The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament was big betting business, with several major sportsbooks smashing their all-time records for hockey wagering.
The tournament pitted the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden against each other in a round-robin format before Canada defeated the U.S. in the trophy game with a thrilling 3-2 overtime win thanks to Connor McDavid’s winning goal.
The NHL-hosted tournament’s games were held in Montreal and Boston. In the post-Super Bowl sporting calendar lull with NHL play on pause, not to mention with interest fueled by politics and headline-grabbing on-ice fights, it sparked a surge of hockey betting activity in both countries.
Thursday night’s championship game was the most-wagered-on hockey event in history for all of FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM. At others, including Caesars and ESPN Bet, it was second only to Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers.
Championship game raises the roof
For FanDuel, the trophy tilt generated a 48% increase in wager count over that Game 7.
On Caesars Sportsbook, the 4 Nations finale attracted more than 2.3 times the number of customers, 2.6 times the bets and 2.3 times the total amount wagered on any other NHL game this year.
“A Game 7 atmosphere and style of play is what we anticipated and it was exactly what we got in every which way,” Caesars Sportsbook Head of Hockey Karry Shreeve told SBC Americas. “Customers were all over the U.S. out of the gates, especially when they went down 1-0 and were around +150 to bet on to win.
“Anytime Goalscorer saw record handle and customers were rewarded when McDavid scored the game-winner in overtime. The betting only ramped up when the game did go to OT, proving everyone was locked in until the very end.”
Comparing the two U.S. v. Canada games at the tournament, Thursday night’s championship bout brought in almost double the handle and 58% more bets than Saturday’s game on PENN Entertainment’s ESPN Bet.
In the U.S., 79% of moneyline bets and 77% of moneyline handle for the final were on Team USA; on PENN’s Ontario-facing sportsbook theScore BET, those numbers were 84% and 87%, respectively, in favor of Canada.
Comparable with NFL and World Series
It wasn’t just the championship game.
At DraftKings, the five most-bet hockey games so far this NHL season have all been 4 Nations games, led by the two U.S. v. Canada bouts.
On PENN Entertainment’s platforms, Team USA’s four games were the four highest-handle hockey games of this NHL season on ESPN Bet in the U.S., while Team Canada’s were the four biggest on theScore BET in Ontario.
“4 Nations was a huge betting event for us, from the first game through the final,” ESPN Bet’s Director of North American Sports Trading, Adrian Horton, told SBC Americas. “Handle for the final surpassed last year’s World Series games and was on par with Sunday afternoon NFL games, which is remarkable when comparing the general scale of hockey and football betting.”
