside A Bankroll – This is the most important step.  Set aside a certain amount of money for your bankroll before you even think about beginning to wager.  I highly suggest you set aside a bankroll for either each sport or all sports betting in a fiscal year.  This allows you to budget properly, and figure out how much you can afford to lose.  Although we all try to win money, you have to be prepared to lose your entire bankroll.  So whether it be $100, $1000, or $20,000, set aside your own bankroll that you are willing to risk to try and get  return on your betting.

Wager 1-5% Only – The next important tip is that you are only wagering somewhere between 1-5% of your entire bankroll on each bet.  I should note that you should only ever being doing single bets (no parlays) with your NHL betting if you are serious about making money.  When your bankroll increases or decreases your 1-5% needs to mirror that movement.  Bad runs happen, and if you are betting just 1-5% of your bankroll it will be highly unlikely to go “bankroll bankrupt”.  The ABSOLUTE maximum amount of your bankroll you should risk would be 7%, but I would rarely ever go past 5%.

Don’t Chase Losses – No matter what you cannot chase losses.  If you lose three and a row and are angry the worst thing you can do is go outside of your basic bankroll management rules and make a large wager.  This will bite you in the ass down the road.  Stick to the strict bankroll management, and as long as you have winning picks over the long run you will make some decent money with your NHL betting!

Tags: nhl betting

In this article I am going to be talking about taking advantage of line movements while betting on NHL hockey.   But first I wanted to just explain exactly what I mean by live movement for the very novice bettors that read this blog.

When referring to “live movement” I am talking about the betting line.  The betting line is also referred to as the odds.  The line or odds can be displayed in a number of different ways that all mean the same thing, but for NHL hockey the most common would be decimal odds or American odds.  Decimal odds would be 1.78, 2.15, or 2.2 for example.  American odds would be -115, -103, or +124 for example.  For this article I will be using American style odds, as they are the most common in North America.

Each selection you can wager on will have a betting line associated with it. If you were betting on the moneyline (who will win the game) for a NHL game between Toronto and Detroit, you might have Toronto listed at +130 to win and Detroit at -140 to win.  These are simply odds that will show you how much a wager on each team will payout.

“Line movement” refers to when the odds or line on a wager moves one way or another.  Given our example we used above with Detroit and Toronto, lets say that a couple hours after you checked Toronto was now listed at +140, while Detroit moved to -150.  This would show line movement, with Toronto paying out more than the first line and the Red Wings paying out less than the original -140 line.

Line movement occurs for a few different reasons.  Basically it is a way for the sportsbooks to balance their action on either side of the wager.  Technically they would want equal action on each side of the line in order to profit from the juice that they take from both sides.  Sportsbooks sometimes take on a bit of risk by allowing more action on one side than the other, but for the most part try to eliminate the risk, giving them guaranteed profits.

A more in-depth analysis of line movement can be found in this betting lines article, but it is important to understand that the line movements occurs from a lot of money coming in on one side of the line.  This can either be a lot of “public action” or square bettors taking one side, or the “sharp” or big time bettors putting down some large wagers on a certain side.  If you can figure out the difference between line movement because of public action and line movement because of sharp bettors you can often get yourself in on some good value.

One of the best ways to do this is watch the opening lines.  If a team opens at +105 underdogs to win a game, and then almost right away drop to -115 favorites you can be pretty confident that a sharp bettor placed a big wager on them, and it wasn’t public money coming in on the opening line.

This is pretty tough to do with NHL hockey and the moneyline, but it can be done.  Keep your eye on opening lines and see if the line moves 15, 20, 25 cents or more in one direction soon after opening.  Then you have to decide if this was public action from the square bettors coming in, or a couple of sharp bettors laying big money on one side.  If you come to the conclusion the sharp bettors were on it you then have to decide if there is still value with where the line is at.  If there is, go ahead and place your bet.

Good luck with following line movement in the NHL.

Tags: nhl betting

A cool new slot machine has been released online that is hockey themed.  I felt like doing a post about it because not only do I love betting on NHL games, I also enjoy the odd casino game for some fun.  I don’t play casino games too much, but they can be fun to treat yourself to.  I prefer the live casinos over online casinos, but unfortunately I don’t have a casino in my home town (I have to drive 2 hours anytime I want to go to a nice casino, and an hour for a decent casino).

Anyways, if you are interested in playing a slot machine that is based around hockey I recommend you check out this Hockey Hero Slot Machine.  I’m not a huge slots fan, and I know they aren’t the best for winning money (although you can get some huge payouts), but I really had a lot of fun with this Hockey Hero game!

It is a 5 reel and 25 payline slot machine, made by the “Realtime Gaming” software (online slots company).  You can wager any where from 1 cent to $5 per pay line on this slot machine, so it is great for any type of action – perfect if you are a small time gambler looking for some fun or a high stakes player going for the big score.

The great thing about  the Hockey Hero Slot is that it has a progressive jackpot that grows with each spin.  It can be triggered at any time, giving you a HUGE pay day.  Once a slots player has hit the jackpot it will reset to a specific amount and then start to build up again.  It might be smart to keep an eye on the jackpot and start playing the machine when the jackpot grows high.

The references to hockey come in the gameplay, with the slot symbols being skates, tickets, hockey sticks, hockey players, a puck, the penalty box, a goalie mask, and a couple more hockey related items.  Oh, I should note that the “wild” symbol is the hockey player (pretty easy to remember when you’re playing).

There is a special little bonus game within the Hockey Hero Slot when you hit three or more scatter symbols (the penalty box is the scatter).  You will get to play a cool 18 free game round, which is a little confusing, because during your play a bunch of the symbols are removed.  Peanuts are removed right away and then very three spins a symbol will be removed.  This gives you a good opportunity to make some extra money while playing the fun hockey themed slot machine.

I highly recommend giving it a shot – you can play at Slotsville.com.  Enjoy it!

Tags: nhl betting