14 Ice Hockey / Betfair Education / 25 March 2008 / Leave a comment

In-Play betting advice:

Don't overreact:

Top teams can often pull back seemingly large deficits fairly quickly, so if they go two goals down early in the match it's not the end of the world. Conversely, if you know a team has just had one of those 'nightmare starts', the backing a strong team to win from two goals down can offer extremely attractive odds. With an average of six goals per game, conceding a goal early isn't game over.

Information sources:

NASN televise live matches each week. Live scores and team news can be found on most American sports wires. But ice hockey is treated differently to football - the markets are NOT suspended when a goal is scored, so be careful leaving offers on the screen when not watching the match. It can be done, but don't work to too tight a margin. As with any market on Betfair, always expect someone else to have know more than you, and someone else to have access to faster information/pictures. This need not be a big deal - just be careful leaving up bets for too long, especially in the closing stages of a game where late goals can make all the difference.

This game is QUICK:

As was touched on earlier, this game really is fast. The old saying "blink and you'll miss it" really does apply here. This, however, is a positive in that ice hockey offers a really dynamic and volatile betting platform from which the savvy punter can take advantage. This being so, the previous point about information sources is especially important, but that aside if you can see a goal coming or a penalty being given, resulting in a power play, then you can pre-empt the market and trade yourself some profit.