After last week, when just about every game was a pick ’em, the books are finding some games where you’re seeing lines that have some better-than-average value. We’ll get to that shortly, but first I want to look at two games that lines are yet to have been set and that’s Monday’s Beanpot semifinals in … Read more
On Friday night, Connecticut will host New Hampshire at the still-feels-like-new Toscano Family Ice Forum in Storrs, Conn. The money line on the game is pretty straight forward: Host UConn is a -160 favorite and the road dogs UNH are -124 on the money line. But the over/under is where we find something rather strange. … Read more
Desperation is a pretty typical term you’ll hear thrown around by coaches, especially those of teams battling a current losing streak. “We need to come out playing desperate tonight,” seems to be a mantra of coaches who need that “get right” type of game. But what about a team that’s in the middle of a … Read more
This is only the second full week back from the college hockey exam break, but already we’re seeing a disturbing trend in major sports books. The number of available games on DraftKings for the second straight weekend were extremely low – three nationally. As someone who lives in Massachusetts and thus can’t bet on teams … Read more
A couple of weeks ago in this column, we talked about the fact that lines on college hockey games seemed to be getting more and more accurate. You can tell that bookmakers are using artificial intelligence – or AI – as a means to limit liability. Rarely in the course of a week do we … Read more
If you keep reading this column every week, we’ll probably seem like a broken record. As the season progresses, the sports books are doing a better job each and every weekend setting lines. If you believe that you can simply pick up an app on your cell phone and begin laying wagers without doing your … Read more
If you’ve had your fill of turkey and woken up from a long slumber, it’s now time to turn your attention to college hockey. Friday presents 25 college hockey games, 19 of which are non-conference matchups. Because of that, you’ll see some lopsided lines (Penn State, a -475 favorite over Lindenwood +325, is the largest … Read more
We’re more than a month into the college hockey season, thus there is plenty of data available from most of the Division I men’s teams. With that, if you’re a sports bettor who favors college hockey, there’s good news and bad. Let’s start with the bad: As these books get more information on teams and … Read more
We’re going to vary from the normal USCHO Edge column this week and echo the USCHO Edge podcast in discussing Team Futures in this week’s column. For those who aren’t familiar with the terminology, a “future bet” is one that you place that is graded on how a team finishes. In major sports like MLB … Read more
We opened last week’s column talking about skewed lines. Sports books simply don’t have the time and resources to pay attention to every single game in every single sport. And while I don’t know it for certain, one has to assume that artificial intelligence is being used to set some betting lines. Sometimes fan bases … Read more
We’re back for the 2023-24 season of USCHO Edge. And the beginning of a new season is always a good opportunity for bettors. As much as we all as college hockey fans want to believe that everyone loves the game that we all love so much, the reality is that it is still a niche … Read more
The playoffs are officially in full swing with all six leagues in action this weekend. But formats are different from league to league this weekend. Atlantic Hockey, ECAC Hockey, and NCHC are all playing best-of-three series this weekend, while the Big Ten, CCHA, and Hockey East all are playing single-elimination games. If you read last … Read more
A week ago, I wrote about two games where we felt the lines were off. Way off. And I told readers when there is a line that is off, it’s a must bet. Well, I heard plenty from UMass fans when they upset Northeastern despite being even money at home. I get it, your team … Read more
It was just a week ago in this space that I was saying that bookmakers seem to be getting savvy when it comes to developing the lines across college hockey. Well, throw that though out the window. If you are able to bet on DraftKings, there are two games that seem pretty far off when … Read more
We’re getting towards the end of the regular season where, as we’ve discussed in previous column, sports books are getting much better at setting lines. Thus, finding value on a single game can often be challenging. This Friday, though, you have three home underdogs (some may argue North Dakota at +100 isn’t much of a … Read more
The pain of finding value is a valiant effort of every sports gambler out there. And then we look at Maine playing at Boston College on Friday night, a game where the odds send mixed messages. The Black Bears are the second-best team in Hockey East since December 1. But they’re still an underdog against … Read more
When was the last time we had a team at odds of +240 of better? Probably Air Force when they played in the Desert Hockey Classic? Wisconsin rests in that spot this weekend as they take on Michigan (-305) on the road. This is juicy considering the razor-thin margins that you have among each team. … Read more
It seems like twice every season, the college hockey schedule gods align to produce a handful or great rivalries. This weekend alone will produce the following rivalry games, among others: BC-BU, UMass-UMass Lowell, Alaska-Alaska Anchorage, CC-Denver, Canisius-Niagara, Air Force at Army West Point, Rensselaer and Union, and Clarkson at St. Lawrence. Maybe not all register … Read more
As the season wears on, each year you see more and more short lines – game where the books are cautious to even pick a favorite and neither team in a matchup is a heavy favorite or underdog. That makes finding value in and of your wagers near impossible. Each week, though, it seems like … Read more
I want to start this week by looking back at a prediction I made late in last week’s column. It was in regard to the college games being played at Fenway Park last weekend. I was close to correct that no game would produce more than five goals. But what I failed to consider was … Read more