The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey tournament organized by the National Hockey League (NHL). This separates it from the World Ice Hockey Championships or Winter Olympics, which are governed by the IIHF. It was founded in 1996 as a spiritual successor to the Canada Cup established in 1976 and is not at all like traditional World Cups from FIFA (soccer) or FIBA (basketball). While still being new, hardcore hockey fans and gamblers are already keeping a watchful eye on the growing tournament.

Hockey World Cup Betting Lines

Here is the schedule and betting lines for the Hockey World Cup. The widget updates the scores so check back regularly. Confirm the odds with your favourites sportsbook before betting.

Results / Fixtures

Hockey World Cup Standings

These are the standings for all the teams involved with goals for (+) and goals against (-) to give more indication how they are all doing. Familiarizing yourself with the format and standings will help predict which teams may face each other in the semifinals.

Standings

How To Bet On Hockey World Cup

The World Cup of Hockey hasn’t been around for long and is yet to gain mainstream backing but is already gaining popularity. Unlike its more traditional cousins in the FIFA and FIBA World Cup, this World Cup is made primarily of NHL players and the small tournament size all but guarantees a higher level of play.

Since the NHL started participating in the Winter Olympics in 1998, the Canadians have finished first three out of the five tournaments including back-to-back wins in 2010 and 2014. In the World Cup stage, they finished second and first. While not invincible, the Canadians are the consensus favourite to win hockey tournaments for the most part. With a shorter tournament and only seven other teams to beat, odds look good for Canada but don’t be too influenced by the betting odds.

Canada isn’t a runaway favourite to win it all and even if they were, teams like the USA, Russia and Sweden will have a solid fighting chance. The Americans are arguably Canada’s fiercest rivals but were eliminated in the Winter Olympics by the Canadians in their last three meetings. The Russians are perennial contenders but usually underperform in any world stage while the Swedes may be the best European team and are the 2006 Winter Olympics champions. Oddsmakers have all three times at close to similar odds at winning the whole tournament.

unique to the Hockey World Cup are two teams comprised mainly of players with different alignments. Team Europe is made of European players not from Sweden, Russia, Finland or the Czech Republic while Team North America is filled with both American and Canadian rising prospects. The odds on both teams to win the tournament are over 20-1 but with talent like Zdeno Chara and Jaroslav Halak for Europe and Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid for the Youngstars, these two teams might be livelier than oddsmakers indicate.

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