From Montreal Canadiens fans to those who like the Columbus Blue Jackets (all eighteen of you) and all teams in between, people like to bet on hockey and they have for years now. Although the game may not be as popular in the United States as football, basketball or even baseball, it is still growing in popularity. But if you’re going to wager on hockey, you should first understand how money line works.

While players that follow Super Bowl odds will usually stick to the point spread, which is when Team X has to beat Team Y by a certain amount of points for betting players to win, the money line has to do with an amount of cash laid to win a certain amount. For example, you could find the two above teams matched up, as Montreal is rated at -170 and Columbus at +150. This means Montreal is the favored team (shown by a minus sign), and you would have to wager $170 to win $100 on the Canadiens. On the other hand, you have the underdogs (as shown by a plus sign) from Columbus, and you would win $150 on a $100 bet.

Then you have the puck lines, which adds a point spread-like aspect to money line betting because you’re wagering on a team to win by X amount of goals (usually 1.5), but your first mission should be to familiarize yourself with money lines before you start utilizing puck lines in your sports betting wagers.