The National Hockey League returns in late July. Make sure your online sportsbook is ready for betting on the NHL.

Although the National Hockey League ran into a snag last week, the return to play plan remains on track. The NHL should get back onto the ice in July.

For bookies, that’s excellent news. Along with the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League is one of the top sports leagues in the United States.

During the coronavirus pandemic, bookies have relied on their casinos and horse racing betting platforms to support their sportsbooks. Once NHL sports betting returns agents can take a small sigh of relief.

Keep reading for everything BossAction bookmakers must know about the National Hockey League’s plans on a return.   

NHL restart update

The week of June 15 wasn’t kind to the pro hockey league. Well within Phase 2 of its return to play, the NHL suffered a significant speed bump.

Three Tampa Bay Lightning players tested positive for Covid-19. That shocked the league and its fans.

In hindsight, though, it makes sense. In the past week, the coronavirus hit Florida hard. On Saturday, June 20, Florida announced that it had broken a single-day record for the state’s cases. 

Florida’s coronavirus resurgence sent the league scrambling to determine if a return was possible.

Luckily for hockey betting bookies, things have settled. By June 23, the NHL had determined that Columbus wasn’t a viable hub city for the league’s return.

Columbus is off the list. So is Minneapolis / St. Paul. That means the following cities remain in the running to host hockey games.

• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Edmonton, AB
• Las Vegas, NV
• Los Angeles, CA
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Toronto, ON
• Vancouver, BC

The two cities with the best chance of hosting games appear to be Las Vegas and Toronto. Canada said that they’d allow the NHL to play games.

Seven Canadian cities have National Hockey League teams. It makes sense that the league would want to have a U.S. city and a Canadian city serve as hubs.

Why is Las Vegas at the top of the list? Along with Hawaii and Orlando, Las Vegas is one of the top three most visited places in the world.

It’s a significant tourist spot, which means during the Covid-19 crisis, Vegas has plenty of hotel rooms to house NHL players and staff.

What’s standing in the way of an NHL return?

The main problem for the NHL’s return is that unlike the NBA, the National Hockey League has yet to release a set of rules regarding Covid-19 mitigation.

Per an inside source, players are also 50-50 on wanting to return. One thing to note, though, is that players said they were 50-50 on returning after the Lightning announced that three players had tested positive.

Formal training camps don’t start until the first half of July. By then, hopefully, the curve in Florida will have flattened.

NHL sports bettors are looking to wager on these teams

The Tampa Bay Lightning are +500 hockey league betting favorites to win the Stanley Cup. The odds haven’t changed even though they announced positive coronavirus tests on June 19.

Teams that follow the Lightning in odds are the Vegas Golden Knights at +600 and the Colorado Avalanche at +700. If the NHL decides to make Sin City a hub, the Golden Knights will have a significant home-ice advantage over their competitors.

Today, BossAction pay per head bookies should set max betting limits on the Golden Knights, Avalanche, and Lightning. Don’t allow players to dump on any one of those teams.

It makes sense to set smaller betting limits on teams with +1000 odds like the Pittsburgh Penguins at +1400 and the Washington Capitals at +1100. If bookies set a betting limit at $200 on the favorites, the betting limit on any team offering odds at +1000 or more should be $100

That’s just an example. As always, make decisions based on the betting action your sportsbook generates.  

Take advantage of BossAction sports tech for two weeks after the first NBA or NHL game

Phase 3, NHL training camps, won’t happen until at least July 10. That means the first National Hockey League match won’t take place before July 30.

The NBA has scheduled its first game for July 30. What does it mean for per head agents? BossAction’s current no sports equals no fees promotion extends two weeks past the first NBA or NHL game.

Bookies mustn’t worry about Major League Baseball because that league has yet to determine if they will even have a 2020 season.

It means that per head agents can access BossAction’s sportsbook tech for free from July 30 and two weeks into August. The two weeks include the August 6 NFL Hall of Fame Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys.

It also includes a live dealer casino, a digital casino, and an online racebook for free until two weeks after July 30.

Bookies should reward themselves. If you aren’t yet a BossAction agent, make sure to sign-up with the pay per head company as soon as possible.