The Stanley Cup Final culminates each NHL hockey season and can last over two weeks, making it a popular event to bet on.
You can bet on the Stanley Cup Final in various shapes and forms. However, betting on the Stanley Cup Final is more limited if you’re not in a regulated online sports betting market like Ontario.
Alberta is set to become a regulated market, increasing the number of wagering options available to people at least 18 and older.
If you’re not in a regulated online sports betting market, you’ll mostly be limited to parlay-style wagers, not single-game bets.
These are the wager types those in regulated sports betting markets have access to.
How to Bet on the Stanley Cup Online
If you’re in a market where third-party sports betting apps like BetMGM operate, you have extensive options for betting on the Stanley Cup online.
You can make the following wager types: moneyline, totals, puck line, prop bets, live betting, and parlays.
First, create an account by using the seamless sign-up process. For that process, you’ll require personal details so the online sportsbook can verify your age and identity. Once verified, you can deposit funds via credit card, PayPal, e-transfer, Apple Pay, and more.
Stanley Cup Moneyline
Moneyline bets are the most fundamental of all bet types, where you place a wager on the winner of a game. If the team you bet on wins, your moneyline bet hits. If the team loses, your moneyline bet loses or misses.
For each moneyline bet, there is a favourite and an underdog. The team with a + sign in front of the odds is the underdog, while the team with a – sign is the favourite.
For example, let’s say the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks face each other in the Stanley Cup Final.
Game 1 sees the visiting Maple Leafs pegged as +120 underdogs, while the home Canucks have -125 NHL odds.
Those +120 odds imply a 45.45% win probability. The Canucks’ -125 favourite odds translate to a 55.56% win probability.
Regarding underdogs, the odds (+120 in the above example) indicate how much you’ll win on a $100 bet.
So if you put $100 on the Maple Leafs and they win, you’ll earn a $120 profit. A winning $10 bet would yield a $12 profit.
For favourites, the hockey odds indicate how much money you’d have to wager to win $100. So, you’d have to wager $125 on the Canucks to profit $100. A winning $10 wager would profit $8.
It doesn’t matter whether the team you back on the moneyline wins in regulation or overtime. Your bet wins as long as the team you wagered on prevails.
Stanley Cup Puck Line
If you’re a football or basketball fan, think point spread. That’s basically what the puck line is.
Again denoted with a + or -, the puck line represents how much a team needs to win by or how many goals a team can afford to lose by.
Stanley Cup odds for the Final almost always have a +1.5 or -1.5 puck line. More often than not, the home team, in this case the Canucks in the example above, will be the favourite and therefore slapped with the -1.5 puck line.
Underdogs, similar to moneyline bets, will have the + in front of the number.
If you bet on the Canucks’ puck line, they must win by at least two goals for your wager to hit.
If, instead, you back the Maple Leafs at +1.5, your bet will win as long as the Maple Leafs don’t lose by two goals or more. Toronto can lose by one goal or win the game for your puck line bet to hit.
You can play alternative puck lines, where the margin of victory for the favourite increases. For example, you might back the Canucks on a -2.5 puck line. That would mean Vancouver must win by at least three goals.
If you back the Maple Leafs at +2.5, Toronto can win or lose by two or fewer goals for your bet to prevail.
Stanley Cup Totals
When hearing “totals” in hockey, think Over/Under. The online sportsbook creates a total number of goals as a baseline before the contest starts.
For example, the total between the Canucks and Maple Leafs in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final might be set at 6.5.
In this example, you will decide whether the teams will combine for more or less than 6.5 goals.
If you bet the Over, the teams must combine for at least seven goals for your wager to hit. If you back the Under, the teams can only combine for a maximum of six goals for your bet to succeed.
The standard total is almost always set at either 5.5 or 6.5. Like in the puck line, alternative totals are also available. However, the potential payout or profit for those alternatives decreases.
Stanley Cup Prop Bets
Stanley Cup prop bets have continually become more popular. They allow bettors to wager on a player or team’s statistical output (game props) rather than the final score, the outcome, or the total number of goals.
It adds another layer to Stanley Cup betting, providing more chances to bet on facets of the game that may or may not directly impact the outcome. The list of potential prop betting options is extensive, including but not limited to these:
- Number of goals (player or team)
- Goaltender’s number of saves, represented as Over/Under
- Player’s assists
- Player’s points
- Player’s shots on goal
Prop bets are all about matchups and finding potential advantages. Some players perform better in the playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final than in the regular season.
Prop betting allows you to focus on the individual or team without betting on the result or total.
You might think a team in the Stanley Cup Final will dominate and heavily outshoot the opposition, but they may not win the contest because they face a hot goaltender.
In that case, you can either bet on the team’s shot total (usually represented in Over/Under format) or whether the opposing goaltender will get to a certain number of saves.
Stanley Cup Live Betting
Stanley Cup live betting is for those who want to place in-game wagers after the action has started.
Most pregame bet types are also available for live betting. Just remember, live odds fluctuate in real-time.
That motivates bettors to keep their fingers on the pulse to source bets with optimal value and pull the trigger before the odds change.
Some live betting options include NHL totals, the moneyline, team prop bets, and the puck line.
By watching the game, you can develop an acute understanding of the game’s ebbs and flows, so you know which team has the momentum and when to lock in specific wagers, like the next team to score and how many total goals will be scored.
Stanley Cup Parlays
A Stanley Cup parlay consists of multiple bets, and you must win each one for the parlay bet to hit. It’s also called an accumulator and offers bettors the chance to maximize profit.
However, with increased profit margin potential comes higher associated risk.
Each bet on a parlay is known as a leg. You can use BetMGM’s parlay calculator on the right side of the page to determine the total odds and potential payout.
While there are two types of parlays, only one is available during the Stanley Cup Final. The other, encompassing a combination of wagers from a few games, isn’t applicable as only two teams are playing.
The same-game parlay comprises multiple bets from the same contest, ideally suited for the Stanley Cup Final since it’s the only game on.
Stanley Cup Futures
Stanley Cup futures betting is precisely what it sounds like. BetMGM releases the Stanley Cup odds before the start of each season, ranking teams from most likely to win to least likely.
These odds usually have a + in front of them for most of the season. Only teams close to winning the Stanley Cup or those with more than a 50% chance of winning it all will receive negative odds.
Basically, you’re predicting the Stanley Cup winner when you lock in your Stanley Cup futures pick or picks.
Check out the favourites to win the NHL Stanley Cup as an example.
At the start of the 2024-25 season, the Maple Leafs had +1600 Stanley Cup odds, which carry an implied probability of 5.88%.
If you lock in the Maple Leafs as your Stanley Cup futures bet, they must win the Cup for your bet to hit.
If that happens, you would earn a $160 profit on a $100 wager. You can make Stanley Cup futures bets almost all year, from before preseason to the Stanley Cup Final.
A team’s Stanley Cup futures odds fluctuate throughout the season and in the playoffs depending on their level of success.
Can I Bet on the Stanley Cup in Alberta?
While sports betting in Alberta is legal, bettors can only place wagers at one regulated online sportsbook, which only permits single-game wagers.
No online sports betting apps are currently available.
The Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) operates the regulated online sportsbook.
However, Alberta will soon join Ontario as a regulated online sports betting market.
The province passed Bill 16, the Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, in May 2024, which allows the provincial government to regulate and oversee iGaming activities.
This should allow Alberta’s iGaming landscape to more closely resemble the Ontario online gambling model, which allows third-party operators like BetMGM.
When that happens, anyone who is 18 or older will be able to access third-party operators like BetMGM and gain access to moneyline, puck line, NHL totals, parlays, player props, game props, live bets, and more.
