The Odds of the Game: How Sports Betting Is Reshaping the NHL

 

Not long ago, the idea of a major professional sports league openly partnering with gambling companies would’ve been unthinkable. For decades, sports betting was treated like a dark alley — best avoided, carefully regulated, and often publicly condemned by commissioners and owners alike. But in May 2018, everything changed.

That was the moment the United States Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), a 1992 federal law that had effectively banned sports betting in most U.S. states. With PASPA struck down, individual states gained the authority to legalize and regulate sports gambling. And they did — rapidly. Today, more than 30 states have legalized sports betting, either online, in-person, or both.

At first, the NHL was cautious. Commissioner Gary Bettman maintained that the league had no interest in becoming overly entangled with gambling. But that position shifted quickly as the money — and marketing potential — became impossible to ignore.

By 2020, the NHL had inked deals with FanDuel, BetMGM, and PointsBet, establishing them as “Official Sports Betting Partners.” The once-taboo activity was now featured prominently on broadcasts, embedded in mobile apps, and splashed across rink boards in major arenas. The league wasn’t just tolerating betting — it was profiting from it.

This transformation wasn't happening in a vacuum. The NHL was following a broader trend across North American sports, with the NFL, NBA, and MLB all diving headfirst into the betting boom. But for a league still growing its fan base in the U.S., betting offered a new lifeline — a way to increase revenue, engagement, and cultural relevance.

However, as with any gamble, there are risks.

The NHL’s embrace of sports betting has introduced unprecedented commercial opportunities — but it’s also opened the door to integrity questions, mental health challenges, youth exposure concerns, and a possible shift in how fans view the game itself. Has hockey become just another product to wager on?

To understand the true impact of betting on the NHL, we need to go beyond the dollar signs — and look at how it's changing the sport, the fans, and the league's future.

Targeting the Next Generation: How Sports Betting Appeals to Young Male Fans

One of the biggest motivators behind the NHL’s embrace of sports betting is its potential to draw in a coveted — and often elusive — demographic: young men between the ages of 21 and 35. This age group has proven to be highly responsive to interactive, fast-paced content, and increasingly, their relationship with sports is shaped less by hometown loyalty and more by fantasy leagues, highlight reels, and now, real-time wagering.

For a league that has historically struggled to grow its presence among younger American fans, betting offers a way to repackage the product. It transforms hockey from a slow-burn, two-and-a-half-hour broadcast into an experience with constant stakes. With the rise of micro-betting — placing wagers on hyper-specific outcomes like the next faceoff winner or whether a goal will be scored in the next two minutes — games become layered with new reasons to stay engaged. Every shift matters more, not because of the standings, but because someone has money riding on it.

This approach aligns with broader trends in how younger audiences consume entertainment. Many don’t just watch games — they watch while scrolling, texting, or jumping between apps. Sportsbooks capitalize on this second-screen culture by offering real-time odds, live betting updates, and push notifications that keep users locked in. The act of betting becomes an extension of watching, a way to gamify the experience and inject instant gratification into a sport that can, at times, feel slow compared to basketball or football.

Social dynamics also play a role. For many young men, placing bets and sharing their wins (and losses) has become a form of online identity. It’s no longer just about who your favorite team is, but about what kind of bets you’re making, how savvy your picks are, and what parlays you hit over the weekend. Betting is no longer something people hide — it’s something they post, discuss, and take pride in.

The NHL, recognizing this shift, has embedded betting into the way it presents the game. Odds are now displayed during broadcasts. Podcasts and social media content produced by teams and the league often feature betting lines or wagering discussions. In-arena promotions target mobile users with exclusive betting deals. In some markets, teams have even integrated sportsbook lounges directly into their venues, blurring the lines between the game and the wager.

But this demographic strategy isn’t without its risks. Critics argue that focusing so heavily on gambling-oriented content excludes other segments of the fanbase, including families and female fans, while normalizing addictive behavior. It also raises concerns about whether fans are tuning in for the love of the sport — or just the possibility of a payout.

Still, from the league’s perspective, the results are hard to ignore. Young men are engaging with NHL content in new, measurable ways. They’re watching longer, betting more, and interacting with branded content at a higher rate. For a sport often considered niche in the broader U.S. market, this betting-driven engagement has become a powerful tool for growth — and the NHL is fully leaning into it.

"The casual person going into sports betting — if they don't know any better, if they don't know who to follow, if they are just going by their gut — they'll probably lose money long-term," - The Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn,

When the Line Blurs: Shane Pinto, Evander Kane, and the Risk of Players Betting

Shane Pinto reveals on the ⁦@EmptyNettersPod⁩ that his gambling suspension was due to “proxy betting” on another sport.

Considering what he did, was a 41 game suspension excessive? pic.twitter.com/h8ysAAJuUC

— HFTV (@HFTVSports) July 17, 2024

As sports leagues open their arms to betting partnerships and revenue streams, one line remains sacred: athletes cannot bet on games — especially their own. But even that boundary has been tested in the NHL.

In October 2023, Ottawa Senators forward Shane Pinto became the first modern NHL player suspended for a gambling-related issue. While the league stopped short of revealing whether Pinto bet on NHL games, it handed him a 41-game suspension, citing a violation of league rules. Reports suggested that Pinto had been involved with a third-party betting account, potentially triggering an integrity investigation. Though the details remained vague, the punishment sent a message: the NHL may profit from gambling, but it won’t tolerate it when players get directly involved.

Just two years earlier, Evander Kane found himself at the center of a much darker controversy. In 2021, his estranged wife publicly alleged that Kane had bet on his own games and even attempted to throw them for profit. Kane denied the accusations, and following an NHL investigation, he was cleared of wrongdoing due to lack of evidence. Still, the fact that such an accusation could be made — and believed by some fans — was enough to shake public trust. Kane, already dealing with financial troubles and personal drama, became a case study in what happens when players are both struggling off the ice and exposed to the world of high-stakes betting.

These cases raise fundamental questions about how much trust fans and bettors can place in what they’re watching. If an athlete has money on the game — whether legally, through a proxy, or otherwise — how can we be sure the outcomes are genuine? Every missed shot, every turnover, every soft goal starts to look suspicious under the lens of gambling. Even in the absence of proof, perception alone can corrode the integrity of the sport.

It also creates an uncomfortable contradiction. On one hand, leagues like the NHL encourage fans to wager, run ads for sportsbooks during games, and proudly announce multi-million-dollar partnerships. On the other hand, the players — the very ones driving those games — are held to a strict standard that forbids even a whiff of gambling association. It’s a double standard that isn’t lost on players, many of whom now walk a fine line between league rules and the ever-expanding betting culture that surrounds them.

Beyond integrity, there’s also the matter of locker room trust. If a player is suspected of betting — especially on their own team — it can undermine team dynamics. Does a teammate pass the puck to someone who might be playing for his fantasy points or over-under? Do coaches start questioning effort levels? Even if no wrongdoing has occurred, the suspicion alone is enough to alter the chemistry of a team.

In a league as tightly contested as the NHL, where playoff spots are often decided by a point or two, the risk of even one player influencing the outcome of a game — or being perceived to — is too big to ignore. That’s why the NHL, unlike its public-facing embrace of betting, has opted for a very private, often opaque, approach to internal gambling discipline.

Shane Pinto’s suspension was historic not because it was shocking — but because it finally acknowledged what many already suspected: that the line between gambling culture and professional athletes is thinner than ever. And the consequences, if crossed, could shake the very foundation of the sport.

When the Game Becomes a Commercial

For all the business upside, all the engagement metrics, and all the high-minded talk about “fan interactivity,” there’s a simpler truth that’s harder to ignore: the betting ads are just annoying.

Watching a hockey game today often feels like sitting in the middle of a sportsbook showroom. It’s not enough to enjoy a good pass, a slick goal, or a tense overtime. You’re constantly being nudged — sometimes aggressively — to download an app, claim a bonus, boost your odds, place a parlay. Then it’s another commercial: this time for a different app offering different odds with a limited-time sign-up offer that sounds suspiciously like the one from two breaks ago.

It’s relentless.

At any given point in a game, you might see six to eight different sportsbook brands rotate through your screen, each louder and more desperate for your attention than the last. They’ve taken over rink boards, pregame shows, intermission segments, and social media posts. It's as if the game itself has become secondary — just another backdrop for the ad carousel.

What happened to Gatorade commercials? Or the quirky Tim Hortons ads that used to feature Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon shooting pucks into drive-thru windows? There was a time when the ads during a hockey game were part of the charm — a break to grab a drink, maybe laugh, maybe learn something about a new product. Now, it’s just noise. Repetitive, hyper-targeted, wallet-hungry noise.

At a certain point, the betting push doesn’t just distract — it distorts. It changes the way we watch. You’re not thinking about a team’s forecheck or a breakout pass. You’re thinking about your over-under hitting. You’re rooting for a fourth-liner to get one shot on goal because you need it to complete a same-game parlay. You’re cheering for outcomes, not moments. And while that might be thrilling for some, for many long-time fans, it chips away at the purity of the sport.

It’s not about banning betting. It’s not even about being anti-gambling. It’s about balance. Hockey doesn’t need to be sterile, but it also doesn’t need to be sold off piece by piece to the highest-paying sportsbook. The NHL can still profit from this era without flooding every game with promos, banners, and endless “risk-free” offers that aren’t really risk-free.

Because sometimes, fans just want to watch the game. Not the odds. Not the apps. Just the game.

If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling:

• Canada: Contact ConnexOntario for free, confidential support 24/7 at 1-866-531-2600 or visit www.connexontario.ca.

• United States: Call or text the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) or visit www.ncpgambling.org.

Help is available — you're not alone.