Legal Betting On The New York Islanders
Once the best team in all of professional sports, the New York Islanders – now several decades removed from their early 1980s domination of the NHL – have fallen on tough times in the NY hockey scene. However, even though they aren’t the same team that won four straight Stanley Cup championships and 19 straight playoff series from 1980-1984, the Islanders are still relevant to hockey fans and sports betting enthusiasts in New York and across America. Indeed, with a pair of fierce Metropolitan Division rivals just a few miles away (NY Rangers, NJ Devils), legal betting on the New York Islanders is always going to be a busy pastime for folks in the region.
If you’ve been thinking about throwing your hat in the rink re legal betting on the New York Islanders, now’s a great time to get started. Not only do the Islanders have a young, promising roster, they’re also starting to rediscover their winning ways. With such renewed New York swagger, the Islanders could soon become a force to be reckoned with. But even without being a bona fide Eastern Conference juggernaut, the NY Islanders possess the talent and ability to upset any NHL powerhouse they play. And spoilers pay out way better than favorites.
If you’ve ever asked how to get started betting on the Islanders, you probably received a number of different answers. Since federal anti-gambling laws like the Wire Act, PASPA, and the UIGEA have effectively combined to outlaw in-state betting with real New York bookies, it can be a difficult and time-consuming task to get set up to legally bet on Islanders hockey.
However, with the advent of legal online sportsbooks, it’s as easy to start betting on the Islanders as it is to sign up for a Netflix or Amazon account. All you need to do is visit a reputable online betting shop like SportsBetting or BetOnline, create a free account, fill it with a few dollars, and check out the Isles line changes.
No matter which of the above legal online sportsbooks you choose, they all have similar deposit and withdrawal options. From Visa and Mastercard to personal checks, money orders, bank transfers, and more, you’ll be able to get money into your account regardless of your personal financial situation. (Note: Currently, no legal Islanders betting shop accepts American Express.)
That said, the very best way to get money into your Islanders sportsbook is to use Bitcoin. Since it’s a cryptocurrency, Bitcoin transfer rates are faster than traditional mail and wire methods, and – due to blockchain technology – Bitcoin is far more encrypted than any other financial product in the world. Bitcoin not only offers a safe, streamlined base for deposits and withdrawals, its emphasis on privacy and anonymity are positive boons for anyone looking at legal betting on the New York Islanders. Plus, due to its online presence as a traded “commodity,” Bitcoin is often quite volatile, and it has a tendency to make enormous gains in value over short periods of time. Time it right, and you could possibly double (or even triple) your Islanders payout. Now that’s a power play!
Before you partake of any legal betting on the New York Islanders, there’s one thing you need to make absolutely sure you understand: the moneyline. If you already know how to read NY Islanders odds, this might seem like kid stuff, but it isn’t. The moneyline is the key to all US sports betting, as it’s the system by which American sports gambling is communicated from sportsbook to bettor.
The moneyline is based on buy-ins and payouts of $100, with the favorite having a negative moneyline while the underdog (usually) has a positive one. A negative moneyline shows how much money must be wagered to win $100, while a positive moneyline shows how much money is earned off a $100 wager. It is important to remember that the amounts of cash shown in a moneyline are not the amounts that must be bet. Most legal online sportsbooks take bets of as little as $0.25. Thus, the moneyline is a ratio of wagers-to-winnings rather than some minimum threshold a given bet requires to have action.
Once you understand Islanders moneyline odds, you can get started with the betting basics available to all New York NHL fans. These include the point spread bet, the straight-up bet, and the totals bet, and they comprise the most common wager types available to Islanders bettors in the Big Apple.
In hockey, betting the Islanders point spread is commonly referred to as “betting the puck line.” Generally speaking, a point spread – regardless of the sport – is used by sportsbooks to handicap stronger teams by giving a sort of “head start” to their competition. In the NHL, the only difference between a point spread and a puck line is that sportsbooks fix the puck line at 1.5 goals – no more, no less. The Islanders puck line will look something like this:
- New Jersey Devils +1.5 (-110)
- at
- New York Islanders -1.5 (-110)
In the above matchup, the Devils are 1.5-point underdogs. This means that New Jersey can lose to the Islanders by a goal and still win the wager. Similarly, as the favorites, New York has to beat New Jersey by two or more goals to cover the spread and win the bet. This is how sportsbooks get folks betting on both sides of a given wager, balancing the action and guaranteeing the bookmaker a profitable result. Since the puck line uses a half-point structure, the bet can never end in a “push.” Because pushes usually result in refunds on all related action, this is just another way that sportsbooks are able to maximize their returns.
While the point spread (or puck line) is the most popular way to enjoy legal betting on the New York Islanders, the straight bet is another type of wager that gets lots of action at most legal online sportsbooks. Instead of having inbuilt points handicapping, the straight bet simply asks bettors to pick a winner. Action is balanced on both sides of a straight wager by altering the payouts involved. The favorite will have a much poorer payout than the underdog, which entices gamblers to put money on the longshot to win. Straight bets are expressed via the moneyline, which is why they’re sometimes called straight moneyline bets. An Islanders straight bet will be posted thus:
- New York Rangers (+135)
- vs.
- New York Islanders (-145)
Here, a $100 bet on the Rangers to win pays out $135, whereas a $145 bet on the Islanders to win only pays out $100. The bigger the underdog, the bigger the payout, while stronger favorites have progressively smaller payouts.
Legal betting on the New York Islanders doesn’t always rely on winners and losers, as evidenced by totals betting. Also called over/under betting, totals betting is a way for sports gamblers to wager on how many total goals will be scored between both teams in a given game. Your online sportsbook picks a number, and you bet on whether the point total will be higher than (over) or lower than (under) that number. That’s all there is to it. An example of Islanders totals betting looks like this:
- New York Islanders
- at
- Washington Capitals
- O/U 7 (-110)
If the final score of the above contest is, say, 5-3, the “over” totals bet would win, as 8 is greater than 7. However, if the game ended with a score of 5-1, the “under” bet would win, because 6 is less than 7. In this example, a third result in over/under betting can happen if the final tally is 4-3 or 5-2 or 6-1, etc. Since all these scores add up to 7, a push would be declared, and each bettor would receive a full refund for their wager on the totals bet in question.
Of course, legal betting on the New York Islanders isn’t limited to the above wager types. In addition to the puck line, straight moneyline, and over/under totals, Fishsticks fans can enjoy a wide selection of NY Islanders player props. NHL player props include things like the number of saves a goalie registers, the number of shots on goal the starting center gets off, how many penalty minutes the Islanders’ top enforcer earns, and so on. Just remember that NY Islanders player prop bets are limited only to single-game action.
Team props are just like player props, except that they’re related to team-based stats and achievements over a single contest. Team props can be bets about things like total shots on goal, the number of power plays for a given team, whether or not the game will go into overtime, etc. While most legal online sportsbooks will cover a couple dozen player props for a given game, team props are typically limited to only a handful of such options.
Though the above represent about 95% of all Islanders betting action at any legal online sportsbook, there are still a few more wagers and options to consider. Internet betting shops like SportsBetting, 5Dimes, and BetOnline offer a variety of additional wagers, including Islanders future bets, teasers, pleasers, multigame and multi-team parlays, and more. Since these sorts of Islanders wagers have more variables and are more difficult to win than the standard fare, their payouts are considerably better than most other bet types.
Perhaps the biggest and most popular new bet type, live betting (a.k.a. in-game betting) is both a revolution in and revelation for the online betting industry. Instead of being beholden to scenarios and wagers established before the drop of the puck, Islanders live betting allows sports bettors and hockey fans to actually put money on the Isles during their games.
Live betting on the Islanders can include many different options and outcomes, and different sportsbooks will have different in-game betting menus. Examples of Islanders live betting include wagers placed on whether or not the current power play will result in a score, which team will score the next goal, which bruiser will start the next fight, and so on. Options for Islanders live betting are virtually limitless, but to take full advantage, you’ve got to make sure you keep your eyes peeled and don’t miss a minute of the action.
Most folks getting into legal betting on the New York Islanders will naturally be looking for a way to place their bets on the go. To that end, they’re likely to want the best mobile Islanders betting apps available. Unfortunately, that’s not really an option, since Apple and Google don’t allow real-money sports gambling apps on the App Store or Google Play storefronts.
However, if you happen to have an iPhone, iPad, or Android phone or tablet, you can still enjoy a great mobile betting experience by using the mobile site variants of your favorite online sportsbooks. Just use your device to visit your online sportsbook of choice, and you’ll get a mobile-optimized wagering portal custom-designed for the small screen. Just as you’d expect from proper Islanders betting apps, all your top Isles wagers are just a tap or two away, and you’ll get the added benefit of having the added data security you’re used to from your Apple or Android handset.
While there is no single best legal New York betting sites for Islanders gambling, there are tons of scam sites out there to avoid at all costs. So instead of wading through a virtual sea of untrustworthy and unproven Internet betting shops to round up the few reputable ones, give the posers a hip check and stick with the most established sites for legal New York sports betting: SportsBetting, BetOnline, and 5Dimes.
Between these big three sportsbooks, you’ll get the best customer service and fairest wagers in the business. SportsBetting has been offering legal betting on the New York Islanders since day one, as has its sister site, BetOnline. Between them, these sites have the industry’s best deposit and withdrawal options, as well as two of the easiest-to-use mobile interfaces so you can put action on Islanders hockey with confidence no matter where the New York nightlife takes you.
5Dimes, while not as big as the others, is just as respected and renowned, and it has the advantage of having the best alternate lines and most unique Islanders props you’ll find anywhere on the Internet. Between these three legal online sportsbooks, you’ll have no trouble shopping around for and finding the very best Islanders bets out there. And since signing up at each one is 100% free, safe, and simple, you should join all three to guarantee the best bet prices on every single Islanders game.